geoff: And now to our weekend
spotlight with music legend
Bonnie Raitt.
The rock and roll hall of famer
is out with her 21st album,
called "Just like that".
It's her first new release in
more than six years, and has
landed at number one on six
different billboard charts since
its release.
I sat down with her before a
recent concert outside of
Washington, D.C.
I asked about her dynamic
50-year career and what's she's
learned about herself along the
way.
Bonnie rate, -- Raitt, thanks so
much for speaking with us.
I appreciate it.
Bonnie: Thank you for having me
here and coming all the way out
to a gig.
Geoff: What's what's it like to
be doing gigs again to be on the
road?
I mean, the last two years, you
and your band, you've been
sidelined because of the
pandemic.
You're back in front of live
audiences again.
Bonnie: We knew eventually, we
hoped that it would end up that
people would do the right thing
or we could get safe.
And they figured out a vaccine.
So the horizon was clearing.
And I just was frustrated, as we
all were, that we couldn't play
in front of live audiences.
But I did a lot of recording in
my home for democratic
candidates, various causes that
I support, and I was able to
participate, but just by myself,
which was nowhere near as much
fun as playing with the guys and
playing for an audience.
Geoff: Let's talk about this new
album.
It's doing incredibly well.
Congratulations.
Bonnie: Thank you, thank you.
Geoff: Most of the album are
covers.
How do you do that how do you
, take somebody else's
songwriting, their arrangement,
and then put your own spin on
it?
Bonnie: It's just something I've
always done.
I mean, I grew up loving Aretha
Franklin and Ray Charles and
Frank Sinatra and my dad, and
they always put their own spin
on the songs that they picked.
I love taking an older song like
del Shannon's "Runaway."
I did kind of a Al green thing
on it and I did a Jerry Rafferty
hit and turned it into a reggae
song, and I did it in excess
-- I did an inxs song and a
talking head song over the
years.
So it's really fun for me to a
lot of times are either by guys
and then I put them in my key
and I put some slide on it and
it's absolutely different.
Geoff: I want to talk about one
of the songs that you wrote
called down the hall.
♪♪
it was inspired by a true story
of a prisoner who was at a
prisoner hospice.
It's told through his point of
view.
What drew you to that story that
first appeared, I guess, in the
New York Times?
Bonnie: I read it in the new
York Times magazine, and I saw
his photo essay with it in the
article interviewing these guys.
And for no benefit, they don't
get their sentence shortened and
they don't make money.
They just, you know, been in
there for whatever they felt
about what they did in their
previous life, why they were
there.
I put myself in the place of a
guy that had compassion for the
guys.
At the end of their life, don't
have anybody to hang out with
him at the last moments.
And the fact that there's these
75 programs I found out all over
the country where prisoners can
volunteer and get trained to
help care and be their pal and
be there at the end.
And I was so incredibly moved.
I thought it would make a great
story.
Geoff: What is it about that
sort of the folk tradition of
writing a song in the third
person finding an entry point
, through somebody else's life?
Bonnie: I mean, great literature
is that way, too.
I love short stories and I love
D O. Henry when I was a kid I
, was very influenced by the
great early songs of Bob Dylan
and, you know, the whole
tradition of celtic ballads
telling, you know, from the
point of view of the person that
they're either about to murder
somebody or get murdered.
[Laughter]
There's just a whole crawling
inside somebody's persona.
John Prine was a real
inspiration for me, who we lost
last year from covid.
His story songs on his first
album, Donald and Lydia being
one, and then angel from
Montgomery, which is a
cornerstone of my sets since the
early seventies.
You know, he really showed me
what it is like, tht you don't
have to live that person's life
to write about it.
You just have to empathize.
Geoff: And "Livin' for the ones"
I gather, it was a song about
personal loss that you've
experienced.
When I first heard it, I
thought this is about the
, pandemic.
Bonnie: Well, it kind of is.
It's about everybody we lost.
♪♪
on the record, in the liner
notes, I started listing people
that had just been passed since
from the pandemic and then some
drug overdoses and cancer and
accidents and suicides.
And it was 14 people.
And I had to stop just because
we were going to run out of
artwork.
What I started doing when my
brother passed from brain cancer
in 2009 was I'm living every day
for the life he didn't get to
have.
And that is literally in the
lyrics of living for the ones,
it's how do you get through?
I'm living for the ones who
didn't make it.
I am going to face the sun and
look out the window and take a
walk and think, take a deep
breath.
And that's the life they didn't
get to have.
Geoff: What is your songwriting
process like?
Do you write on the piano?
Do you write on the guitar?
Bonnie: A little bit of both.
I wrote Nick of time on the
keyboard.
I took piano lessons when I was
a kid, but my mom was an
incredible piano player and my
dad musical director.
I gravitated to the guitar and
taught myself to play.
You know, for different types of
songs I play, I write on the
guitar and then kind of more
personal ballads I write on the
keyboards.
Geoff: So many of your songs,
especially on this latest album,
focus on grace and redemption.
How is that manifested in your
life, that that's something that
you're focused on?
Bonnie: Oh gosh.
It's hard to say why those
stories move me.
I hear, in 35 years recovery,
I've heard some incredible
stories in the meetings of
people who just lost everything
and never thought they could
reconcile with their family or
their parents or get a job or
their health.
People find a way to reach out
to each other and bring that
redemption and grace and
forgiveness.
And that's a story that is
universal and timeless, but
especially I had no idea the
pandemic was going to happen
when I wrote the songs, but it's
really resonating for me and the
audience.
I think that's why the album is
striking a chord.
Geoff: You also write a lot
about relationships.
My favorite song ever is I can't
make you love me.
Bonnie: Oh thank you.
Geoff: I think it's the best
song in the American songbook.
It's so evocative just from the
opening tap on the snare.
♪♪
>> ♪♪ Turned down the lights
turned down the bed ♪♪
geoff: How many seconds did it
take for you to hear that song
and say, I have to sing it, I
have to record it?
Geoff: Mike reed and Allan
Sherman wrote the tune, and I
think they wrote it as an
uptempo song.
And Mike just slowed it down
because I had already cut a song
of his on Nick of time and they
sent it to me.
And I was gobsmacked, as they
say in England.
I just I knew right away what a
gift that was.
They said, I think you could do
a good job with this.
So many other people have
covered it, but I'm really
grateful they sent it to me
first.
It moves me every night when I
sing it.
>> ♪♪ I can't make you love me if
you don't
you can't make your heart feel
something it won't ♪♪
geoff: I was going to ask you,
you get tired of singing some of
these songs that have been so
enduring?
Bonnie: No, I look out, I can
see people's faces.
I've said this before in
interviews, but I one of my most
touching parts of my life is
receiving letters from women who
have said, I've never seen my
husband in tears before.
And when you sing that song, I
looked over and for the first
time in our 30 year marriage,
you know, either angel from
Montgomery or I can't make you
love me.
It's something that's touching
us all.
It's just a heartbreaking song.
Geoff: It really is.
Bonnie: I love that, don't
patronize me.
>> ♪♪ Don't patronize me ♪♪
Bonnie: It is deep.
Geoff: You are in a really
interesting point in your career
in that you've been getting all
of these accolades, lifetime
achievement awards, and yet
you're still very much in your
prime.
Bonnie: Thank you!
Geoff: What does that feel like?
On the one hand, to be so
prolific and to still be
producing music and on the other
hand being heralded as the
legend that you are?
Bonnie: It was a big surprise to
be getting these awards now, but
I'm so grateful that people feel
that way about me.
And, you know, I was joking and
I said, what do you guys know?
Am I sick and I don't know it?
[Laughter]
I just think that, you know,
there's not that many people
that last 50 years in the
business.
And because of my activism and
my role model as a bandleader
and a lead guitar player and,
you know, I do a lot of
different kinds of music.
And I think it's wonderful to be
recognized for who I am in the
world, not just the way that I
sing.
I was surprised and pleasantly
surprised, as I am with the
reception to this record.
I just was putting out another
record and I didn't expect it to
get all this attention.
But it feels really -- on top of
coming back on the pandemic, it
feels fantastic.
Geoff: I can't imagine the
patience and the persistence
that is required to navigate 50
plus years in this business.
What have you learned about
yourself along the way?
Bonnie: I've learned that I
really love doing this and I
will make whatever sacrifice I
need to to make sure that my
voice is at its peak.
My health is good.
I keep my band and crew and
salaries and my causes
supported.
And I have a bigger cause than
just, you know, having a blast
out on stage.
You know there's a higher
, purpose.
And then there's the fun of
being able to play and mix all
these songs together.
I start with, I got to do it.
You know, I look at Willie and
B.B. King and Tony Bennett and
Mick jagger and Keith Richards
and all the other people that
have lasted forever.
And why would we retire?