By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up
@bugsburnett
Bonnie Raitt remembers seeing her father, the late great Broadway star John Raitt, perform in Pyjama Party on the Great White Way when she was all of five years old.
“The thing I’ve taken from him was to make every night opening night,” Bonnie Raitt, now 64, says.
Then, offstage, a who’s who of Broadway hung out at the Raitt household. “It was absolutely incredible to have that kind of talent in the house. It was a gypsy life of a performer.”
So it was no surprise then that Raitt, majoring in African studies at Harvard’s Radcliffe College in 1967, skipped a semester to move to Philadelphia and hang out with blues promoter Dick Waterman in Philly’s growing blues scene. “Much to the chagrin of my parents, who didn’t expect their freshman daughter to be running around with 65-year-old bluesmen,” Raitt once noted.
Over the coming decades Raitt would perform and record with all of the greats, becoming something of a blues legend herself. When her Grammy-winning album Nick of Time topped the charts in 1989, Raitt says, “My fame jumped exponentially and my father became better known as Bonnie Raitt’s dad. But among the Broadway crowd I’ll always be his daughter.”
Raitt was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and is proud she and her women rock’n’roll friends have made a difference. “Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and I hung out together in L.A. in the ’70s. It was a great scene and community. Youth still matters and sex sells no matter what decade it is. But just because Chrissie Hynde and I are older doesn’t mean we’re less sexy.”
Still, Raitt has become a rock’n’roll stateswoman. “I’m just proud when [young female rockers] mention my name in an interview, or cover my songs, like the Dixie Chicks.”
Raitt is equally well known for her many political causes, from the No Nukes concerts she co-organized at Madison Square Garden in 1979, to her fundraising work for the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. “So many of these old blues guys have no money or health insurance, so we offer them assistance. We also lobbied all the major labels to change their royalty rates.”
Clearly, Raitt still believes in the power of music to change the world. “If you hold a press conference with just activists, no one shows up. If the press were really fair and balanced and free, all sides would be presented. But the media is controlled by those who have the money to buy ads. So I can help level the playing field with my celebrity. It’s not about ego, it’s about democracy.”
Raitt made her Montreal debut at the Montreal Internatinal Jazz Festival in July 2006 – her live rendtion of the song I Can’t Make You Love Me was mindblowing – when I interviewed her. She’s back in Montreal for the first time since, cross-promoting her latest album, Slipstream, on her current tour. Raitt remains grateful about her career longevity because she never thought she’d still be headlining shows after over four decades in the business.
“You know, my dad and so many jazz and blues artists played into their 60s and 70s,” says Raitt. “I figured if I kept my chops, maybe I’d be lucky to be an old blues broad. No one can believe you’re going to have that kind of success. But I did have a role model in my dad.”
Bonnie Raitt headlines Theatre St-Denis on November 14 at 8 pm. Click here for tickets and more info.
Photo by Marina Chavez, courtesy Equipe Spectra
