INSIDE JONI MITCHELL’S TRAGIC STORY
Joni Mitchell, an iconoclastic and outspoken vocalist, has been a musical powerhouse for nearly six decades. Mitchell began her career singing in small venues across Western Canada, earning the title of “one of the best songwriters of the past half century” by Rolling Stone. Judy Collins’ recording of Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” reached the Top 10 in 1967, making the blonde folk singer a sought-after item. Mitchell secured her own record deal in 1968 after her songs were covered by some of the most influential singers of the day. The Peace and Love Generation’s final years would be sound tracked by Joni Mitchell’s 1969 song “Woodstock.” Crosby, Stills, and Nash perform a cover of the song.
JONI MITCHELL CONTRACTED POLIO AT AGE NINE
Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in the little hamlet of Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada. She endured one of her life’s greatest trials at a young age. Mitchell had polio at the age of nine and was hospitalized during an outbreak. A recuperating patient was initially bedridden. Mitchell acquired her passion for entertaining while singing for sick people. Mitchell discussed how the sickness led to her becoming a performer in an interview with writer and filmmaker Cameron Crowe. “They put me in a polio unit over Christmas when I was nine,” Mitchell recounts. “They said I might not be able to walk again and wouldn’t be able to return home for Christmas.”
JONI MITCHELL WAS A TEEN MISFIT
Joni Mitchell, a free-thinking and artistic adolescent, had little use for high school. “The way I regarded the school system from an early age was that it taught you what to think, not how to think,” she told Rolling Stone in 1979. Music, dance, and the visual arts were far more essential than the studies offered at her high school in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
JONI MITCHELL DROPPED OUT OF ART SCHOOL
Joni Mitchell eventually completed her high school graduation by attending summer school to catch up on her failing classes. Mitchell was finally free of the academic confines of high school and ready to pursue her longstanding passion of becoming a painter. She was able to fund her academic study in the visual arts by working as a waiter. She studied at Calgary’s Alberta College of Art and excelled in her coursework. However, a year into her studies, she discovered that the prevalent attitudes in art education were just as oppressive as they were in high school. Mitchell dropped out of school after becoming dissatisfied with the school’s categorization of pupils as either commercial or fine painters.
AN UNEXPECTED PREGNANCY LEADS TO HEARTBREAK
Joni Mitchell supported herself as a department shop model while attending the Alberta College of Art. She developed an interest in music while studying and taught herself to play the guitar. Soon, the struggling art student was performing in Alberta coffeehouses to supplement her income. Joni Mitchell had a tryst with a handsome fellow artist named Brad MacMath around this period. Mitchell found out she was expecting a child after the romance. When MacMath learned, he left Mitchell and went to California. She travelled to Toronto, practically penniless and fearful of her parents’ disapproval, to give birth to the daughter she would name Kelly Dale Anderson.
A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
In the spring of 1965, Joni Mitchell, then Roberta Joan Anderson, met folk musician Chuck Mitchell, according to Biography. The pair married just 36 hours after meeting at Toronto’s Penny Farthing Coffee House. Soon after, they began performing as a pair, singing at locations like Chess Mate and The Raven Gallery in the Detroit region. The marriage, on the other hand, was doomed from the start. Joni has since described her relationship with Chuck Mitchell as a “marriage of convenience” that only existed to help her get custody of her daughter. “One month into the marriage, he chickened out, and I chickened out,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1997.
LOVE AND ADDICTION
Joni Mitchell’s star was rising by the end of the 1960s. She came into her own as a liberated woman as her artistic prowess expanded. Mitchell told historian David Jaffe, “I was in my mid-20s when I started to realize — with great thrill and a little anxiety — that my life was not going to play out on the same traditional feminine timeline as my mother and grandmothers.”
Mitchell left a trail of prominent paramours in her wake after embracing the free love movement of the time.
JONI MITCHELL’S BLUE PERIOD
Joni Mitchell’s fifth album, Blue, released in 1971, was hailed as a watershed moment in her career by artists as diverse as Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift. Blue can be achingly personal at times. The album, which is rooted in Mitchell’s despair, lays bare the entirety of her tumultuous existence with songs that reveal everything from her numerous broken relationships to a veiled ode to the kid she abandoned. Mitchell’s melancholy seemed to endow her with an almost painful feeling of empathy and insight when recording Blue. “I could see things about people I didn’t want to know in an unpleasant way.” I’d just glance at someone and realize I already knew a lot about them that I didn’t want to know.
A CHANGE IN MUSICAL DIRECTION
Joni Mitchell’s album Court and Spark was released in 1974. It was a huge success right away. Court and Spark was the height of Mitchell’s commercial success, charming both fans and critics with distinctive songs like “Help Me,” her sole Top 10 Billboard single. The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Mitchell’s next album, released in 1975, marked a shift to a more experimental, jazz-influenced sound. The album was panned by the press, alienating longtime fans and perplexing critics. The album was hailed for its lyricism but panned for its music, with Rolling Stone calling it “a fine collection of pop poetry with a distracting soundtrack.” Mitchell was concerned about the future of her profession.
JONI MITCHELL’S MISCARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
Joni Mitchell would have a pivotal year in 1982. Mitchell, who is now in her third decade in the music industry, took a break from jazz for her 11th studio album, Wild Things Run Fast, and experimented with pop music. She met bassist Larry Klein while making the album. Klein (seen above) would play a key role in the album’s direction. The pair became romantically linked quickly and married the following year. Klein and Mitchell were a creative force to be reckoned with. Mitchell’s next album, Dog Eat Dog, was co-produced by Klein and maintained Mitchell’s pop-oriented style from Wild Things Run Fast. In 1985, however, Joni Mitchell was dealing with yet another personal catastrophe. Mitchell became pregnant at the age of 42 and miscarried.
ESTRANGED FROM THE DAUGHTER SHE GAVE UP
Joni Mitchell’s regret over giving her daughter up for adoption in 1965 followed her throughout her life. The singer-songwriter would write the mournful song “Little Green” from her legendary album Blue in 1971 to commemorate the loss. Mitchell told the Los Angeles Times in 1997 that in the years since their divorce, she “worried constantly” about her daughter. Mitchell kept her pregnancy a secret for decades, but the story of her first pregnancy was sold to a tabloid by a former art school student. Mitchell had been searching for her daughter in secret for years without success, but this betrayal by a former acquaintance finally led to Mitchell’s reunion with her long-lost daughter. During the same period,
FAQ’S
Did Joni Mitchell ever find her daughter?
Mitchell would meet her daughter for the first time in 1997. Mitchell couldn’t find her daughter after searching for years until a former classmate exposed the story of her clandestine pregnancy to the tabloids. When Mitchell finally met Gibb, she reported an excitement she had never experienced before.
Who is Joni Mitchell’s daughter?
Is Joni Mitchell estranged from her daughter?
She handed up to her daughter since she was estranged from her. Joni Mitchell’s regret over giving her daughter up for adoption in 1965 followed her throughout her life. In 1997, mother and daughter met for the first time and spent a few years together. Their relationship, however, deteriorated.
Where was Joni Mitchell born?
Joni Mitchell/Place of birth Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Canada.
Conclusion
Joni Mitchell has claimed for years that she suffers from Morgellons Disease, a mysterious illness. The Mayo Clinic describes it as a “controversial, unexplained skin disorder characterized by tiny fibers or other particles erupting from skin lesions,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Medical professionals dispute the nature of the condition, and some even question whether it exists at all. Mitchell told the Los Angeles Times in 2010 about her battle with the mysterious illness. Mitchell explains, “I have this strange, incurable sickness that looks like it came from outer space.”