Twenty years of near-misses, then a Grammy sweep

Bonnie Raitt was born in Burbank, California, in 1949, the daughter of a pianist and of John Raitt, a Broadway lead in Carousel and The Pajama Game. She tried piano but felt intimidated by her mother's skill, and chose the Stella guitar she received for Christmas in 1957, at eight. She never took lessons. Instead she modelled her style on the American folk revival of the 1950s.

From eight to fifteen she attended a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains, where counselors asked her to play for the campers. As a self-conscious teenager she retreated to her room with the guitar: “That was my saving grace.” At fourteen, the album Blues at Newport 63 sparked an interest in blues and slide guitar. In 1967 she enrolled at Radcliffe College, studying social relations and African studies.

Her self-titled debut came in 1971, followed by a series of critically acclaimed albums rooted in blues, country, folk and rock. She was also a frequent session player and collaborator, working with Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Jackson Browne, the Pointer Sisters, John Prine and Leon Russell. Commercial success, though, stayed limited for years.

That changed with her tenth album, Nick of Time, in 1989. It reached number one on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and has been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress. Luck of the Draw and Longing in Their Hearts then sold multiple millions, with “Something to Talk About” and the ballad “I Can't Make You Love Me”, featuring Bruce Hornsby on piano.

Raitt has since collected 13 competitive Grammys, a Lifetime Achievement award, a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2024. Her 2022 single “Just Like That” won Song of the Year. As the Australian country artist Graeme Connors put it, she bends a lyric and twists it right into your heart.