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I Think We Have Responsibilities To Be Active In The Things We Believe In, Regardless Of What Our Job Is. At Least In My Lifetime, There Has Been A Tremendous Combining Of Activism And Music, That Came Up In The Era Of Pete Seeger And The Weavers And Joan Baez And Bob Dylan And Peter Paul & Mary.

-Bonnie Raitt

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I Think We Have

Bonnie Raitt

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I Think We Have Responsibilities To Be Active In The Things We Believe In, Regardless Of What Our Job Is. At Least In My Lifetime, There Has Been A Tremendous Combining Of Activism And Music, That Came Up In The Era Of Pete Seeger And The Weavers And Joan Baez And Bob Dylan And Peter Paul & Mary.

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I Think My Fans Will Follow Me Into Our Combined Old Age. Real Musicians And Real Fans Stay Together For A Long, Long Time.

It's Very Personal In California To Live Within Hours, And Sometimes Just A Few Miles, Of Earthquake Faults When Nuclear Plants Were Being Built.

It's A Lot Harder To Be Clear-headed, But The Good Stuff Is When You Start Realizing Who's Really You.

I'm Glad I Get Singled Out For My Slide Guitar-playing, Which Isn't That Difficult To Do. I Didn't Take Guitar Lessons, But I Just Love The Way It Sounds, Almost Like The Human Voice.

I'm Glad People Think I'm A Badass. I'm A Rock And Roller, And I'm An R&b And A Blueswoman. I Don't Do Fairy Music, Although I Love Celtic Music And Sensitive Music. There's A Balance Between Ballads And Kick-ass Songs.

Life Gets Mighty Precious When There's Less Of It To Waste.

I Don't Go Into Any Album With A Concept Or A Deliberate Direction. It's More Letting The Best Music That Really Appeals To Me At The Time, The Best Songs That I Find After Many Months And Years Of Search And Sifting Through My Collection, And Asking Radio People And Journalists. It's Really An Ongoing Search That's As Much Daunting As It Is Somewhat Exciting.

I Think I'm A Living Embodiment Of, 'don't Try To Push Me Around Or Squash Me,' Whether Its How I Talk To A Record Label Or In My Relationships.

I Think People Must Wonder How A White Girl Like Me Became A Blues Guitarist. The Truth Is, I Never Intended To Do This For A Living.

Maybe The Idea Of Me Is More Powerful Than I Perceive Myself Being.

The Arts Can Be A Great Way To Bring People Together. I Don't Preach From The Stage. I Try To Stay Positive On Solutions.

Those Of Us Who Grew Up In The '50s And '60s, We Had The Dream That This Could Be Turned Around, And The Earth Could Be Back In Balance, And That We Could Level The Playing Field With Men And Women And Pay, And You Know, Minority Groups Having Equal Opportunity. We Just Magically Thought This Was All Going To Happen: We Were Going To Have Clean Food, And Organic This, And Conscious That, And It Just Didn't Happen.

Leading A Band And Producing Yourself And Picking Cool Tunes And Putting A Show Together Takes A Lot Of Thought, And A Certain Amount Of Courage. In My Early Twenties, If I Wasn't Getting Good Enough At It, Then People Would Not Come And See Me. Anybody Who Has Lasted This Long - I Hope We Get Better With Age.

I Didn't Have To Be A Pop Singer With A Certain Look. When I Started, There Was Really A Revolution In Natural Artists With Blues And Folk Artists Crossing Over; Otherwise, I Wouldn't Have Been Able To Get Started.

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.

Whatever Role We Were In Our Family Of Birth, We Take On This Persona And In Your 20s And 30s In Particular, You End Up Thinking That's You And That Isn't Necessarily You.

I Would Like To Inspire A Lot Of People To Be Active And Give Back.

I Learned A Lot About What It Was Like To Have To Use Different Hotels And Not Use The Bathrooms, Which Made Me More Determined To Be An Activist.

My Career Is Based On The Slow Build Of An Audience Based On Putting On A Good Show Live And Putting Out A Record Every Couple Of Years. I Was Already Doing Really Well In Terms Of My Goals, To Keep My Fans Coming Back.

Ac/dc's 'highway To Hell' Is The Greatest Meshing Of Vocal, Guitar, And Content I've Ever Heard. That's What I Aspire To.

Distribution Has Really Changed. You Can Make A Record With A Laptop In The Morning And Have It Up On Youtube In The Afternoon And Be A Star Overnight. The Talent On Youtube Is Incredible, And It Can Spread Like Wildfire. The Downside Is That It's Very Hard To Convince The Younger Generation That They Should Pay For Music.

I've Watched My Peers Get Better With Age And Hoped That Would Happen With Me.

I'm Not That Beautiful, And I Don't Want To Be A Pop Star.

I Have Been Really Heartened By How Much Coverage There Has Been About Inequality Of Pay Across The Board, Between The Entertainment Industry And Almost Every Industry Worldwide. And Just The Problem Of Young Women Not Getting An Education, Not Being Able To Have An Equal Position In The Cultures All Around The World.

There's So Many Amazing Articles Coming Out All The Time And Because Of The Internet Circulating Great Writing - Even If The Writers Don't Get Paid Enough Most Of The Time, Unfortunately - But There's Never Been A More Amazing Flow Of Information On All Of The Issues. I Would Love To See A Revival Of What We Had Against The War In The '60s - We Could Do Thes

I Don't Want To Discredit People's Opinions Of Me, But You Talk About The Violin Or The Cello Or Lead Guitar Where You Have To Learn Tons Of Chords, That's Much More Difficult.

The Fifth Member Of My Band Is My Non-profit Work.

My Love Was Bob Dylan, But As I Got Older I Realized A Good Ballad Was A Good Ballad.

It's Incredible To See Labor Unions And Environmentalists Getting Together To Stop The Corporate Mentality That Destroys Both Jobs And The Environment.

We Can Live In Fear Or Act Out Of Hope.

The Generation I Grew Up In Was The Beginning Of "stand Up For Yourself," Whether Being A Singer-songwriter Or A Feminist. In My College Years, The Feminist Movement Was Really Coming To Fore, So We Wouldn't Have Put Up With Guys Treating Us Less Than Equal.

The Great Thing About The Arts, And Especially Popular Music, Is That It Really Does Cut Across Genres And Races And Classes.

I'm Happy To Have Been A Positive Influence.

Positive Influence

I Would Rather Feel Things In Extreme Than Not At All.

Playing Guitar Was One Of My Childhood Hobbies, And I Had Played A Little At School And At Camp. My Parents Would Drag Me Out To Perform For My Family, Like All Parents Do, But It Was A Hobby - Nothing More.

I Hope I'm An Integrous Person Who Cleans Up Their Messes When I've Been A Jerk.

Some People Are Caricatures Of Themselves, And Some People Keep People Coming Back And Keep Themselves Growing. Otherwise, The Fans Would Get Bored.

One Of The Things That I'm Glad About, Though, Is That Regular People Can Relate To Me.

Pat Benatar Might Need A Rock Band, But I Can Just Sit With A Blues Guitar For An Hour And A Half And Do Folk Songs And Great Contemporary Ballads, And Not Many People Can Pull That Off.

Finding Great Songs Is The Hard Part Of My Gig - It's Not As Hard As Songwriting, That's Much More Daunting - But I Love Playing Other People's Music.

I Speak My Mind And Come From A Place Of Conscience, As Well As Have Fun As A Musician.

I Never Saw Music In Terms Of Men And Women Or Black And White. There Was Just Cool And Uncool.

Black And White

I Thought I Had To Live That Partying Lifestyle In Order To Be Authentic, But In Fact If You Keep It Up Too Long, All You're Going To Be Is Sloppy Or Dead.

I Think That We Have A Unique Opportunity As Performers And Artists To Be Kind Of The Town Criers And Also To Get More People To Listen, So That's A Blessing And A Responsibility That I Take Very Seriously.

The Fact Is That This Conversation Is Going On At Every Level At Every Age, We're All Going, "god, What A Jerk I've Been," "how Could I Have Married That Guy?" Or "how Could I Have Done This Or That?" With Time, This Is The Gift Of Being Older, That You Get To Look Back And Say, "it Wasn't All About Them."

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.

The Women's Movement Resurgence Of Standing Up For So Many Things That Were Kind Of Sleepy There For A Decade Or So, There's Been A Reawakening And I Think The Consciousness Movement In General Is Dovetailing With A Lot Of Recovery And Self-empowerment.

I Have A Really Full Life, Both Within Music And Outside It.

I Can't Make You Love Me, If You Don't.

I'm Honored When Young People Say They've Gone To School On Slide Guitar With My Records. But People Get Their Influence From My Live Shows And Records And Youtube, Not Me Personally. I Walk Around With A Hat On. People Don't Know It's Me.

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.

There's Nothing Like Living A Long Time To Create A Depth And Soulfulness In Your Music.

Solar Power Is The Last Energy Resource That Isn't Owned Yet - Nobody Taxes The Sun Yet.

There Are A Lot Of People That Never Get Their Stories Told.

In 1967 I Entered Harvard As A Freshman, Confident - In The Way That Only 17-year-olds Are - That I Could Change The World. My Major Was African Studies, And My Plan Was To Travel To Tanzania, Where President Julius Nyerere Was Creating A Government Based On Democracy And Socialism.

With Slide Guitar, You're Just Hanging This Piece Of Glass On Your Hand. It's A Really Beautiful Instrument In That It's So Responsive, You're Just Slipping Your Hand Back And Forth.

I Made My First Album, And I Guess It Wasn't A Fluke, Because Now I'm On My 16th.

Jazz And Blues Fests Are Everywhere Now, And Americana Is Going Strong On College Radio. What I'm Hearing Is An Appreciation Of Real Music.

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.

I'll Close My Eyes, So I Won't See, All Of The Love That You Don't Feel For Me.

I Learned By Experience That You Can Change Your Circumstance. It's As Simple As The Serenity Prayer; It's A Very, Very Real Thing.

I Don't Need Any Drug To Show Me Heaven And I Sure Know How To Spend Plenty Of Time Cleaning Hell But I'm Missin' That Feeling Of Falling.

People Come Up To Me All The Time Who Saw Dad In 'oklahoma!' Or 'pajama Game,' And They Say They'll Never Forget It.

You Don't Have To Look A Certain Way To Have A Hit Record.

I'm Proud Of The Way I Rearrange And Put Things Together, Like A Chef Who Makes A Great Meal, Or A Filmmaker Who Puts Together A Story - It's Casting, Editing, Cinematography.

We Can Choose, You Know, We Ain't No Amoeba.

I Can't Make You Love Me If You Don't, You Can't Make Your Heart Feel Something It Won't.

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 Finally Learned To Accept That I Can't Make Radio Play Blues Any More Than I Could Get Reagan Out Of The White House.

I'm Sure I Would Have Been Considered A More Significant Artist If I Was A Singer-songwriter. It's Just Not The Way I Roll. I Love Being A Curator And A Musicologist. People Write Me Letters And Thank Me For Turning Them On To Fred Mcdowell And Sippie Wallace, And That's Partly My Job This Time Around.

There Would Be No Rock And Roll Or Rhythm And Blues Without Leo Fenders' Contribution ... The Tone Is Everything

Quakers Are Known For Wanting To Give Back. Ban The Bomb And The Civil Rights Movement And The Native American Struggle For Justice - Those Things Were Very, Very Front-burner In My Childhood, As Were The Ideas Of Working For Peace And If You Have More Than You Need, Then You Share It With People Who Don't.

Native American

There's Lots Of Flaws And Frailties And Cracks In The Armor, And Nobody Wants To Put Themselves Out There As Some Kind Of Joan Of Arc Because None Of Us Can Live Up To That, But I'm Grateful To Be A Role Model And Be Respected Because I Have A Whole Slew Of People, Men And Women, That I Feel The Same Way About.

I'm One Of Those People Who Just Doesn't Plan My Personal Life. I Plan My Professional Life.

Professional Life

You Create The Happiness And The Balance That You Have, And Your Own Power. This Is One Thing That I Know To Be True.

Im Happy To Say That At 62, I Think Ive Reached That Point Where Stuff Doesnt Bother Me As Much, And My Gratitude Level Has Gone Way Up, Especially Having Gone Through The Loss That Ive Had, And Losing So Many Of The Great Artists That I Was Close To. They Taught Me How To See It With A Grain Of Salt And A Lot Of Humor And Perspective.

In Blues, Classical And Jazz, You Get More Revered With Age.

I Don't Want To Sound Like A Self-help Book, But It Really Has Been Transformative For Me To Take A Look At My Relationships In A New Way And See My Part In Them. Everybody's Going Through That.

I Would Love To See A Revival Of What We Had Against The War In The '60s - We Could Do These Teach-ins On The Internet, Live And Split Screen, And Have Real In-depth Debate Between People That Are On The "other" Side Of Issues - Nuclear, Gun Control, Whatever. We Could Really Be Having A Much More Democratically Involved And Exciting Debate With People Emailing Their Questions And Having A Virtual Town Meeting.

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.

Those Of Us With A Microphone Who Are Blessed With The Gift Of Being In The Public Eye Have A Special Opportunity To Give Voice To All Those Groups Whose Activism Is Sometimes Ignored Or Put On The Back Pages With The The Dumbing Down Of Television And The Tabloidization Of Journalism. As Ralph Nader Called It, "sound Barks," Not Even Sound Bites.

I Just Want To Be As Good A Person As I Can Be.

I'm In A Relationship, And I've Been In One In A While, But All The People I've Been With At Various Points - And I've Had Sequentially Monogamous Relationships My Whole Life - Were All The Right People At The Right Time.

There Are So Many People Out There Working With Great Grassroots And Global And National Organizations That Are Unsung Heroes To Me.

Thank God For Occupy And Thank God For 'the Daily Show,' Colbert And The Rising Up That's Going On Around The World.

Between The Redwoods, Growing Up And Enjoying Nature, Camping On Almost Every Vacation, And Getting To Go To Summer Camp In The Adirondacks, It Was Really Very Apparent To Me That We Had To Preserve What We Had On The Earth.

I Don't Know That I'm Unique In That People Relate To My Music, But I Would Hope People Would Say That I'm Honest And That I Do The Best Work I Can Possibly Do Instead Of Coasting.

The Connection Between Toxicity And Cancer And Safe Air And Water And Food, All Of That Was Important All Along, As Were Women's And Human Rights Issues, But The Nuke Issue And The Safe Energy Movement Became Really Important To Me In The Mid-'70s.

I Was Raised With The Blessing Of Being Involved With Peace And Social Justice, And The Environmental Movement. I Have My Parents To Thank For That.

I Think We Have Responsibilities To Be Active In The Things We Believe In, Regardless Of What Our Job Is. At Least In My Lifetime, There Has Been A Tremendous Combining Of Activism And Music, That Came Up In The Era Of Pete Seeger And The Weavers And Joan Baez And Bob Dylan And Peter Paul & Mary.

When They Were Putting Oil Rigs Up And Down The California Coast, The Whole Issue Of Safe Energy And The Addiction To Fossil Fuels Really Came Into Focus.

California Coast

The One Thing I Know Is That If You're Not Paying Attention, It Will Come Back To Bite You.

There's Something About The Strat's Shape That Is At Once Masculine And Feminine

Masculine And Feminine

Nobody Went Out To Pasture, And A Lot Of People Are Doing Their Best Work. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, And Sting Are At The Top Of Their Game. I Mean, Tony Bennett Is The Coolest Guy I Ever Met! We Have To Figure Out How To Break Out Of This Age Ghetto.

The Anti-nuke Movement Has Important And Far-reaching Implications For Grassroots Organizing. It Can Unite Kids And Musicians, Everybody, Whether They're Leftist Or Rightist, Or Radical, Or Republican, Because Energy Is Energy. But In Fact, It Is A Real Political Struggle - It Shows People That It's Big Business Against The People.

I Was Offered To Take Over For Reba In 'annie Get Your Gun,' But It Wasn't Where I Wanted To Be. I Think My Fans Would Be Upset If I Confined My Shows To One City For A Long Period Of Time.

Since I Was 20 Years Old, I've Been A Kind Of Corporation. I'd Wake Up In The Morning And My Job Was To Be 'bonnie Raitt' In Capital Letters.

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'm The Same On Stage As I Am Off Stage. A Lot Of People Who I Admire - Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne - Are Not That Different Either. You Hope That If You Met Them That They'd Be As Nice And Well-rounded As They Appear.

The Challenge Of Course Is In Sobriety And That's Been The Blessing, To Realize, To Take Accountability For The Ways That Your Own Thinking Impacts Your Happiness, And Your Serenity, And Your Ability To Be A Productive And A Loving, Giving Member Of Your Family And Society.

How I Measure Success Is Getting To Make Another Record And Being Able To The Come Back To The Same Town And Play Again Cause You Sold Out The Last Time.

I Like To Think I Get Better With Age, But Maybe Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder.

When It's A Funky Uptempo Song, You're Basically Having The Same Kind Of Release You Would Have When You Have Sex, Only It Lasts Longer. Whether You're Playing It On The Guitar Or On The Dance Floor, You're In That Moment.

Religion Is For People Who Are Scared To Go To Hell. Spirituality Is For People Who Have Already Been There.

Really Important Issues Are Getting Lost, So I Can Say I'm Glad To Be A Citizen Of The Planet And Do My Part.

A Lot Of Political Music To Me Can Be Rather Pedantic And Corny, And When It's Done Right - Like Bruce Springsteen Or Jackson Browne Or Great Satire From Randy Newman, There's Nothing Better.

I Don't Know If I'm A Heroine; I'm Just Somebody That Can Cheer The Troops By Singing To Folks, And Have Receptions After The Show, And Tithe A Dollar Of Every Ticket Sale For All Kinds Of Different Great Charities And Social Action Groups.

Elvis Might Have Compromised His Musical Style A Bit Towards The End, But That Doesn't Mean That Artists From The Rock N' Roll/folk-roots Culture - Of Which He Was Not Really A Part - Shouldn't Get Better As They Get Older, Like The Great Jazz Or Blues Artists.

I Grew Up In Los Angeles In A Quaker Family, And For Me Being Quaker Was A Political Calling Rather Than A Religious One.

Part Of The Reason I Had Such A Drive To Be An Activist, And Support Other Activists, Is Because I Was Raised Quaker And My Parents Kept Us Very Much Informed And Involved As Kids In Civil Rights And The Conservation Movement.

One Of The Biggest Obstacles I've Overcome In My Life Was Thinking I Didn't Deserve To Be Successful. Artistically I'm Not As Much Of A Heavyweight As Someone Like Paul Simon Or Joni Mitchell, Because I'm Not A Creator Of Original Music, And I Worried About That For Years.

How Unthinkable That, In A Country Of Such Bursting Plenty, So Many People Are Facing Ongoing Hunger And Poverty. If We Are Truly Each Other's Keepers, Let's Support School Lunches, Food Stamps, Neighborhood Garden Projects, And So Many Other Wonderful Programs Working To Put An End To This Cruel And Needless Blight Once And For All.

With The New Ways Of Getting Music Out, You Don't Need A Label If You're A Legacy Artist.

It's Always Enjoyable To Listen To A Friend's Work, But If It Doesn't Resonate With You, Then You Can Just Appreciate It And It Inspires You In Its Own Way.

Ugly Ducklings Don't Turn Into Swans And Glide Off Down The Lake. Whether Your Sunglasses Are On Or Off, You Only See The World You Make.

I Don't Think There's Ever Been Any Music Quite Like What We Came Up With.

Advertising Agencies

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.

It's So Thrilling. And Not Just The Music. The Internet Is Changing The Future Of Fund-raising. I'm Thrilled By The Potential.

You Know, A Lot Of People Feel That Sobriety Is About Just Stopping Using Whatever It Was That You Appeared To Be Addicted To, But It Really Has To Do With A Way Of Looking At Your Life And Taking Accountability.

Life Is Simple Yet Complex, In The Complexity We Realize Everything Is Simple For We Create Our Own Happiness, Our Own Sadness & Our Own Destiny By Not Making A Choice You Have Chosen So Face Life With Courage And Faith In Yourself.

When You Love A Song So Much You Have To Sing, You Know How You Feel - It Releases Something In You That Resonates As True, Whether It's James Brown Or Joni Mitchell.

'i Will Not Be Broken' Has Really Become Very Healing For Me. Any Time You Go Through A Cataclysmic Event... It's Going To Inform The Richness That You Sing From... The Experiences Of Life Make All Your Emotions, I Think, Deeper.

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