Bonnie Raitt Explains The Gap Between ‘Slipstream’ And ‘Souls Alike’

It’s been quite a long time since we heard anything new from Bonnie Raitt, but that’s set to change today with the release of Slipstream, the Grammy award winner’s first studio album in about seven years and her 19th album overall.

Considering that Raitt’s career spans 4 decades, the 7-year gap between 2005’s Souls Alike doesn’t sound all that strange–still, seven years is a long time to take a break from anything. The motivation to get back to work on her music career, she said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, came from being an audience member.

“I got to go to gigs — just be a fan, no pressure whatsoever,” Raitt, 62, said in the interview. “I got to see a lot of jazz, African world music and the symphony, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass [Festival in San Francisco] — I got to go two years in a row. That’ll fire you up to get back into music.”

Seeing other bands perform over several years was enough to fire Bonnie up to get to work on a project of her own, but she didn’t rush into it–instead, she waited until she felt she was ready. Really ready, she says. “I waited until I was really ready, and then those Joe Henry sessions, it was like having my blood changed,” she said. “You can be off only so long when you have this in your blood.”

In addition to releasing a new album after seven long years, Raitt also released a new music video for Right Down The Line, the first music video to be released in an even longer 14 years. If you’d like to hear Raitt perform Right Down The Line, check out the video below.

Bonnie Raitt’s Slipstream album is available in stores now.