Bonnie Lynn Raitt was born on the 8th November 1949, in Burbank, California, USA and is a singer, songwriter, musician as well as an activist, but probably best known for her Grammy Award-winning albums “Nick of Time” (1990), “Longing in Their Heart” (1995) and “Slipstream” (2013), as well as for her hit singles such as “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, “Something to Talk About” and “Love Sneakin’ Up on You”. On Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list, Bonnie Raitt was ranked No. 50.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this veteran performer has accumulated so far? How rich Bonnie Raitt is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total amount of Bonnie Raitt’s net worth, as of early 2017, is over $12 million, acquired through her career in the music industry which has been active since the early 1970s, so currently spanning well over four decades.
Bonnie Raitt Net Worth $12 million
Bonnie was born to a pianist Marjorie Haydock, and a Broadway star, John Raitt and is of American and Scottish descent. Her interest in music dates back to the age of eight, when she began playing guitar at the Camp Regis Applejack children’s summer camp. She attended Oakwood Friends School and later enrolled at Radcliffe College from which she graduated majoring in African studies as well as social relations.
In 1970, while performing as an opening for Mississippi Fred McDowell at Manhattan’s The Gaslight Cafe, Bonnie caught the eye and ear of a Newsweek magazine reporter, who spread the word about her music skills. Soon after, she was approached by several major record labels, and in 1971 Warner Bros released her eponymous debut album – “Bonnie Raitt”. The album was positively received by the critics and audiences, and became a real commercial success which provided the basis for Bonnie Raitt’s net worth.
Her second and third studio albums, “Give it Up” and “Takin’ My Time”, released in 1972 and 1973, although critically acclaimed did not match the same commercial success. However, these ventures still increased her popularity, and in 1977 the real career breakthrough occurred when she released her “Sweet Forgiveness” studio album, featuring the hit single “Runaway”. Bonnie released three more albums through the 1980s, but the real commercial success came in 1989 when “Nick of Time” was released. This album was rewarded with a prestigious Grammy Award, and also appeared in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, at No. 230. It is certain that all these accomplishments helped Bonnie Raitt to dramatically expand the size of her wealth.
Bonnie has since released seven more studio albums, 17 in total, of which the two most recent are Grammy Award-winning “Slipstream” released in 2012, and “Dig in Deep” which hit the charts in 2016. During her career, Bonnie has performed in over 170 shows all over the world, including Australia, Europe, New Zealand and even Singapore. She has left a deep trace in the history of music – as an 11-times Grammy winning musician as well as for her renowned bottleneck style guitar playing, and her huge contribution to rhythm and blues, country, as well as rock – in 2000, she was inducted into the Rock ‘n’Roll Hall of Fame. Apart from all these, Bonnie is the first woman in the history of the music industry to have her own signature guitar – Fender Bonnie Raitt Signature Series Stratocaster. Doubtlessly, all these achievements have helped Bonnie Raitt to gain huge, international popularity, as well as to massively boost her overall net worth.
When it comes to her personal life, Bonnie Raitt was married to actor Meichael O’Keef between 1991 and 1999. Throughout the 1980s she suffered from drug addiction and alcohol abuse, but since 1987 she has been clean.
Apart from her music career, Bonnie is also widely known for her political activism – she is a co-founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy, an activist group united against usage of nuclear energy and is a member of other anti-nuclear movements including Alliance for Survival and Abalone Alliance.
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