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I didn’t have to be a pop singer with a certain look. When I started, there was really a revolution in natural artists with blues and folk artists crossing over; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get started.

Bonnie Raitt

The fact is that this conversation is going on at every level at every age, we’re all going, “God, what a jerk I’ve been,” “How could I have married that guy?” or “How could I have done this or that?” With time, this is the gift of being older, that you get to look back and say, “It wasn’t all about them.”
BONNIE RAITT

Age Best Guy Look Looks Married
And just the problem of young women not getting an education, not being able to have an equal position in the cultures all around the world.
BONNIE RAITT

Education Position Women World
I was already doing really well in terms of my goals, to keep my fans coming back.
BONNIE RAITT

Back Coming Goal Really
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
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
There’s a balance between ballads and kick-ass songs.
BONNIE RAITT

Ass Ballads Between Difference Kick Songs
I have a really full life, both within music and outside it.
BONNIE RAITT

Full Life Music Outside Really
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
Elvis might have compromised his musical style a bit towards the end, but that doesn’t mean that artists from the rock n’ roll/folk-roots culture – of which he was not really a part – shouldn’t get better as they get older, like the great jazz or blues artists.
BONNIE RAITT

Artist Great Mean Musical Rocks Style
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
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
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’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
The women’s movement resurgence of standing up for so many things that were kind of sleepy there for a decade or so, there’s been a reawakening and I think the consciousness movement in general is dovetailing with a lot of recovery and self-empowerment.
BONNIE RAITT

Consciousness Recovery Resurgence Self Thinking
I 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 RAITT

Book Everyone Relationship Self Sound
Ugly ducklings don’t turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make.
BONNIE RAITT

Duckling Lakes Swans Ugly
If we are truly each other’s keepers, let’s support school lunches, food stamps, neighborhood garden projects, and so many other wonderful programs working to put an end to this cruel and needless blight once and for all.
BONNIE RAITT

End Food Garden Needless Project Stamp
The 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 RAITT

College Equal Feminist Years
Thank God for Occupy and thank God for ‘The Daily Show,’ Colbert and the rising up that’s going on around the world.
BONNIE RAITT

Rising Up Thank God World
How I measure success is getting to make another record and being able to the come back to the same town and play again cause you sold out the last time.
BONNIE RAITT

Able Getting Play Records Time
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.
BONNIE RAITT

Celebrated Encourage Made Resources Style
The anti-nuke movement has important and far-reaching implications for grassroots organizing.
BONNIE RAITT

Kids Real Struggle
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
When they were putting oil rigs up and down the California coast, the whole issue of safe energy and the addiction to fossil fuels really came into focus.
BONNIE RAITT

Coast Country Focus Issues Oil
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

Age Better Enough Getting Good Longer
Those of us who grew up in the ’50s and ’60s, we had the dream that this could be turned around, and the earth could be back in balance, and that we could level the playing field with men and women and pay, and you know, minority groups having equal opportunity.
BONNIE RAITT

Back Balance Dream Men Opportunity
Playing guitar was one of my childhood hobbies, and I had played a little at school and at camp.
BONNIE RAITT

Childhood Guitar School

I didn’t have to be a pop singer with a certain look. When I started, there was really a revolution in natural artists with blues and folk artists crossing over; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get started.

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I didn’t have to be a pop singer with a certain look. When I started, there was really a revolution in natural artists with blues and folk artists crossing over; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get started.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bonnie Raitt Quotes