Music

legend Joni Mitchell

, renowned for her profound influence on the music industry, had to step back from recording and public life due to a series of health challenges.

However, after battling an enigmatic illness and surviving a brain aneurysm,

the 81-year-old singer-songwriter

, celebrated for hits like Both Sides Now and Big Yellow Taxi, is experiencing a revival in her enduring career and making more public appearances, much to her fans’ joy.

Mitchell was recently

seen in high spirits during a rare public outing

following a

memorable performance at the FireAid

Los Angeles concert in January.

She also graced the stage at the 2024 Grammy Awards for the first time and received a nomination for best folk album for her Brandi Carlile-produced 2023 release, Joni Mitchell at Newport [Live].

In 2022, she was recognized as MusiCares Person of the Year, but her appearance in a wheelchair during the ceremony sparked concerns about her health among fans.

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HERE

.

As reported by

Billboard

, the singer’s presence has been a topic of speculation given her infrequent public appearances over the years.

What many may not realize is that Mitchell has faced a variety of health issues since her childhood, ranging from polio to the elusive Morgellons disease.

Mitchell’s childhood was marked by a courageous fight against polio, which left her hospitalized. Nevertheless, the determined young girl was resolute in her desire to spend Christmas with her family. Through sheer willpower, she successfully regained the ability to walk, stunning both her family and medical team.

Mitchell recalled the poignant moment her mother visited her in the hospital, wearing a mask and bearing a haunted expression. Undeterred, Joni continued to work tirelessly to regain the use of her legs.

“I just kept working my legs, working my legs, and then one day I said to them, ‘I want to try and walk,'” she recounted. With the aid of chrome bars, she managed to pull herself along, eventually turning around and requesting to return home.

This formative experience played a significant role in shaping Mitchell’s future as an artist. Years later, in 2015, she faced another life-threatening health crisis in the form of a brain aneurysm.

The road to recovery was long and arduous, requiring her to relearn basic skills like walking, speaking, and playing the guitar.


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During a 2022 interview on CBS Mornings, Mitchell shared her experience of returning to the stage to play guitar for the first time in decades. “I’m learning,” she revealed.

“I’m looking at videos that are on the net, to see where to put my fingers. It’s amazing… when you have an aneurysm, you don’t know how to get into a chair. You don’t know how to get out of bed. You have to learn all these things again. You’re going back to infancy, almost.”

When questioned about the source of her determination, Mitchell humbly attributed it to her brain surgeon’s observation that she possessed “will and grit.”

The reporter inquired: “Do you think you have will and grit?” to which Mitchell confidently responded: “Yeah, I think I do.”

Mitchell has also endured the challenges of a lesser-known, controversial ailment known as Morgellons Disease. The condition, which she self-diagnosed, is marked by painful skin lesions, sensations of crawling on the skin, and the belief that fibers or other substances are embedded in or erupting from the skin – a phenomenon some medical professionals consider to be a delusion.

This condition took a toll on her ability to perform and travel for prolonged periods prior to suffering an aneurysm.

In an intimate disclosure to the LA Times back in 2010, Mitchell described her battle with a “weird, incurable disease that seems like it’s from outer space, but my health’s the best it’s been in a while. Two nights ago, I went out for the first time since Dec. 23. I don’t look so bad under incandescent light, but I look scary under daylight.”

Vividly illustrating her struggle, Mitchell detailed:”Fibers in a variety of colors protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral. Morgellons is a slow, unpredictable killer – a terrorist disease: it will blow up one of your organs, leaving you in bed for a year.”

She continued denoting her indomitable spirit: “But I have a tremendous will to live: I’ve been through another pandemic – I’m a polio survivor, so I know how conservative the medical body can be.”

Conveyed in her 2014 book, Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words (as cited by

Billboard

), Mitchell recounts an isolating period of her life when she could neither wear regular clothes nor leave her residence for several years due to the disease’s severity.

“Sometimes it got so I’d have to crawl across the floor,” she recounted. “My legs would cramp up, just like a polio spasm. It hit all of the places where I had polio.”

Despite Joni Mitchell’s struggles, there remains skepticism in the medical community about the legitimacy of her condition. Billboard reports: “Sufferers say fibers grow from lesions in the skin, potentially because of tiny parasites. Crawling sensations, extreme itching, and general fatigue/mental fog are also named as symptoms of the condition.”

The Mayo Clinic has labeled the disease as psychosomatic, yet Mitchell is determined to raise awareness about it.

In a 2013 interview with The Star, Mitchell declared: “I’m not cured but I’ve found a helpful physician way outside the box. Western medicine says this doesn’t even exist; it’s a psychotic disease. It’s not.”

By 2020, Mitchell shared with Cameron Crowe (as reported by the Guardian) that she was slowly making progress and feeling better.

Compounding her health issues, Mitchell has also suffered from insomnia, exacerbated by her fear of home intruders following multiple stalking incidents on her property.

In a triumphant return to the stage in June 2024, Mitchell headlined her first major concert in over two decades, having re-mastered the guitar. The event, dubbed the “Joni Jam,” saw her perform for nearly three hours alongside music icons such as Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, and Brandi Carlile.

It seems Mitchell is on an upward trajectory, enjoying improved health and receiving the accolades she richly deserves.

Recently, she was spotted engaging with fans outside the popular Beverly Hills restaurant, Funke, signing autographs with a radiant smile. In terms of her music career, Mitchell has been steadily releasing previously unheard and rare tracks for her devoted fan base.