Linda Ronstadt Won't Get A Penny From The Last Of Us Using Her 1970 Song

Linda Rondstadt's 1970 hit song "Long Long Time" was featured in the January 29 episode of The Last of Us, and streams of the song on Spotify jumped by 4900%. However, Ronstadt will not earn a penny from the explosion in popularity for the song because she sold her music catalog years ago.

The song was written by Gary White, who is presumably lined up for a payday thanks to the resurgence in popularity.

"I still love the song and I'm very glad that Gary will get a windfall," Ronstadt told Billboard. She hasn't seen the episode and only became aware of the phenomenon when her manager told her.

Ronstadt sold her music, as well as royalty streams, to Iconic Artist Group in 2021. In fact, her manager confirmed that Ronstadt never owned the master recording of the song in the first place due to the terms of her contract with Capitol Records.

Iconic Artist Group president Jimmy Edwards said the music company is "working hard with our digital partners to use this moment to celebrate not only this song, but Linda's important musical legacy."

Spoilers for The Last of Us follow below.

In "Long Long Night," Bill (Nick Offerman) plays the beautiful song on his piano for Frank (Murray Bartlett) just before they kiss for the first time. The song plays again at the end of the episode, when Joel (Pedro Pascal) pops a cassette into his truck and plays it for Ellie (Bella Ramsey).

New episodes of The Last of Us air Sunday nights on HBO, leading up to the Season 1 finale on March 12. HBO just recently announced that Season 2 is in the works, and fans believe it will follow the events of The Last of Us: Part II, and introduce Abby, among other characters.

For more, check out a trailer for this Sunday's next episode.