Bonnie Raitt ~ Big Sis Media

Notable Community Contributions

THE

GUITAR FOUNDATION

Bonnie's latest project involves joining forces with Fender and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to give kids (and especially young women) access to musical instruments and education. Bonnie spearheaded the creation of this program, and will be assigning profits from her Fender Signature Model Stratocaster to the cause. And, as always, she is eager to share the details of her latest charitable enterprise.

FENDER FRONTLINE: What prompted you to create this program?

BONNIE RAITT: Fender approached me with the idea of doing a signature model. I was interested in trying to encourage other women - and young women - to start playing electric guitar. I said that if Fender was willing to work with me and develop a program to provide guitars to girls that maybe don't have access to them, and to encourage more women to play guitar, that I would be happy to lend my name to a model.

FF: Obviously your involvement in the program will have an impact. Are there any women electric guitar players who inspired or influenced you?

BR: There have always been a lot of women musicians, though keyboard and acoustic guitar were more associated with the women singers and writers that I grew up liking. Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and Judy Collins were heroes of mine, and Aretha Franklin on the piano was untouchable. The new alternative rock scene has a tremendous number of great and talented guitarists: L7 and Liz Phair and PJ Harvey. And there have always been bands like Vixen and Fanny, the Bangles and the Go Go's; all of them had good lead guitar players that were women. I think that Michael Jackson's lead guitar player for a long time was a woman. (Editor's note: Jennifer Batten toured with Michael for years; last out on the road with Jackson was Becky Barksdale.) But there still are not as many female electric guitar players as I would have expected. As somebody that plays both acoustic and electric guitars, I was hoping that I could use some of my experience to encourage other women to get more active.

FF: Why did you choose the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to implement the program?

BR: They're really the ones that are the most well established, the most suitably placed in each neighborhood and the most well respected.

FF: And the idea of course is to promote guitar lessons and introduce the guitar to young women in the neighborhoods.

BR: Eventually we would like to involve keyboard dealers and different audio equipment dealers as well. Possibly they could have contests where people send in demo tapes, and then whoever wins as the best songwriter might get a publishing deal, record deal or a free guitar. The idea is to offer some sort of incentive, the same way that an essay contest encourages people to write. Because I am a musician I'd like to encourage people who can't afford guitars and girls who wouldn't even think about playing a guitar. Hopefully the dealers will do some outreaching into the community and let people know that this program is available, because we all know that art and music in schools have been cut way back. There are currently inexpensive musical instruments with keyboard, drum machines and bass built in, so that any kid on the street could create their own demo, if they just had access to these instruments. My hope is that there will be community centers where kids can sign up for the use of these instruments for a few hours every week and go in and practice and jam. There could be a room with a drumkit and bass and guitar and keyboards where people can go play around with music. I had a guitar as a kid because my parents and grandparents gave me one, and I was able to be in a school orchestra and take piano lessons. But these days I don't think it's an option for kids and certainly not in the inner city. We hope to offer access to music for people that otherwise wouldn't have access to it.

FF: Is there any advice you can give young people - especially women?

BR: If you fall in love with music and you want to be a musician, learn your instrument. I think because there are not as many women that play instruments, that it will set you apart. If you want to break through the crowd, I would suggest getting really good on the guitar. If you're talented enough, eventually somebody will hear you. I'm not that different of a singer or songwriter than hundreds of other women, but certainly what set me apart was my ability to play.

FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION 7975 North Hayden Road, Suite C-100 Scottsdale, Arizona 85258 Telephone: (480) 596-9690 Fax: (480) 596-1384 www.fender.com