Happy Birthday Joni Mitchell: 5 best hits of the Canadian-American musician (2024)

FAQs

Who is Joni Mitchell's partner now? ›

Larry Klein

m. 1982–1994

Chuck Mitchell

m. 1965–1967

By that time, Mitchell's daughter, renamed Kilauren Gibb, had already begun a search for her biological parents.

Around this time, in addition to performing the popular folksongs of the day, she also began writing songs of her own.

In 1982, Mitchell married her second husband, fellow musician Larry Klein. The two were married for 12 years.

Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015. In June 2015, Mitchell's conservator Leslie Morris posted a statement about her brain aneurysm on the singer's official website. “Joni did in fact suffer an aneurysm. However, details that have emerged in the past few days are mostly speculative.

Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen met backstage at the Newport Folk Festival in the Summer of Love, sparking a brief romance yet powerful relationship which lasted until the day Cohen died on Mitchell's birthday in 2016.

The birth father, then-boyfriend Brad MacMath, did not wish to be a father and headed to California, leaving Joni on her own. On February 19, 1965, Joni gave birth to Kelly Dale Anderson. Knowing she could not take on parenthood, Joni placed Kelly for adoption.

Gibb, who had also been searching for her birth parents, eventually put together that the details of their lives, as much as she knew them, matched up. In 1997, Mitchell and Gibb were reunited after more than 30 years of separation and have had a relationship ever since.

The “Mamma Mia!” star has been close with Mitchell for years, with Streep even honoring Mitchell during Grammy weekend last year.

Mitchell.

Why did Joni Mitchell stop singing? ›

After struggling with health issues for several years, Joni retired from public performance in 2009, a decision seemingly made permanent by a brain aneurysm rupture she suffered in 2015.

While her song, “Woodstock,” characterized the 1969 music festival as a mystical culmination of a cultural movement, Joni Mitchell was not in attendance as her manager, David Geffen, was worried that she could miss her scheduled appearance on The Dick Cavett Show that following Monday.

Who Has Joni Mitchell Dated? While Joni only walked down the aisle twice in her lifetime, she has an impressive list of celebrity exes. The “Both Sides Now” singer has dated Leonard Cohen, David Crosby from Crosby, Stills and Nash, guitarist Wayne Perkins and songwriter J.D. Souther.

Joni's health challenges and courage

She suffered the painful and crippling effects of polio for 40 years, initially overcoming the disease in 1995, only to then experience “post-polio syndrome”.

Mitchell told Star in 1995 that she contracted polio as a nine-year-old and at the time of the interview was experiencing returning symptoms. Post-polio syndrome impacts between 25 and 40 out of every 100 polio survivors, starting around 15 to 40 years after the first infection, according to the CDC.

In 1970, Joni Mitchell found a like-minded soul in James Taylor, and they soon started a romantic relationship. Both musicians were flying high artistically and saw life from a shared lens. Sadly, however, the relationship only lasted for 12 months before it all came crumbling down.

Towards the end of their time together, the couple were constantly bickering, and one day Mitchell walked out of the door permanently after deciding enough was enough. Nash was left heartbroken by Mitchell revealing her exit through a telegram, and he channelled his pain through his songwriting on 'Our House'.

After making a life together in Detroit, MI, Joni and Chuck eventually got divorced in early 1967 and she moved to New York City to continue to pursue her music career. He also continued a music career that led to many performances in various places and had a family.

Joni Mitchell's father, Bill Anderson, died on January 15 in Saskatoon, Canada, The Edmonton Journal reports. He was 100 years old. Born August 24, 1911, in Wetaskawin, Alberta, Anderson went on to become a flight lieutenant in the Canadian Air Force, and later worked for many years for a grocery store chain.