She’s working on getting back both sides now.
Iconic musician Joni Mitchell has given a rare interview in which she updates fans on the road back from her 2015 aneurysm.
Asked by Guardian interviewer Cameron Crowe if she’s been playing music lately, Mitchell, 76, responded, “No, I’m just concentrating on getting my health back … I came back from polio, so here I am again, and struggling back.”
“[I’m] just inching my way along,” Mitchell continued. “I’m showing slow improvement but moving forward … Because once again I couldn’t walk. I had to learn how again. I couldn’t talk. Polio didn’t grab me like that, but the aneurysm took away a lot more, really. Took away my speech and my ability to walk.
“And, you know, I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I’m still struggling with,” the legendary songstress added.
“But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood. So you know, I knew, ‘Here I go again, another battle.'”
Much of the interview concerns a new box set of Mitchell’s early recordings — and her new kitten — though she does mention that the contemporary artists she’s currently listening to are Babyface and Leela James.
Mitchell has appeared only rarely in public and granted few interviews since suffering the brain aneurysm in March of 2015. She was last seen at Vanity Fair’s Oscar party in February.