Raitt: I'm badder than ever before

The musician has weathered some tough times, but she's persevering.
By JANE GANAHL
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
A hot breeze whooshes through the entrance of a Sausalito, Calif., waterfront restaurant and in walks a figure silhouetted by the afternoon sun. With a mane of red hair and a yoga-fit form doing a tomboyish strut, it could only be Bonnie Raitt. All she's lacking is a guitar to make the picture complete.
The owner, of course, recognizes the nine-time Grammy winner and asks if we'd like a bottle of champagne. "What are we celebrating?" she asks cheerfully, before demurring and asking for a very un-rock starlike iced tea with lemonade. "Woo-hoo -- party!" she laughs.
The truth is, Raitt is a party unto herself -- bubbling with wit and energy and good humor despite personal tragedies that have taken a toll in recent years.
And she's celebrating a busy schedule that includes the release of her 18th rock 'n' roll album, "Souls Alike," and a tour.
Rather than dreading the oft-described rigors of the road, Raitt, 55, welcomes the chance to get back onstage.
"Are you kidding? It's my job!" she laughs in a voice as sweetly hoarse as Peppermint Patty's. "And I love it. When you have an opening night in a new town and you get to show a whole new crowd that you're even badder than you were before, it's exciting. And it makes it worth putting up with the drawbacks of changing cities five days a week."
Meeting and greeting
She pauses and looks out at the water thoughtfully. "I have these meet-and-greets backstage for nonprofits. And I meet these people, and they tell me stories: Three generations say they've been coming to see me, and the 20-year-old says, 'You're one of the only people my mother and I agree on.' Or maybe a young woman tells me, 'I'm an activist because of you,' or a guitar player. People ask, 'Doesn't it tire you to do that after shows?' But in fact it energizes you on some level. I get great nourishment from the fans who bother to take the time to communicate with me."
One tour chore to be dealt with is finding bio-diesel tour buses -- something the devoted environmentalist demands. It's just one of many causes Raitt is committed to. "There's a family of people who get together to do these benefits. We started with offshore drilling off Santa Barbara, with me and Jackson [Browne], Native American issues, toxics, trees, farm workers' clinics, women's issues. Going back to the '70s."
It's only natural that the die-hard Democrat would eventually migrate north from Los Angeles. Raitt now splits her time between the Hollywood home she's had since 1973 and the Mill Valley, Calif., home she adopted a decade and a half ago.
"When I got sober, I got a place up here," she says, "so I could wake up in the morning and all I'd have to do to be inspired was look outside."
Down times
But in recent years Raitt has spent a lot of time at bedsides. In 2001, her older brother became ill with brain cancer, which is in remission. Then her mother, Marge Goddard, died at 84 from complications from Alzheimer's. That was followed seven months later by the death of her father, the great Broadway star John Raitt, at age 88 earlier this year.
"It's normal, at my age, for people to lose their parents. But it's incredible when they go so close to each other. You wake up every day and wonder how they are, if they're suffering ... " she drifts off, and collects herself. "The amazing thing is that it brings you right into the moment. You just have to think, 'This morning I'm doing everything I can,' and try not to get too bummed out."
Not surprisingly, Raitt chose "I Will Not Be Broken" -- a classic R & amp;B anthem -- to be the first single off "Souls Alike."
"It's for anyone who wants to stand up and not be pushed around anymore," she says.
Cracking radio
The album will no doubt do boffo sales, thanks to her legions of fans around the country. Radio, though, is a much tougher nut to crack these days for an artist in her 50s.
"Some radio stations are after a younger image," she says, frowning. "It's good to be on Capitol because they can distribute the heck out of me. But thank God for satellite radio and the Internet -- otherwise people in the middle of the country wouldn't know I have a record out."
On the subject of women aging in showbiz, Raitt asks indignantly: "Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde ... Who decides that you get less interesting as you get older?"
She says women in music do have an easier time than film actresses, "up to a point. Everything is commercially motivated. A lot of women I know are getting sacked from record companies because you don't have to pay younger people as much. Relative to Europe, where a woman at 50 is just getting good, women in this country are not appreciated when they age. But if you're in the jazz or roots music, like I am, you can age more gracefully than if you're a sex symbol or a pop artist."
On that note, she picks up to go. Outside in the parking lot, her flaming hair catching the sun, she is called out to by a group of construction workers.
"Hey, keep making your music!" one yells.
"Thanks!" she laughs. "I plan to!"