Getty Joni Mitchell poses at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards.
Joni Mitchell, 78, is one of the most prolific singer-songwriters. On December 22, 2021, the “Big Yellow Taxi” singer will be celebrated at the 44th Annual Kennedy Center Honors.
While Mitchell is best known for her songwriting, she initially wanted to be a visual artist and attended Saskatoon Technical Collegiate Institute. During a 2013 interview with CBC Music, the Canadian singer-songwriter revealed that her dream of being a painter was derailed after she became pregnant with her only child, Kilauren Gibb, born Kelly Dale Anderson, in 1964.
“I got pregnant, I was the only virgin in art school. Right, you’ve been holding onto this precious thing and I just kind of stupidly let it go,” explained Mitchell.
She disclosed that she “quit art school” as a way to “protect [her] parents” from the judgment of having a child who was an unwed mother. She noted, however, that she already had issues with her professors at Saskatoon Technical Collegiate Institute.
“I was having trouble with the profs, I was in debate with them all the time, they didn’t like the way I dress, again you had to go into a box,” shared the singer.
Joni Mitchell Was Married Twice
In the 2003 documentary “Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind,” the singer shared that she placed her daughter “into a foster home” when she was two weeks old. While she was attempting to find work to support herself and her child, she got acquainted with her first husband, Chuck Mitchell, who also performed as a folk singer. She revealed she agreed to marry him under the pretense that they would raise her child.
“I met Chuck Mitchell, we quickly became friends, he said he could get me work in the states with that optimism, I went to do a few gigs down there, eventually I had to tell him that my child was in the foster home and he said he would marry me. I was emotionally weak, with a lot of things pulling me in all sorts of unattractive directions,” said Mitchell.
She disclosed that “once [they] were married he intimated that he had no interest in raising another man’s child,” and Gibb ended up being adopted. The former couple performed together as a musical duo. However, Mitchell “felt like [she] had been betrayed” by her first husband and began to work independently.
“I felt like I couldn’t grow with Chuck, that we would never grow together, that I would have to separate myself from the duo and I had to be an individual in order to grow and as soon as the duo dissolved, the marriage dissolved,” said the singer.
Mitchell remarried in 1982 to bassist Larry Klein. However, they divorced in 1994. While being interviewed for “Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind,” Klein shared that he had a good relationship with his ex-wife, even after their breakup.
“We started out as friends, you know, and that’s what ended up carrying us through ten years, you know, which is not a bad run. But when we split up we got back to being friends,” explained the musician.
Joni Mitchell Reconnected With Her Daughter in the Late 1990s
Mitchell was able to find her daughter after being separated for over three decades. According to the Toronto Star, the mother and daughter initially had a positive relationship following the reunion, but “it disintegrated into rancor and violence.” While speaking to the Toronto Star in 2013, the singer asserted that they had worked on their relationship.
“[Gibb] had abandonment issues and she was pretty rough on me and conscripted my granddaughter, but we’ve worked through all of that. We reminisced about all the little tricks we pulled and the ways we can hurt each other. That’s over,” explained Mitchell.
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