Born on this day in Burbank, California, blues legend Bonnie Lynn Raitt (1949-) grew up surrounded by song. Her father, Broadway star John Raitt of Oklahoma! and Carousel, filled their home with melody and stage light. At eight, she fell in love with folk music at summer camp and received her first guitar for Christmas. Thirteen years later, she signed her first recording contract with Warner Brothers.

“No one was more surprised than I to get a record contract at 21,” she laughed. “Suddenly my hobby was my career.”

With her slide guitar, smoky tone, and passion for the blues, Raitt blended rock, country, and soul into something unmistakably her own. After years of acclaim but little commercial success, she earned four Grammy Awards for her 1989 breakthrough Nick of Time, a triumph of honesty and heart.

“It means so much for the kind of music that we do,” she said. “It means those of us who play rhythm and blues are going to get a chance again.”

A lifelong collaborator, Raitt played on hundreds of albums, including The Healer with her mentor John Lee Hooker. “I'm a vehicle for the old songs people ought to know or the new ones that haven't had a fair hearing,” she explained.

In 1996, she partnered with Fender to create her Signature Stratocaster, the first ever designed for a woman. Profits from the guitar fund lessons for girls across America through the Boys & Girls Clubs — a true act of giving back.

Through her music, Bonnie Raitt shows us to stay true to our feelings. Her honesty invites us to bend with the blues and let our voices carry love.