Bonnie Raitt recently announced a new solo LP, Just Like That…, and fans are thrilled.
Raitt, of course, is one of those cherished songwriters and performers that we all love and all have at least one special memory of whether it’s the first time we heard her sing, the first time she came on at just the right time on the radio, the first time we heard her speak about the world and its faults—it’s that moment we remember and are remembering even now.
But what about what Raitt had to say outside of singing her delightful songs like “I Can’t Make You Love Me” or “Something To Talk About”? What did Raitt have to say about her life, her process, her thoughts on writing, and the people and places around her?
Well, we wanted to dive in and investigate these very questions. So, without further ado, here are the Best 17 Bonnie Raitt Quotes.
1. “I’m just glad that I’m the musical equivalent of a character actress because blues singers can keep singing and having an audience at 35, and someone like Madonna’s gonna have to find something else to do, ‘cos I don’t care how pointy those bras are that she wears, they’re still gonna look a little odd when she’s 55!”
2. “Nobody taught me to play bottleneck. I just saw it and taught myself. I got an old bottle and steamed the label off, put it on the wrong finger, I basically did everything wrong until I met some of the Blues legends early in my career who taught me another way. I didn’t have anyone to tell me women didn’t play bottleneck.”
3. “I’m not that beautiful, and I don’t want to be a pop star.”
4. “I was always drawn to the blues. Alberta Hunter at the Cookery was a life-changing experience. I only wanted to get enriched as a performer as I got older, to have an audience which got older, too, and would come to see me when I’m 80.”
5. “AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ is the greatest meshing of vocal, guitar, and content I’ve ever heard. That’s what I aspire to.”
6. “Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.”
7. “Solar power is the last energy resource that isn’t owned yet – nobody taxes the sun yet.”
8. “I never saw music in terms of men and women or black and white. There was just cool and uncool.”
9. “A lot of political music to me can be rather pedantic and corny, and when it’s done right—like Bruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne or great satire from Randy Newman, there’s nothing better.”
10. “I have a really full life, both within music and outside it.”
11. “I think it’s our job to write about what we’re going through at the moment, and being 41, I’m not going to write about the same things I wrote about at 20. I don’t think artists should be farmed out to pasture just because they’re in rock n’ roll.”
12. “The world I live in is benefiting from things like satellite radio. Jazz and blues fests are everywhere now, and Americana is going strong on college radio. What I’m hearing is an appreciation of real music.”
13. “The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.”
14. “I just play the music that I love with musicians that I respect, and fortunately, I’m in a position where people are willing to play with me, and perhaps I can do something to help them.”
15. “I think I’m a living embodiment of, ‘Don’t try to push me around or squash me,’ whether its how I talk to a record label or in my relationships.”
16. “I don’t think there’s ever been any music quite like what we came up with.”
17. “I would rather feel things in extreme than not at all.”
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