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There’s more than luck to Bonnie Raitt’s draw, then and now

on September 10, 2025 No comments
By Gary Graff

It’s been a pretty good first half of the 2020s for Bonnie Raitt.

She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, followed by an Icon designation from the Billboard Women In Music Awards. Her latest album, “Just Like That …,” came out the same year, spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Radio Album chart and won three Grammy Awards in 2023, including the prestigious Song of the Year for the album’s title track.

And, as they say, but wait, there’s more: Raitt’s Grammy Award-winning 1989 album, “Nick of Time,” produced by Oak Park native Don Was, was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, while Raitt — who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 — received a Kennedy Center Honor last year.

Bonnie Raitt performs in 2017 at DTE Energy Music Theatre, now Pine Knob. © Ken Settle

“None of that was expected,” says the California-born Raitt, 75, whose father, John Raitt, was a Broadway actor and her mother, Marge Goddard, a pianist. Raitt studied at Harvard University’s Radcliffe College and became part of the Boston folks club scene before being signed to a recording contract in 1970. Since then, she’s released 18 albums and has a total of 15 Grammy Awards.

“I mean, listen, none of us expected when we were 20 that we’d be rocking this hard when we were in our 70s. And then I look at Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) and Paul McCartney … and Tony Bennett and B.B. (King) before them. There’s no sign of slowing down, artistically and energetically. We all got the message that if we were lucky enough to be taking better care of ourselves … we could keep doing this.”

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Raitt — whose history of political and social activism includes co-founding Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 — has been on the road steadily since “Just Like That …” came out. That means she’s making repeat appearances in some markets — she was at the Meadow Brook Amphitheatre in July 2022 — but she’s careful to make sure she’s offering something different in each case.

“I take a look at what we played last time in the area; I’m really cognizant of both not wearing the same shirt, but also not playing the same encore or blues tune,” Raitt says. “I like to mix it up, and I’ve got such a deep catalog, and these guys (in the band) can play anything.

“I don’t want to leave songs out that people come to hear, and I also like to keep it interesting for them and for us. So it’s fun to have five or six different songs to swirl around from night to night and … keep everybody happy.”

Bonnie Raitt and Jimmie Vaughan & the Tilt-a-Whirl Band perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

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Source: © Copyright The Oakland Press

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