When you love a song so much you have to sing, you know how you feel – it releases something in you that resonates as true, whether it’s James Brown or Joni Mitchell.
BONNIE RAITTWhen you love a song so much you have to sing, you know how you feel – it releases something in you that resonates as true, whether it’s James Brown or Joni Mitchell.
BONNIE RAITTIt is still a surprise when people tell me that I’ve had an influence on them, particularly when it’s someone I really respect.
BONNIE RAITTI don’t want to sound like a self-help book, but it really has been transformative for me to take a look at my relationships in a new way and see my part in them. Everybody’s going through that.
BONNIE RAITTThe great thing about the arts, and especially popular music, is that it really does cut across genres and races and classes.
BONNIE RAITTIm happy to say that at 62, I think Ive reached that point where stuff doesnt bother me as much, and my gratitude level has gone way up.
BONNIE RAITTWhatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that’s you and that isn’t necessarily you.
BONNIE RAITTI finally learned to accept that I can’t make radio play blues any more than I could get Reagan out of the White House.
BONNIE RAITTThere were so many great music and political scenes going on in the late ’60s in Cambridge. The ratio of guys to girls at Harvard was four to one, so all of those things were playing in my mind.
BONNIE RAITTI have been really heartened by how much coverage there has been about inequality of pay across the board, between the entertainment industry and almost every industry worldwide.
BONNIE RAITTSometimes I’m more true when I’m up onstage than I’m able to be in my regular life. It’s not as exciting to be at home, but I’ve got to learn how to make that work, and then I will be an ordinary woman.
BONNIE RAITTI don’t know that I’m unique in that people relate to my music, but I would hope people would say that I’m honest and that I do the best work I can possibly do instead of coasting.
BONNIE RAITTThe fifth member of my band is my non-profit work.
BONNIE RAITTIt can unite kids and musicians, everybody, whether they’re leftist or rightist, or radical, or Republican, because energy is energy. But in fact, it is a real political struggle – it shows people that it’s big business against the people.
BONNIE RAITTThe 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.
BONNIE RAITTWe did a two month tour with Taj Mahal that was really healing and cathartic and a good distraction after my brother passed away. Then I knew I wanted to take a year off, and it was really nice to have that chance to fall apart.
BONNIE RAITTReligion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.
BONNIE RAITT