RAITT SINGS FOR INMATES AND TALKS OF OWN TURMOIL

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 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 he'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 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."

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."