Joni Mitchell says she’s “still struggling to walk” following 2015 aneurysm

"But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood!"

Joni Mitchell has discussed her ongoing recovery from a 2015 brain aneurysm in a rare new interview.

Mitchell was hospitalised in Los Angeles in March 2015, after being found unconscious at her home. Later that year she was said to be “making good progress”.

Speaking to the Guardian in a new interview, Mitchell spoke of her ongoing recovery. “I haven’t been writing recently. I haven’t been playing my guitar or the piano or anything,” she said. Instead, she’s “just concentrating on getting my health back. You know what? I came back from polio, so here I am again, and struggling back.

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She went on to describe the five years since the aneurysm as “inching my way along,” adding: “I’m showing slow improvement but moving forward.

“Once again I couldn’t walk. I had to learn how again. I couldn’t talk,” she added. “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. But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood! So you know, I knew, ‘Here I go again, another battle.'”

Joni Mitchell is set to release a new archival album, ‘Joni Mitchell Archives Vol 1: The Early Years (1963-1967)’, on Friday (October 30).

Earlier this month, she shared a demo of ‘Day After Day’, considered to be her first ever original recording.

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It followed the release of her earliest known recording, a cover of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ recorded in 1963 at the Saskatoon radio station CFQC AM.

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