In her head, Linda still travels to the beat of a different drum

Linda Ronstadt says sex is sullying the potential of the music biz.

“A wave of sexual hysteria has swept the country,” observes the 57-year-old singer.

“It’s my deep suspicion that nobody is (having sex), and they’re looking around to see if anyone else is. If someone is, they’re resentful immediately. They’re obsessed with sex.”

The result, she says, is an industry that values physical attributes over talent.

“It puts a huge amount of pressure on kids” who are aspiring performers, Ronstadt says.

“If you are someone like Beyonce (Knowles) who happens to be gorgeous and talented, well, great. But there are a lot of people who are not paid attention to because they don’t look like a fashion model.”

Ronstadt doesn’t necessarily know from experience. The University of Arizona dropout first caught the public’s eye in the folk group the Stone Poneys. When she pursued a solo career in 1968, the Tucson-born singer cemented a sex-symbol status that lasted well through the ‘70s.

Despite her pinup charm, the woman behind such hit albums as “Heart Like a Wheel” (1975) and “Simple Dreams” (1977) — as well as the hit songs “You’re No Good” and “When Will I Be Loved” (both 1975) and “It’s So Easy” (1977) — attributes her successes to a recording industry code that is rapidly fading.

“I was lucky I had a long record career because I was developed as an artist,” she says. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I were working in today’s record climate. All of the great record men (of the 20th century) are being swept out of the way by corporate bean counters.”

On her summer tour, Ronstadt is showcasing a career that covers country, rock and adult contemporary hits.

“People are starved” for standards, she says. “Modern singers like Mariah Carey borrow from Stevie Wonder, who will tell you he’s stood on the shoulders of Duke Ellington, who got a lot of his inspiration from classical. It’s really important to know who came before you.”

It’s funny, then, that Ronstadt’s adopted son, Carlos, 10, and daughter Mary Clementine, 13, don’t know much about their mom’s varied vocal history.

“Just two years ago they asked me why I never sang rock ‘n’ roll,” she says with a laugh. “Since I would play them lullabies, they thought that was all I ever sang.”

It doesn’t help that none of her recordings are lying around her Tucson home.

“I never go back. I never listen to them,” says Ronstadt, whose catalog includes 36 recordings that together have sold more than 50 million copies.

“Music is a work in progress. On a record, it gets frozen in time, and it’s oddly unnatural. I carry that music with me in my head, I sing it live. That way, it’s always different, it’s changing all the time.”

The birthday bunch

Singer-songwriter Gary “U.S.” Bonds is 65. Actor Robert Englund (aka Freddie Krueger) is 55. Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein is 50. Actress-comedian Sandra Bernhard is 49. Comedian Colin Quinn is 45. Guitarist Steve Vai is 44. Actor Max Casella (“Doogie Howser, M.D.”) is 37. Country singer Lisa Brokop is 31. Singer Uncle Kracker is 30. Actress Staci Keanan (“Step by Step,” “My Two Dads”) is 29.