She taught herself guitar in her teens by listening to Joan Baez and Bob Dylan – and her talent would later prompt BB King to call her the “best damn slide player working today” and Bon Iver to say she’s “our greatest living singer”. As she goes back on tour around the UK and Europe, Bonnie Raitt will be answering your questions.

Combining elements of blues, rock, folk, and country, she made her way into the music scene in the early 1970s but didn’t achieve major commercial success until her 10th studio album, 1989’s Nick of Time, which won the Grammy for album of the year and topped the US album chart. Other hits have included I Can’t Make You Love Me – hailed one of the best breakup songs of all time – taken from her follow-up album Luck of the Draw, which went seven-time platinum in the US. She has released 21 studio albums and won 13 Grammys, and has been a versatile collaborator with everyone from Alison Krauss to Alicia Keys, Richard Thompson and Toots and the Maytals.

She has also dedicated herself to activism. She co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979, contributed to Steve Van Zandt’s anti-apartheid song Sun City in 1985 and was part of a Soviet-American Peace Concert held in Moscow in 1987.

The 75-year-old has previously said she would never retire, and as a woman of her word this summer she is on a European tour in June and July – her eight dates in the UK include one at the Royal Albert Hall. Before she takes to the road again she will sit for the Guardian’s reader interview. Would you like to know more about songwriting craft? Her friendship with Joni Mitchell? Being sampled by Charli xcx? Post your questions in the comments before Thursday 17 April, and her answers will be published on 2 May.