Hall of Fame/Bonnie Raitt: Still Living the Blues
David Fricke: Singing with CSN is a natural fit for you. For guys well known for battling each other, they write and sing about women with tenderness and sympathy.
That was our generation. The Fifties model of the old macho guys like Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack - that was so different from the manhood reflected in the songs coming out in early Seventies, whether it was CSN, J.D. Souther, Jackson Browne or James Taylor. Graham [Nash] was always a tenderhearted guy. He even has a voice like that. I had a major crush on Stephen [Stills] back when he did the Who Knows Where the Time Goes album with Judy Collins. Thos guys have always stayed in touch with that side of themselves. I mean There's a place for AC/DC and a place for CSN [laughs]. They exist side by side in all of us.
DF:
Oh, man, I love those guys. I live in Marin, and so do they. I've known Lars [Ulrich] for a while. We get together and talk politics. There's a cadre of progressives up here that strategize for different campaigns and issues.
DF:
I sang with my dad [Broadway star John Raitt]. I learned all those musicals by heart - The Pajama Game, Carousel, Oklahoma! We were a very eclectic family. We loved Mahalia Jackson as much as Segovia. And having a Broadway singer rehearse downstairs in your house all the time was unbelievable fun. Other people's fathers had regular jobs, and my dad got to play golf in the day and sing at night - and people paid to see him. That was not lost on me.
DF:
I went along very early. I inducted John Lee Hooker [in 1991] and Ma Rainey [in 1990]. I went as a fan as well. And wasn't it a riot? That was part of the delicious joy of the first ones, these people getting hammered and saying what they wanted. My favorite part is the speeches, the dedications and reunions up there. The standout memory I have was Hank Ballard's induction [in 1990]. His wife was killed a few months earlier. He just broke down. That was so incredibly emotional and sad.
DF:
Standing behind the kitchen door [at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel], waiting to go on. Melissa Etheridge was giving me so much props - I was squirming. She seemed to be taking so long. It was lovingly presented. I felt incredibly honored. But I was thinking people were rolling their eyes: " And what else did she save then?" By the time I got on stage, I felt a bit sheepish.
DF:
Absolutely. I knew I got in because I was a woman. It's important for them to honor women, not have it all guys. In terms of commercial success, I doubt that I would have made the cut. I made it as a role model for women instrumentalists and combining music and activism. It had a lot to do with gender. But now there will be a lot more women to choose from.
DF:
He had a bit of a drinking problem. If he had just enough alcohol, he could remember his lyrics. If he had too much, he wouldn't be able to perform. But he was thrilled to be recognized in Europe and America, to have thousands of people standing up and cheering for him. All the people that I was blessed to hang out with - they did not resent young white kids coming in and playing their music. They were absolutely delighted at the adulation from people like Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and myself. They couldn't believe it. I know that firsthand. It was something they could never have imagined - that they would be respected and get to work at this job again.
Rolling Stone, 10/29/09
by David Fricke
'I could tell you what I'm doing, but I don't want to blow the surprise," Bonnie Raitt says of her planned guest spot with old friends Crosby, Stills and Nash at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concerts October 29th and 30th at New York's Madison Square Garden. "It was a surprise to me," the singer-songwriter adds over the phone from her home in Marin County, near San Francisco. " I don't know if I'd have done it for anybody but them." Raitt who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, just finished a collaboration with another pal: a tour with bluesman Taj Mahal. " At one point, we had both of our bands out - 12 people, two drum kits, two Hammond organ players - playing Jimmy McCracklin, Toots and the Maytals, and Elmore James songs," she raves. " It was the all-R&B rockin' revue I always wanted to do." But Raitt, who turns 60 on November 8th, insists she is not a blues singer. Raitt was a friend and student of legends such as Son House and Mississippi Fred McDowell on the way to her 1971 debut, Bonnie Raitt. " But what killed me about the early Taj, Ry Cooder and Little Feat records was how eclectic the music was," she says. " The blues shouldn't be put in a box. It's a living, breathing thing."
