Bonnie's Pride and Joy

Fansite with ALL the news about Bonnie !

Same hair, new purpose: Bonnie Raitt is living for the ones she’s lost
With her new album, the guitar legend maintains her lifelong passion for love and justice.

on April 15, 2022 No comments
By Michael Dwyer

Sex, soul, slide, selflessness.” Melissa Etheridge’s first four words were carefully chosen when she inducted Bonnie Raitt into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As if to underscore that last one, she followed with a gag that few performers’ egos could have worn lightly. Here was “a woman so tough, so uncompromising, so secure that she hasn’t felt the need to change her hairstyle for 30 years”.

The honoured rhythm and blues singer and slide guitar ace laughed it off because truly, from the first time she picked up a guitar as a nine-year-old girl in the LA winter of 1957, it’s never been about her. “Music was something I just did as a hobby,” she says. “My aim was to work for the AFSC.”

The American Friends Service Committee is the social arm of the Quakers, an indelible part of her family history. “They go places where there needs to be assistance in conflict resolution in a peaceful way. So to be able to have my career kind of fall in my lap because I happen to play good blues guitar for a girl …” Well, it was handy. “I felt it was my job to marry my music with fundraising,” she says.

The pretty-good-for-a-girl joke, by the way, is a staple of Raitt’s interviews, rooted in the culture of her late ’60s/early ’70s arrival. She must have heard it a hundred times from the kind of beard-strokers who judge Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time lists. As recently as 2015, she and Joni Mitchell were the only women deemed worthy. She idly wonders whether they’ve heard Joan Armatrading, Susan Tedeschi or St. Vincent but again, she tends to save her energies for less petty injustices.

{{svg_quality_icon}}
{{quality-options}}

Today, on the eve of her 18th album, Just Like That…, she’s at home in Marin County, about 20 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The spring blooms are a little early. “It’s pretty idyllic up here,” she says. “How about you?”

I’m remembering the first time we met, 30 years ago, in some swanky hotel in London. The swank level had recently escalated because, after 20 years on the cult side of commercial respectability, Nick of Time had just launched the blues rocker into a new league of million-selling, Grammy-gobbling superstars.

Life “absolutely changed for me”, she recalls of that moment, which happily occurred when she was “mature and clear enough to accept it” – a reference to previous years of drug and alcohol dependence. “I was able to work with band members that I wouldn’t have been able to afford … I was able to move here to Northern California where I’d always wanted to live, and I was able to raise more money for my causes.

Bonnie Raitt with John Lee Hooker at the 1990 Grammy Awards. © Getty Images

“When I went on TV,” she says, it was to “better-quality shows where I could actually talk about the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and safe energy and Native American rights and all the different issues that I’d supported for years but couldn’t really make a big dent in fundraising or attention.

“Having a Cinderella story of all those Grammys won at once and my album [going] to number one … it afforded me a lot of security and freedom and a platform that I hadn’t really had before.”

Marjorie and John Raitt with kids, from left, Steven, Bonnie and David in April, 1958. © Herb Ball /Getty

She’d seen it up close once. Her father, John, was American stage musical royalty into his 80s, the perennial leading man from The Pajama Game to Man of La Mancha. Her mother, Marge Goddard, was a pianist and musical director. But while young Bonnie respected the fame and riches and agency that music could bring to some, by her late teens she’d opted to hitch her wagon to the ones who went without.

“My fortuitous moment, on top of being John Raitt’s daughter, was to meet Dick Waterman when I was 18, a freshman in college, and meet the legendary Son House, the greatest of the Delta bluesmen ever, and have personal access to asking him questions. He was extremely dignified and incredibly handsome and just momentous. Can you imagine, for me to actually have the opportunity to meet him?”

Waterman was House’s manager, an early mentor, and a fellow blues crusader. “He formed an agency to collectively bargain for better pay for the blues men,” she explains. Today she does similar work with the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, ensuring memorials, royalties and medical assistance for the giants on whose shoulders the rest of the industry is built.

“A lot of clubs would say, ‘Oh, we’ve had our old black blues guy for the month, why should we pay your guy $800 when I can get this guy for five?’ I mean, you wouldn’t believe the stories I heard, but Dick brought up [from the south] Arthur Crudup and Mississippi Fred McDowell; he brought Buddy Guy and Junior Wells out of Chicago, got them gigs on the east coast and eventually on the Stones tour …”

RELATED
Bonnie Raitt Faces Mortality With Compassion and Hope

TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO BONNIE RAITT

  1. Worst habit? Not taking more time for breaks and deep breaths
  2. Greatest fear? That cruelty, greed, and delusion might gain more ground.
  3. The line that stayed with you? Expectations are just resentments under construction.
  4. Biggest regret? Not being a better listener.
  5. Favourite room? The outdoors … or a room looking out to it.
  6. The artwork/song you wish was yours?  I don’t really feel I would want to claim someone else’s art as mine. I love my favourites for the artists that created them.
  7. If you could solve one thing…  It would be getting everyone committed to switching to renewable, clean energy, and conserving and better managing our limited resource.

She was “already playing pretty good blues guitar” when she met those guys, and Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf, and … “they got a big kick out of the fact that I knew all their songs,” she says, laughing. Music aside, she got to hear first-hand their stories about working plantations and juke joints in the era of Jim Crow segregation laws and worse, and just as importantly, “I got to see how gracious they were; and just how eternally grateful”.

Bonnie Raitt with legendary blues performer John Lee Hooker 1990 © Getty Images

From John Lee Hooker to Ray Charles, Ruth Brown to Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt played and recorded with more American icons than you can count on fingers and toes. They’re mostly gone now, of course, though their souls endure in that curious way that songs do in the hands and hearts of those who follow. This idea of what survives loss is a theme, unsurprisingly as she eases into her 70s, of her new album.

“I faced a lot of loss in the middle-aged period of my life,” she says, “but the last couple of years have just been absolutely soul-crunching.” Hence the 14 names listed in the album’s dedications; names ranging from her nephew Miles to recently fallen legends John Prine, Art Neville, Sweet Pea Atkinson, Dr. John, Oliver Mtukudzi and Toots Hibbert, whose Love So Strong she covers with her trademark throb and holler.

Just Like That and Down the Hall, two of her three self-penned songs, are incredibly moving character narratives from the viewpoints of ordinary people not just touched by death, but miraculously redeemed by it. The third, Livin’ for the Ones (who didn’t make it), is a much more upbeat and defiant rocker. All of them broadly invoke that rare calling that Melissa Etheridge noted 22 years ago at the Hall of Fame: selflessness.

Bonnie Raitt performing in San Francisco in 1977. © Richard McCaffrey /Getty Images

“My brother passed away in 2009, after an eight-year battle with brain cancer,” Raitt says. “A couple of dear friends … died right after, and I had just lost my parents … When my brother passed, I just said to myself ‘I’m going to live for him every day.’ He lost his sight and his ability to walk in the last few months. And every day, I can open my eyes and look out the window at the beauty that is around us. And every day, I can swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand up and walk.

“It takes the tendency to want to whine and self-pity completely away when you adopt a stance of ‘I’m living for the ones who didn’t make it.’ Rather than wallow and wring my hands at a God that would let this happen, I’m just going to be living every day for the chances they didn’t get. I’m going to see for my brother. And I’m going to be appreciative of every day I have on this earth.”

It’s last question time, and I’m thinking of those Grammys that had just changed Bonnie Raitt’s life that time we met in London all those years ago. Her producer, Don Was, joined her on stage. After 20 years under the radar, he said the message of her victory was, “Maintain your integrity, never underestimate your audience and just try to make a good record.” Thirty years later, does she have anything to add?

“You know, you try your hardest and you stay awake, and you don’t repeat yourself. And you don’t sell your audience short. I know who my cult audience is, but I wasn’t expecting to have the massive appeal that I ended up with after that night … So even if I don’t sell or draw what I did in the early ’90s, I know that I’m fundamentally known in the world. If I was to go tomorrow, at least people know what I was about.”

Just Like That is out April 22 via Redwing Records.

About The Author


Source: © Copyright The Sydney Morning Herald

Please rate this article


/ 3

Your page rank:

Related Posts

Take a look at these posts
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Also enjoy listening to Bonnie in these posts!

SHEROES RADIO PRESENTS: THE ROAD TO JONI September 13, 2024 READ MORE Julia Gets Wise with Bonnie Raitt April 3, 2024 READ MORE The Blues Show with Cerys Matthews - BBC Sounds June 5, 2023 READ MORE 6 Things To Know About Bonnie Raitt: Her Famous Fans, Legendary Friends & Lack Of Retirement Plan March 6, 2023 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt Talks with David Remnick February 3, 2023 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt - The Bob Lefsetz Podcast October 20, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt performs as if no one has ever seen the show before October 7, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt - Bullseye with Jesse Thorn October 4, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie joins Dave Cobb on Southern Accents Radio September 17, 2022 READ MORE Paul Ingles - Talk Music With Me - Bonnie Raitt: JUST LIKE THAT June 28, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt, Blues Sister: Her Life And Times In Eight Songs June 7, 2022 READ MORE Spotlight On: Bonnie Raitt May 28, 2022 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE A conversation with Bonnie Raitt May 8, 2022 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Bonnie on CBC LISTEN q with Tom Power April 22, 2022 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Bonnie Raitt - WTF with Marc Maron Podcast April 11, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie on The Record Store Day Podcast with Paul Myers April 5, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie talks to Bruce Headlam on Broken Record Podcast March 16, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt - Questlove Supreme March 9, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt sits in March 7, 2022 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt: favorite songs from each album August 25, 2021 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Hear a 21-Year-Old Bonnie Raitt Cover Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’ August 14, 2020 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt on Angel From Montgomery while on Debatable April 14, 2020 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE I Am (Not) a Diva June 4, 2019 READ MORE Turning The Tables Listening Party: Women Of Roots And Americana December 1, 2017 READ MORE Little Kids Rock Honors Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt October 19, 2017 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt still giving them ‘Something To Talk About’ May 27, 2017 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Bonnie Raitt On World Cafe July 27, 2016 READ MORE Johnnie Walker meets... Bonnie Raitt on BBC Radio 2 May 29, 2016 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt on The Music Show May 22, 2016 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt: 2016 April 8, 2016 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Concert review: Bonnie Raitt digs in deep at Heinz Hall March 23, 2016 READ MORE Listen to Bonnie Raitt on The Strombo Show - March 6, 2016 March 7, 2016 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt in Magnetic Form Once Again with ‘Dig In Deep’ February 29, 2016 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Americana Music Association UK Produces First Awards Show February 5, 2016 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Bonnie had a fantastic chat with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 2. Have a listen! February 2, 2016 READ MORE Nick Of Time - Track by Track 25th Anniversary July 16, 2014 READ MORE The Leonard Lopate Show - Bonnie Raitt November 5, 2013 READ MORE Interview: Bonnie Raitt October 13, 2013 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt On World Cafe December 26, 2012 READ MORE 2012 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show September 15, 2012 READ MORE Focus On: Bonnie Raitt - 2012 Americana Music Association Keynote Interview September 15, 2012 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Bonnie Raitt: A Brand-New Model For A Classic Sound June 16, 2012 READ MORE Paul Ingles - The Emergence of Bonnie Raitt May 11, 2012 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt - Words and Music - 2012 May 10, 2012 READ MORE Something To Talk About With Bonnie Raitt April 17, 2012 READ MORE {{title}} {{date}} READ MORE Bonnie Raitt Posts Live Duet with Maia Sharp for Download March 22, 2012 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal let the good times roll at the Greek September 12, 2009 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal provide perfect ending to Meijer Gardens Summer Concert Series August 24, 2009 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal Interviewed by Michael Bourne (Audio) August 10, 2009 READ MORE WNYC Soundcheck - Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal July 28, 2009 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt serves up variety of styles at Majestic May 12, 2009 READ MORE Mississippi Fred McDowell Blues Trail Marker May 8, 2009 READ MORE A Prairie Home Companion June 7, 2008 READ MORE A Prairie Home Companion with Bonnie October 28, 2006 READ MORE Blues and Conversation with Bonnie Raitt July 6, 2006 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt – Telluride Bluegrass Festival, CO 2006 June 18, 2006 READ MORE Review: Bonnie Raitt live at Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles November 22, 2005 READ MORE Bonnie Raitt Shakes it Up May 4, 2002 READ MORE

Popular Posts

Recommended Reading