Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raittis an American blues singer, songwriter and slide guitar player...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth8 November 1949
CityBurbank, CA
CountryUnited States of America
long people get-better
Leading a band and producing yourself and picking cool tunes and putting a show together takes a lot of thought, and a certain amount of courage. In my early twenties, if I wasn't getting good enough at it, then people would not come and see me. Anybody who has lasted this long - I hope we get better with age.
song badass thinking
I'm glad people think I'm a badass. I'm a rock and roller, and I'm an R&B and a blueswoman. I don't do fairy music, although I love Celtic music and sensitive music. There's a balance between ballads and kick-ass songs.
editing together stories
I'm proud of the way I rearrange and put things together, like a chef who makes a great meal, or a filmmaker who puts together a story - it's casting, editing, cinematography.
use different bathroom
I learned a lot about what it was like to have to use different hotels and not use the bathrooms, which made me more determined to be an activist.
nice people different
I'm the same on stage as I am off stage. A lot of people who I admire - Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne - are not that different either. You hope that if you met them that they'd be as nice and well-rounded as they appear.
people whole-life right-time
I'm in a relationship, and I've been in one in a while, but all the people I've been with at various points - and I've had sequentially monogamous relationships my whole life - were all the right people at the right time.
play records able
How I measure success is getting to make another record and being able to the come back to the same town and play again cause you sold out the last time.
fun mind musician
I speak my mind and come from a place of conscience, as well as have fun as a musician.
powerful ideas perceive
Maybe the idea of me is more powerful than I perceive myself being.
guitar voice lessons
I'm glad I get singled out for my slide guitar-playing, which isn't that difficult to do. I didn't take guitar lessons, but I just love the way it sounds, almost like the human voice.
college years feminist
The generation I grew up in was the beginning of "stand up for yourself," whether being a singer-songwriter or a feminist. In my college years, the feminist movement was really coming to fore, so we wouldn't have put up with guys treating us less than equal.
blessing justice parent
I was raised with the blessing of being involved with peace and social justice, and the environmental movement. I have my parents to thank for that.
hero people
There are so many people out there working with great grassroots and global and national organizations that are unsung heroes to me.
blessed eye opportunity
Those of us with a microphone who are blessed with the gift of being in the public eye have a special opportunity to give voice to all those groups whose activism is sometimes ignored or put on the back pages with the the dumbing down of television and the tabloidization of journalism. As Ralph Nader called it, "sound barks," not even sound bites.