Joni Mitchell Gives Rare Interview During Clive Davis’ Zoom Gala
Brent Furdyk
Clive Davis held the second part of his virtual pre-Grammy celebration on Saturday night, raising money for the Grammy Museum by conducting a six-hour interview session that included chats with such stars as Elton John, Paul Simon, Dionne Warwick, Berry Gordy, Chris Stapleton, Oprah Winfrey, Donovan, Barry Manilow and Dave Grohl.
© Emma McIntyre /VF20/WireImage Joni MitchellAlso speaking to Davis was Joni Mitchell, who offered a rare interview that touched on her early career and the inspiration behind some of her songs, including her classic "Both Sides Now".
“When I first wrote that, I was very young and I took a lot of teasing. ‘What do you know about life from both sides now?’ So I finally grew into it," the Canadian music icon told Davis, as reported by Rolling Stone
“I was up in a plane,” she told Davis of what inspired the song. “I was reading Henderson the Rain King, and in the book he was up on a plane flying to Africa and he looked down on clouds and he mused that he looked up at clouds, but he’d never looked down on them before. So that was where the germ of the idea for the song came from.”
When Davis asked her when she first began writing songs, she revealed her first composition was an instrumental titled “Robin Walk” when she was just 7, and recalled playing it for her piano teacher. “She hit me across the knuckles with a ruler and said, ‘Why would you want to play by ear when you could have the Masters and your fingers?'” said Mitchell. “She just treated me like a bad child and I quit piano lessons. From then on, I was self-taught.”
Mitchell also revealed that she first began writing her own songs because the 1960s folk music scene had become “so territorial. They would say, 'I play that song in this territory,'" she explained.
RELATED: Brandi Carlile Hypnotizes With Joni Mitchell’s Cover Of ‘A Case Of You’
"People used to say to me, ‘Nobody’s ever going to cover your songs. They’re too personal,'” she continued. “And yet, that’s not true, they’re getting a lot of covers. It’s just humanness that I’m trying to describe. This generation is ready for what I had to say, I guess, and is not so nervous about it.”
When Davis asked her when she first began writing songs, she revealed her first composition was an instrumental titled “Robin Walk” when she was just 7, and recalled playing it for her piano teacher. “She hit me across the knuckles with a ruler and said, ‘Why would you want to play by ear when you could have the Masters and your fingers?'” said Mitchell. “She just treated me like a bad child and I quit piano lessons. From then on, I was self-taught.”
Mitchell also revealed that she first began writing her own songs because the 1960s folk music scene had become “so territorial. They would say, 'I play that song in this territory,'" she explained.
RELATED: Brandi Carlile Hypnotizes With Joni Mitchell’s Cover Of ‘A Case Of You’
"People used to say to me, ‘Nobody’s ever going to cover your songs. They’re too personal,'” she continued. “And yet, that’s not true, they’re getting a lot of covers. It’s just humanness that I’m trying to describe. This generation is ready for what I had to say, I guess, and is not so nervous about it.”
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