Posted on: Monday, June 25, 2001

Bonnie Raitt performs at San Quentin

By Kim Curtis
Associated Press

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — Bonnie Raitt gave a free two-hour concert Saturday at San Quentin State Prison, describing her struggles with drugs and alcohol in hopes of helping inmates who are trying to stay sober.

About 2,000 men dressed in prison-issued blue denim gathered in the prison's yard to hear Raitt.

"We're all here together," Raitt said in an interview before the show. "We're all just one infraction away from being in prison ourselves. I could've been in here in a minute. I could've been too angry and if I had a gun in my hand instead of a telephone or a guitar, I'd be right in here."

Raitt has struggled for years with what she called "the blues disease," drug and alcohol addiction. She says she's been sober for 14 years.

"The reason I speak out about it is because I was a mess," she said. "If I can give some help to somebody who's struggling, whether it's with alcohol or heartbreak — music can heal."

Rico Remeidio, 39, has been incarcerated for 20 years for second-degree murder. He's been at San Quentin for a decade and Raitt reminded him of the outside world and people who care.

"They represent people outside. They're society's eyes for us," he said.

Brad Bennetto, 53, a recovering heroin addict serving a life sentence for kidnapping and robbery, has been in prison since 1979.

"It's very easy to fall off the wagon in here," he said. "I don't have the pressure of paying bills, but I have other pressures."

He says it's unlikely he will leave prison, but most of the inmates at San Quentin who attended the concert will eventually be released. Interaction with the outside helps inmates feel human again, he said.

"We're still part of society," he said. "Maybe we're the undesirable part, but you're going to have to deal with us eventually."

Raitt said she's volunteered for Bread and Roses, a California-based nonprofit group that brings the arts to institutions like prisons, since its founding in 1974 by Mimi Farina, sister of Joan Baez.

Saturday was Raitt's first concert inside prison walls, she said.

"This is a community that deserves to have music," she said. "I think spiritually and personally it has a transformative effect on both the artist and the people that we're playing for. It just kind of ups the humanity. ... It's a soul-to-soul connection."

It was the first Bread and Roses-sponsored performance at San Quentin since Santana performed in 1988.

Warden Jeanne Woodford said she hopes it's not the last.

"The idea isn't really to entertain, although entertainment is a part of it," she said. "It really is to send a message — that clean and sober is the way to go. I think we have the right people here to deliver that message, people that these guys will listen to."

Raitt said she was grateful for the chance to give something back.

"Music and talking about my sobriety are the same expression of who I am," she said. "I'm just struggling every day to get it right."