Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt may be a household name, but her career has never been an easy one. Her life in the music industry has been filled with ups and downs, and she frequently faced bad reviews and bad sales over the course of her career. Though always respected by her peers, it took Raitt over 20 years to achieve her biggest commercial and critical success.

Born November 8, 1949 in California, Bonnie Lynne Raitt never planned to make a living as a musician. She came from a musical family – her father was a Broadway performer and her mother a piano player – but Raitt was always more drawn to a life in politics. She did begin playing guitar at age eight, and she showed an early ability to play bottleneck guitar, but she was never focused on making a living in music.

After high school, Raitt moved from California to Massachusetts to attend Harvard. She majored in African Studies and hoped to move to Tanzania and work with the burgeoning socialist government there. Her life changed when she met music promoter Dick Waterman at Harvard’s radio station. Waterman was a major promoter in the blues movement at the time, and Raitt had begun dabbling in that style of music. Waterman introduced her to several other blues musicians in the community around Harvard, and Raitt became more and more heavily involved in the music scene. During her sophomore year of college, Raitt dropped out and moved to Philadelphia with Waterman and several other blues musician. While there, she honed her blues style.

Raitt’s big break came during a show at New York’s Gaslight Alley. She made a fan of a Newsweek journalist who happened to be in the audience that night. He talked her up to record executives, who started to come to her shows. Eventually, through this connection, she landed a deal with Warner Brothers in 1970.

In 1971, Raitt’s self titled debut album was released. It was well received by critics but flopped commercially. This pattern repeated through the early 1970s, and by the middle of the decade, bad reviews started to accompany bad sales. In 1977, she had a minor hit with a cover of the song Runaway, but despite improving sales, the critical reviews continued to get worse. As she finished the 1970s, Raitt was in a tough position in her career. She was still a musician’s musician, but her fan following remained relatively small.

Although her sales track record with Warner Brothers was not good, they became involved in a bidding war for her contract in the early 1980s. They signed her to a major deal, but the sales did not come. While Raitt was recording Tongue and Groove in 1983, Warner dropped her from her deal (one day after mastering was complete). Warner retained the rights to the album, and in 1986, they decided to release it. After making a deal to allow Raitt to re-record about half of the tracks, it came out under the name Nine Lives. The album was a flop and Warner severed their relationship with Raitt for good.

Raitt was signed by Capital Records and finally achieved her mainstream commercial success in 1989 with the album Nick of Time. The Don Was produced album melded her blues style with a pop sound. The formula proved to be successful, and Raitt enjoyed continued critical and commercial success through the 1990s. She went on to earn a total of nine Grammys.

Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Raitt has remained politically active throughout her career, especially in nuclear non-proliferation and environmental movements. She was married in 1991 to Michael O’Keefe, an actor. The two divorced in 1998.

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