Bonnie Raitt
speaker
187 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Bonnie Raitt’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
How were you feeling? Yeah. It's interesting. I haven't been asked this in a very long time. And it's an interesting... When we started out speaking about the uppercase and lowercase...
I was worried that by personally becoming more at peace and serene and well, that I wouldn't, the edge that I had, that the suffering, that the, you know, anger and the resentment and the betrayal, and I'm singing all of your pain, I'm singing for you, I'm going through it too, and I had this bad relationship, and, you know...
I picked all those relationships so I could be authentic when I sang about pain. But I'm just saying that what happens when you get out of... agony and you're not suffering anymore and you're not paying. What if you, what if it doesn't sound as authentic when you're up there trying to play?
And in fact, it was just as if the windshield was clearer and I could be more authentically me and feel even stronger. And I watched Stevie Ray Vaughan come out of rehab and he was worried about whether he'd be able to play the same, whether he'd have the same fire. Where, where's the source of that fire? Is it suffering and pain and self-doubt and all of those even existential questions?
And it turns out that the miracle that happens when you can be coming from a different place that's not inauthentic or phony or a crutch of becoming somebody else or putting in chemicals to try to be that other person. You can be, like the wizard actually came up with the solutions all by himself without being behind there. So that was what was beautiful.
And for me, singing my songs straight, because I didn't sing in my shows messed up. I kind of waited until after the show to get high. I wasn't that different. But being the person that I became when I was more authentically okay with the smaller case me only made the bigger case me stronger, I think, and more compelling and more passionate. And the suffering is right there.
I can remember what those pain—when I sing I Can't Make You Love Me, it's as if I just went through it.
It was, you know— That is what I—I just got goosebumps from that. That's what I think I want to know. I want to know that I had it all along.
That I don't have to put it on. It's not a role that I'm playing.
And so it's a beautiful thing to just feel so in your moment when I'm singing and playing music and it's working. It's like you when you're doing your thing and it's just perfect. It's the ultimate. It's the ultimate. Melding of what you were supposed to be doing on this earth this time. And I know what a gift it is. So I'm not going to cheapen it and mess it up. Right, right, right. That's good.
Absolutely. It is probably the longing for what I wish I could have and love or didn't get as a little kid. That's not grief, but it's longing and the loss of so many things. Things in my life that I didn't cherish at the time. Well, I just mean relationships that because I'm on the road all the time, I wish I had nurtured more. You know, that's something we all kick ourselves for.
But the loss of so many people has been when I go to sing now. I sing Dimming of the Day for my brother Steve. And I wrote this rocker song with my guitar player. I put the words to it called I'm Living for the Ones Who Didn't Make It. Yeah. You know, and that helps to get the rockers actually get the energy out as much as the sad songs. But Angel from Montgomery, I mean, wipes me out.
I mean, there's so many different songs that have ache in them.
And grief is a big part of that because it's been part of my life the last 20 years especially. Yeah, right. So it's cathartic that way, right, Bonnie? Absolutely. And I know the audience is feeling that. And when I sing just like that, I try not to make eye contact with the people in the audience, but the guys in the band will tell me there was people sobbing in the front, you know. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. You know, or I've gotten letters from women that have said, I've never seen my husband cry. We've been married 40 years. And when you sing, I turn and look at him and he was crying. I can't make you love me. Oh, yeah. So I know that I'm holding a really holy space on those songs like Angel from Montgomery. You know, the feisty ones, I'm holding that space.
And, you know, when you're asking about, do I write from women's point of view? You know, yeah, I've written a whole lot of songs. You know, Meet Me Halfway, Standing by the Same Old Love, Down to You. There's a whole bunch of tunes. Baby, Don't You Know I'm on Your Side that are about... Even though we were finished talking about it, I just went...
I'm standing up for these positions, these lyrics that I pick. I'm standing up for those people in the audience that need to say that to their partners. And a lot of them are women. So, yeah, I mean, I take back saying I don't think about gender. I think about me, but because I'm a woman, I'm speaking about meet me halfway.
Oh, thank you.
It feels that way when I'm singing it. Thank you for receiving it. It really means a lot.
Can you imagine how it feels for me to be off the road since October and have my first time being me again, be with you, receiving me with such an – I mean, I knew you were a fan, but not to the extent – of soul connection that we have and so many things line up, you know, and the important and all the important, the real things and the real things.
Showing 101–120 of 187 · page 6 of 10
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