58 Fun Facts About Bonnie Raitt

In which California city was Bonnie Raitt born?

Burbank. As a girl she sang protest songs and idolised Joan Baez; in 1999 the two went up a threatened redwood together to visit the activist living in its branches.

Bonnie Raitt's father, John, was best known on Broadway for which original role?

Billy Bigelow in Carousel. Decades later he would walk on to close Bonnie's concerts with a song from Oklahoma!, and the two recorded Broadway duets for his 1995 album.

As a girl, Bonnie Raitt chose guitar because she felt she'd never match which relative on piano?

Her mother. Marge Goddard was an accomplished pianist, so Bonnie taught herself on a Stella guitar she was given for Christmas, copying records by ear instead of taking lessons.

A live blues album recorded at which festival hooked the 14-year-old Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar?

Newport Folk Festival. The album Blues at Newport set her learning bottleneck guitar at 14, the skill that later won her the respect of the veteran bluesmen she opened for.

Which college did Bonnie Raitt attend, majoring in social relations and African studies?

Radcliffe. She meant to graduate and do social work in Tanzania, but the blues clubs won: she left without a degree to play music full-time.

Many artists have covered which song from Streetlights, but Bonnie Raitt's 1974 version became the definitive one?

Angel from Montgomery. Its narrator is a middle-aged housewife who feels older than her years, yet it was written by a man in his early twenties; Raitt's cover made it famous.

Raitt's 'Kokomo Medley' on Road Tested pays tribute to which bluesman, her slide mentor?

Fred McDowell. Raitt met him at about 19 and opened his shows before she had a record deal; she has called him her favourite and closest friend among the old bluesmen.

Which label released Raitt's self-titled debut album in 1971?

Warner Bros. She was 21 and meant to go back for her final year of college, so she asked for complete artistic control, and the label agreed.

Which 1972 album, Raitt's second, features 'Love Me Like a Man'?

Give It Up. For it Raitt flipped Chris Smither's 'Love You Like a Man' into 'Love Me Like a Man', and she was still playing the gender-switched blues on her 1995 live album.

Raitt's first commercial hit came in 1977 with a remake of which Del Shannon song?

Runaway. Raitt recast it as heavy, gritty R&B, and its success set two major labels bidding for her, which let her renegotiate a far richer contract.

Bonnie Raitt co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 to campaign against what?

Nuclear power. Its five No Nukes nights at Madison Square Garden became a triple album and a film, and the founders regrouped in 2007 to fight federal loans for new reactors.

In which 1980 film did Raitt appear as herself singing "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance"?

Urban Cowboy. The honky-tonk soundtrack gave the blues-rocker a rare country hit, and she later said its songs were almost the only country she ever recorded.

Raitt's label dropped her in 1983, then in 1986 released her shelved album Tongue and Groove under what title?

Nine Lives. The label had dropped her the day after she finished mastering it, and the record sat on the shelf for three years while she kept touring on a shoestring.

Which anti-apartheid protest song did Raitt sing on in 1985?

Sun City. On Steven Van Zandt's all-star single, Raitt and dozens of other artists pledged never to play the South African resort, where big-name acts had kept performing despite apartheid.

Bonnie Raitt sang backing vocals with k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes on whose all-star TV concert, filmed in 1987?

Roy Orbison. Springsteen, Costello and Waits were all in his backing band that night at the Cocoanut Grove, a comeback show filmed about fourteen months before his death.

After Raitt lost her record deal, which pop star invited her to record for his own label?

Prince. The prospect of shooting a video beside him pushed her to lose weight and give up drinking; the project was never finished, but the sobriety stuck.

Which producer guided Raitt's comeback album Nick of Time?

Don Was. Then known for his band Was (Not Was), he cut her comeback with her in about a week, and they kept making records together until 1995.

Which Disney lullaby did Raitt record for a 1988 all-star tribute album, the session that led to Nick of Time?

Baby Mine. In Dumbo it plays as the locked-up Mrs. Jumbo rocks her calf in her trunk; Raitt enjoyed recording it so much that she asked the session's producer to make her next album.

Which jazz great plays piano behind Raitt on the Nick of Time ballad 'I Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again'?

Herbie Hancock. Raitt's career was adrift, yet famous friends turned out for the album: he played on one ballad, and David Crosby and Graham Nash sang harmonies on another.

What major prize did Nick of Time win at the 1990 Grammys?

Album of the Year. Dropped by her previous label, Raitt won four Grammys that night, and within weeks the year-old album had climbed to No. 1.

Which songwriter wrote and first recorded 'Thing Called Love', the song Raitt turned into her 1989 comeback single?

John Hiatt. A critics' favourite short of hits, he cut it for his 1987 album Bring the Family; Raitt's cover led off her comeback and took his song to a far wider audience.

Which actor flirts with Raitt in the bar in her "Thing Called Love" video?

Dennis Quaid. A friend of Raitt's, he did it as a favour, and the clip went into heavy rotation on the young VH1, exposure she had never managed to get from radio.

Which label signed Raitt in 1988, when few others wanted her, and released Nick of Time?

Capitol. Her manager counted 14 rejections first, and the deal carried only a new artist's budget, which her A&R man says spared her any pressure to chase hits.

Raitt won a 1990 Grammy for the duet "I'm in the Mood" with which blues legend?

John Lee Hooker. Their duet came on The Healer, the star-studded album that turned the veteran bluesman, four decades into his career, into a late commercial success.

What was the title of Raitt's 1991 follow-up to Nick of Time, her biggest seller ever?

Luck of the Draw. Fearing her comeback was a fluke, Raitt went away to write before the Grammys were even awarded, and four of her own songs made the album.

To which late guitarist did Raitt dedicate her 1991 album?

Stevie Ray Vaughan. He had died in a helicopter crash the summer before, soon after getting his life and career back on track.

Anne Murray wanted to record which future Raitt hit, was overruled by her producers, and named an album after it?

Something to Talk About. Murray's producers doubted Shirley Eikhard's song could be a hit, so she kept only the title; Raitt took it to No. 5 in 1991, her first Top 10 single.

With which orchestra did Bonnie Raitt and her father, John, sing Broadway duets on a public-television concert?

Boston Pops. John Williams was the conductor, and Raitt, a veteran of two decades of blues-rock shows, admitted she was terrified to sing show tunes in front of an orchestra.

Which pianist plays on "I Can't Make You Love Me"?

Bruce Hornsby. Raitt asked him to play on it herself, then sang the vocal in a single take, convinced the emotion would not survive a second try.

Which British star took a cover of 'I Can't Make You Love Me' to No. 3 in the UK in 1997?

George Michael. Paired with his own song 'Older' on a 1997 single, his cover climbed far higher in Britain than Raitt's original, which had stalled at No. 50.

Before songwriting, Mike Reid, co-writer of 'I Can't Make You Love Me', was an all-star in which sport?

Pro football. Reid spent five seasons as a Cincinnati Bengals lineman before turning to music; he and Allen Shamblin first wrote the ballad as up-tempo bluegrass, and it only worked once slowed down.

The writers of 'I Can't Make You Love Me' disagree on the details, but both say its title line came from where?

A newspaper story. One writer recalls a Nashville article about a man facing divorce, the other a man who shot up a car, but in both tellings he concludes that you can't make a woman love you.

Raitt sang 'Do I Ever Cross Your Mind' with which soul legend on the final album he completed before his death?

Ray Charles. Genius Loves Company, his album of duets, was released less than three months after he died in 2004 and went on to sweep the next Grammy Awards.

What was the title of Raitt's 1994 album, her second to reach No. 1?

Longing in Their Hearts. Long known as an interpreter of other writers' songs, Raitt wrote or co-wrote five of its tracks, nearly as many as on her two previous albums combined.

Which Canadian rocker co-wrote and duetted with Raitt on 'Rock Steady' (1995)?

Bryan Adams. He wrote it with Gretchen Peters specially as a duet for Raitt's tour, and the two recorded it live on stage for her concert album Road Tested.

Which rock singer inducted Raitt into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000?

Melissa Etheridge. Raitt already knew the ritual from the other side of the podium: seven years earlier she had given the induction speech for R&B pioneer Ruth Brown.

Raitt's 2002 title track 'Silver Lining' was a cover of which British singer-songwriter's song?

David Gray. He recorded 'Silver Lining' in his London flat for White Ladder, the self-financed album that also produced 'Babylon'; Raitt turned the home recording into a major-label title track.

Raitt performed a Grammy tribute duet with Alicia Keys in 2012 honouring which late singer?

Etta James. She had died three weeks earlier; as a young blues singer, Raitt has said, she swaggered about thinking she could be like James.

Which INXS song did Raitt cover on her 2016 album Dig In Deep?

Need You Tonight. A fan of the band, Raitt stripped the 1987 hit of its synth gloss and rebuilt it around slide guitar, opening her set with it at New York's Beacon Theatre.

Raitt's 'Just Like That' won which Grammy in 2023, a shock upset over hits by Adele, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift?

Song of the Year. Known for decades as an interpreter of other writers' songs, Raitt sat open-mouthed when Jill Biden read out her name for a ballad she had written alone.

What is the story told in "Just Like That"?

A mother meets the recipient of her son's heart. Raitt wrote it after a 2018 TV news story in which the man invited the mother to lay her head on his chest and hear the heartbeat.

The death of which songwriter friend in 2020 helped inspire "Just Like That"?

John Prine. After Covid took her friend, Raitt set out to write the way he did, telling a stranger's story from the inside over a fingerpicked guitar.

Which label, founded by Raitt herself, has released her albums since 2012?

Redwing Records. After decades with major labels she went independent in 2012, and her first release on it topped the independent chart and won a Grammy.

What nickname has Raitt given the Stratocaster she has played since 1969?

Brownie. Its body is bare, unpainted wood; Raitt bought the guitar for $120 on the street at 3 a.m. after a gig, and has not played a concert without it since.

Which bluesman, a friend since she opened for him in the early 1970s, co-headlined a 2009 tour with Raitt?

Taj Mahal. They named the revue BonTaj Roulet and steered a share of ticket sales to charity, raising more than $200,000.

Raitt was the first female musician to receive what from Fender?

A signature guitar model. Raitt had her royalties from it pay for a project that teaches children, girls especially, to play guitar through Boys & Girls Clubs.

Which Little Feat member's slide playing, run through a compressor pedal, shaped Raitt's own guitar sound?

Lowell George. In 1972 Raitt asked him how he made his slide notes ring for so long, and he showed her the compressor pedal that has stretched her own notes ever since.

Which actor was Bonnie Raitt married to from 1991 to 1999?

Michael O'Keefe. The Caddyshack actor became her lyricist too, writing the words to 'One Part Be My Lover' in 1991 and co-writing the title song of her 1994 album.

Which singer-songwriter founded Musicians United for Safe Energy with Raitt, Graham Nash and John Hall?

Jackson Browne. Their partnership runs through her records as well as her politics: he joined her on the live album Road Tested to sing his own 'My Opening Farewell'.

Where did Raitt travel in 1987 to play the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert?

Moscow. The July 4 show closed a peace walk from Leningrad, and Raitt recalled Soviet and American bands trading lines of 'Give Peace a Chance' at the end, with everybody in tears.

Which lifetime award, presented in Washington, did Raitt receive in 2024?

Kennedy Center Honor. Raitt had sung at the ceremony in tribute to others, Mavis Staples among them, before taking her own seat in the 2024 class beside Francis Ford Coppola and the Grateful Dead.

Raitt's longtime drummer Ricky Fataar was a member of which famous band in the early 1970s?

The Beach Boys. He toured with them and played on their album Holland, then turned up as Stig, the quiet one, in the Beatles spoof The Rutles before joining Raitt's band.

Raitt bought an LP by which 1920s blues singer in a London shop, then coaxed her back on stage in 1972?

Sippie Wallace. Raitt picked the record for the rhinestone glasses on its cover; she later got Wallace, recovering from a stroke, onto a festival stage, and the two toured together for years.

Raitt helped fund a 1996 headstone for which blues pioneer, whose 'When the Levee Breaks' Led Zeppelin later reworked?

Memphis Minnie. Her Mississippi grave had gone unmarked for 23 years, and at the unveiling, filmed by the BBC, her sister said she had had no idea how famous Minnie had been.

In 1997 Raitt received the arts medal of which university?

Harvard. 'I didn't even graduate!' she said of the honour; in 1970 she had been among the student strikers there, playing for them in a band called the Revolutionary Music Collective.

Bonnie Raitt traces her activism to her upbringing in which faith, whose members also ran her childhood summer camp?

Quakers. Her parents raised her on pacifism and service, and at the Quaker-run camp where she spent eight summers, counsellors taught her the folk songs that made her beg for a guitar.

Which old friend invited Raitt onto a joint tour in 2017 that kept being extended until the 2020 shutdown?

James Taylor. Their history goes back to 1970, when he let the nervous college junior open a campus concert for him; nearly five decades on, they were sharing a bill again.

Which Grammy-winning duet on Raitt's 1991 album was recorded with Delbert McClinton?

Good Man, Good Woman. Raitt said she had hoped her Grammy sweep would bring hits to overlooked friends like McClinton; their duet at least won him a Grammy of his own, his first.