I Can't Believe She Said What?

 Joni Mitchell in 1970 and below, a performance artist/drag queen, John Kelly.

I totally missed this interview a couple years ago, but enjoyed reading it just now. The thing is...Joni Mitchell has said some pretty unbecoming things about other artists in many interviews I've seen in the last ten years. It makes me sad because I mean...no one can touch her she is the top, the cream...and I wish she didn't have to sound so bitter about other artists and performers...but I did laugh when I read the following...

But let's begin with Dylan. Mitchell was speaking to the LA Times as part of a joint interview with performance artist John Kelly, who has performed Mitchell's songs in drag. The Times interviewer referred to Old Nasal Voice in passing, citing his name-change from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan. (Mitchell also abandoned her birth name, Roberta Joan Anderson.) Mitchell launched into an unprovoked assault. "We are like night and day, he and I," she scoffed. "Bob is not authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception."

Cowed, the interviewer moved on to safer topics – such as Prince (apparently a Mitchell fan) and sex appeal. Yet Mitchell still had time to slag off Grace Slick and Janis Joplin (allegedly they were "[sleeping with] their whole bands and falling down drunk"), and Madonna. Railing against the "stupid, destructive" era we live in, Mitchell took aim at the Material Girl. "Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980. Madonna is like Nero; she marks the turning point." From here and here

And here is video of John Kelly doing Joni