Go backstage with The Music and receive FREE:

  • Exclusive members-only editorial, charts
  • Our subscriber-only newsletter
  • Members only competitions to win tickets, experiences and more
  • Access to our street press archives
  • First access to our exclusive limited edition vinyl variants

Thank you for being a part of our community! Enter your email address as verification and you'll be taken backstage right away.

Please ensure that you provide a valid email address.

Joni Mitchell Conscious, 'In Good Spirits' After Hospital Scare

The Canadian singer-songwriter is in intensive care after being found passed out at home

More Joni Mitchell Joni Mitchell

Venerated Canadian musician Joni Mitchell has regained consciousness after being admitted to a California hospital yesterday (AEST) after being found passed out at home, it has been confirmed, with the 71-year-old singer-songwriter being described as "awake and in good spirits" in a statement on Facebook.

"Joni was found unconscious in her home this afternoon," a representative wrote on Mitchell's official Wall. "She regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to an L.A. area hospital.

"She is currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and in good spirits. More updates to come as we hear them. Light a candle and sing a song, let's all send good wishes her way."

Mitchell rose to prominence in the mid- to late-20th century as a paradigm-buster, terror of the patriarchy, and poster child for an entire counter-cultural movement, crafting albums steeped in folk, rock, jazz, pop and, eventually, even electronic genres, and remains the subject of worship in many music circles, despite her adamance that the entire industry is a "cesspool".

Join 'Backstage Pass', our FREE members program for music fans

God, she's awesome. Spare a thought for Joni Mitchell today and wish her a speedy recovery.

 

RELATED READING: Joni Mitchell — 'Songs Are Like Tattoos', Good Or Shit, Nov 2013

"Blue is not just considered Joni Mitchell's best album, but one of the best albums ever. Praised as a complex, intense emotional scourge. Full of bliss and bombshells. A rare example of magnificent raw honesty. As Mitchell told Rolling Stone in 1979: 'there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defences. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes.'"

read more→