Mark Bego - Bonnie Raitt: Still in the Nick of Time

Books by MARK BEGO

The Captain & Tennille (1977)

Barry Manilow (1977)

The Doobie Brothers (1980)

Michael! [Jackson] (1984)

On the Road with Michael! [Jackson] (1984)

Madonna! (1985)

Rock Hudson: Public & Private (1986)

Sade! (1986)

Julian Lennon! (1986)

The Best of Modern Screen (1986)

Whitney! [Houston] (1986)

Cher! (1986)

Bette Midler: Outrageously Divine (1987)

The Linda Gray Story (1988)

TV Rock (1988)

Between the Lines [with Debbie Gibson] (1990)

Linda Ronstadt: Its So Easy (1990)

Ice Ice Ice: The Extraordinary Vanilla Ice Story (1991)

One Is the Loneliest Number [with Jimmy Greenspoon of Three Dog Night] (1991)

Im a Believer: My Life of Music, Monkees and Madness [with Micky Dolenz of the Monkees] (1993)

Country Hunks (1994)

Country Gals (1994)

Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva [with Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas] (1994)

I Fall to Pieces: The Music & the Life of Patsy Cline (1995)

Rock & Roll Almanac (1996)

Alan Jackson: Gone Country (1996)

Raised on Rock: The Autobiography of Elvis Presleys Step Brother [with David Stanley] (1996)

George Strait: The Story of Countrys Living Legend (1997)

Leonardo DiCaprio: Romantic Hero (1998)

LeAnn Rimes (1998)

Jewel (1998)

Matt Damon: Chasing a Dream (1998)

Will Smith: The Freshest Prince (1998)

Vince Gill (2000)

Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul (2001)

The Marx Brothers (2001)

Madonna: Blonde Ambition (2001)

Cher: If You Believe (2001)

Bette Midler: Still Divine (2002)

Tina Turner (forthcoming)

Bonnie Raitt

MARK BEGO

Frontispiece: When Bonnie Raitt began her singing career, she was determined to become a blues singer like Muddy Waters and Sippie Wallace (Warner Brothers Records/MJB Archives).

First Cooper Square Press edition 2003

This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of Bonnie Raitt is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York in 1995, with the addition of a new chapter, and updated acknowledgments, discography, Grammy Award information, album sales, and source notes. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author.

Copyright 1995 by Mark Bego

Updated edition copyright 2003 by Mark Bego

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Cooper Square Press

A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

200 Park Avenue South, Suite 1109

New York, New York 10003-1503

www.coopersquarepress.com

Distributed by National Book Network

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bego, Mark.

Bonnie Raitt : still in the nick of time / Mark Bego.1st Cooper Square Press ed.

p. cm.

Originally published: Bonnie Raitt : just in the nick of time. Secaucus, N.J. : Carol Pub. Group, 1995.

Unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York in 1995, with the addition of a new chapter, and updated acknowledgments, discography, Grammy Award information, album sales, and source notesT.p. verso.

Includes bibliogaphical references (p. ) and index.

Discography: p.

ISBN: 978-0-8154-1248-9

1. Raitt, Bonnie. 2. SingersUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

ML420.R278 B66 2003

782.42164092dc21

2002014217

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

To Melissa Hill Porter:

In the summer of 1973, when I was a short order cook at Howard Johnsons and you were the ice-cream-counter girl, you said to me, Youve got to hear this new albumGive It Up by Bonnie Raitt. Thanx...

Gotcha!!!

The author would like to thank the following people for their help and assistance: David Andrew, Anne Bego, Peter Beudert, Hillel Black, Trippy Cunningham, Hector De Jean, Brad DeMeulenaere, Kara DeMeulenaere, Jim Depogny, Michael Dorr, Gino Falzarano, Peter Ferren, David Goldman, Sasha Goodman, Victoria Green Elliott, Jimmy Greenspoon, Chris Joaquim, Peggy Lee, Virginia Lohle of Star File, Sindi Markoff, Sue McDonald, Michael Messina, Debra Mitchell, Barbra Nagel, Ross Plotkin, Dean Porter, Kim Reidman, Martha Reeves, Ken Reynolds, Ellen Rubin, Barbara Shelley, Mark Spector, and Mary Wilson.

Bonnie Raitt is the kind of person who looks you squarely in the eyes when she talks to you. She doesnt engage in idle cocktail party chat. If you are having a conversation with her, you have her undivided attention. I know this firsthand. When she is finished speaking to you, the impression that she leaves you with is indelible.

I first met her in January 1992 at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Palace Theater to raise money for a songwriter who had suffered a stroke and was without medical insurance. One of the star performers, Mary Wilson, introduced me to Bonnie backstage.

The next time I saw Bonnie was February 25, 1993, at the preawards cocktail party for the fourth annual Rhythm and Blues Foundations Pioneer Awards on the mezzanine of the same theater. I had just begun preliminary work on the autobiography of Martha Reeves, Dancing in the Street, and I was attending the awards ceremony to see Martha Reeves and the Vandellas accept their Pioneer Awards.

While Martha talked with friends, I spotted Bonnie standing only a few feet away from me. Her red hair stood out in the crowd, and for a rare moment she was not engaged in a conversation. I seized the opportunity and walked up to reintroduce myself.

Im Mark Bego, and I met you briefly last January with Mary Wilson and Rita Coolidge at the fund-raising benefit for songwriter William Smitty Smith.

Oh yes, good to see you, she said, looking me straight in the eye.

Im the author of several books on rock and roll, and currently Im working on Martha Reeves autobiography.

Thats wonderful! Congratulations! Bonnie said with genuine enthusiasm.

Several publishers have been asking me what the possibilities were of you writing your autobiography. Id love to help you do that.

Never once breaking her fixed gaze, she replied, Well, youll have to get in line. I have at least five different writer friends of mine bugging me to do just that. However, Im not ready to do one yet. Writing my autobiography is still several years off.

Although her statement was firm, I asked, Can I at least give you my business card in case you change your mind?