Joni Mitchell, the singer-songwriter once called the “yang to Bob Dylan’s yin,” has relearned to sing and play guitar after a brain aneurysm a decade ago left her unable to do either. Now 82, she is the subject of a new book, River of Words, written by author and BBC World Service presenter Tom Hagler, based on her performances and interviews at the BBC over five decades.
Recovery and Return to Stage
After the aneurysm, Mitchell sat in a chair, incapable of walking or talking, listened to her favourite songs, and watched old videos of herself performing. Slowly, she relearned how to play guitar and sing all over again. Against the odds, she returned to live performing and gave her first ever performance at the Grammys two years ago.
“She was completely written off by the medical establishment in America after her aneurysm but music brought her back,” says Tom, a fan of the folk jazz singer since he was a teenager. “Joni Mitchell is a hugely talented, unique female artist who has been somewhat overlooked but is easily as talented as Bob Dylan.”
Early Life and Challenges
Born Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada in 1943, Mitchell initially settled for the ukulele because her mother disapproved of the guitar's hillbilly associations. In autumn 1952 at age nine, she contracted polio during the worst recorded outbreak in US history, spending months in hospital. “The little boy opposite her died so she saw death and suffering from a very young age,” says Tom.
The infection permanently weakened her left hand, but she taught herself to play using alternative tunings. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked her ninth in their all-time Top 100 guitarists, ahead of Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Tom describes her songs as “introspective, confessional songs that became touchstones of the singer-songwriter genre.”
Relationships and the Adoption Revelation
Mitchell was often referred to in terms of her relationships with famous men, including Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. “One music magazine even listed all her lovers,” Tom explains. Many of her songs reflect these relationships, such as I Had A King about her first husband Chuck Mitchell and Coyote about her affair with Sam Shepard.
In a 1990 BBC interview with Trevor Dann, Mitchell spoke for the first time about the baby daughter she gave up for adoption in 1965. She described meeting a “small, curly-haired blonde girl” at the Mariposa Folk Festival years later. “All of a sudden this shiver went up my spine. I turned around and they were gone. So, I’ve always suspected that that was her.”
In 1997, Mitchell was reunited with her daughter, Kilauren Gibb, then aged 32, who traced her through a fan's Joni Mitchell homepage. They met in Los Angeles, allowing Mitchell to connect with her daughter and young grandson. That same year, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Legacy and UK Fans
Mitchell has been married twice, to Chuck Mitchell from 1965 to 1967 and to producer Larry Klein from 1982 to 1994. She is admired by icons like Madonna, Bjork, and Prince. She has spoken highly of her UK fanbase: “I always thought the British were very, you know, loyal to me and insightful.”
River of Words: Joni Mitchell at the BBC by Tom Hagler is published on September 3 (Welbeck, £25) through major online music and book retailers.
