I've been lucky enough that I can gather all sorts of experiences and find inspiration by traveling around and by spending time with people I admire.
— Bonnie Raitt
We did a two month tour with Taj Mahal that was really healing and cathartic and a good distraction after my brother passed away. Then I knew I wanted to take a year off, and it was really nice to have that chance to fall apart.
Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.
I've watched my peers get better with age and hoped that would happen with me.
I'm certain that it was an incredible gift for me to not only be friends with some of the greatest blues people who've ever lived, but to learn how they played, how they sang, how they lived their lives, ran their marriages, and talked to their kids.
I would rather feel things in extreme than not at all.
It is still a surprise when people tell me that I've had an influence on them, particularly when it's someone I really respect.
I like to think I get better with age, but maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Sometimes I'm more true when I'm up onstage than I'm able to be in my regular life. It's not as exciting to be at home, but I've got to learn how to make that work, and then I will be an ordinary woman.
I don't think there's ever been any music quite like what we came up with.
There were so many great music and political scenes going on in the late '60s in Cambridge. The ratio of guys to girls at Harvard was four to one, so all of those things were playing in my mind.
I just play the music that I love with musicians that I respect, and fortunately, I'm in a position where people are willing to play with me, and perhaps I can do something to help them.
I never saw music in terms of men and women or black and white. There was just cool and uncool.
There's nothing like living a long time to create a depth and soulfulness in your music.
The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.
I think my fans will follow me into our combined old age. Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time.
