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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.

Bonnie Raitt

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.
BONNIE RAITT

Appreciation Real Strong
I have a really full life, both within music and outside it.
BONNIE RAITT

Full Life Music Outside Really
I’m sure I would have been considered a more significant artist if I was a singer-songwriter. It’s just not the way I roll. I love being a curator and a musicologist.
BONNIE RAITT

Artist Jobs Musicologist Writing
I can’t make you love me, if you don’t.
BONNIE RAITT

Happen Life Love Make
Im 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 RAITT

Artist Gratitude Loss Point Reach
My career is based on the slow build of an audience based on putting on a good show live and putting out a record every couple of years.
BONNIE RAITT

Careers Couple Years
Solar power is the last energy resource that isn’t owned yet – nobody taxes the sun yet.
BONNIE RAITT

Energy Lasts Sun
Sometimes 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 RAITT

Able Home Learn Ordinary Regular
How unthinkable that, in a country of such bursting plenty, so many people are facing ongoing hunger and poverty.
BONNIE RAITT

Country Garden School
I’m one of those people who just doesn’t plan my personal life. I plan my professional life.
BONNIE RAITT

People Plans Professional Life
Really important issues are getting lost, so I can say I’m glad to be a citizen of the planet and do my part.
BONNIE RAITT

Citizen Important Issues
I don’t think there’s ever been any music quite like what we came up with.
BONNIE RAITT

Advertising Agencies Thinking
I thought I had to live that partying lifestyle in order to be authentic, but in fact if you keep it up too long, all you’re going to be is sloppy or dead.
BONNIE RAITT

Long Order Party
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Editing Stories Together
Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste.
BONNIE RAITT

Less Life Mighty Waste
Nobody went out to pasture, and a lot of people are doing their best work. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Sting are at the top of their game.
BONNIE RAITT

Games Ghetto Mean
I think my fans will follow me into our combined old age. Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time.
BONNIE RAITT

Music Real Thinking
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Corny Done Political
You create the happiness and the balance that you have, and your own power. This is one thing that I know to be true.
BONNIE RAITT

Balance Being True Knows
I 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 RAITT

Honest People Unique
Pat Benatar might need a rock band, but I can just sit with a blues guitar for an hour and a half and do folk songs and great contemporary ballads, and not many people can pull that off.
BONNIE RAITT

Contemporary Guitar Need Rocks Song
In 1967 I entered Harvard as a freshman, confident – in the way that only 17-year-olds are – that I could change the world.
BONNIE RAITT

Creating Government Years
It 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 RAITT

Influence People Surprise
One of the biggest obstacles I’ve overcome in my life was thinking I didn’t deserve to be successful.
BONNIE RAITT

Successful Thinking Years
There 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 RAITT

Girl Great Guy Music Political Scene
I can’t make you love me if you don’t, You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t.
BONNIE RAITT

Feels Heart Love Something
The talent on YouTube is incredible, and it can spread like wildfire. The downside is that it’s very hard to convince the younger generation that they should pay for music.
BONNIE RAITT

Convince Downside Incredible Music Talent

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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