Joni Mitchell Says ‘F–k Donald Trump’ During All-Star Jam at Hollywood Bowl: The 7 Best Moments

Music

More like Both Sides WOW.

Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile performing at The 66th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena on February 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Sonja Flemming/CBS

Singer-songwriter GOAT Joni Mitchell took over the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday (Oct. 19) for the first of two “Joni Jam” concerts.

Despite the size of the open-air, highway-adjacent venue, a crowd of 17,000 worshipful fans was gifted with a show that felt like an intimate, inviting look into life for Mitchell at 80: shooting the breeze with friends and admirers from the comfort of a plush (yet appropriately regal) chair, sipping pinot grigio by the mellow lamplight and singing a song (or 25) when the spirit takes her.

Cozy at that may sound, getting to this warm hug of a victory lap has been a hard-fought victory for Mitchell — a brain aneurysm in 2015 left her unable to speak or walk, and she had to watch videos of herself playing guitar to relearn her own songs. But the Canadian artist, who suffered from polio as a child, is no stranger to uphill battles, and after years of keeping out of the public eye following her health crisis, the Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer stunned the world in 2022 by making an unannounced return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival.

A proper headlining gig followed in June 2023 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, and her soul-scraping turn at the 2024 Grammys allowed an even wider audience to experience the depth and gravitas Mitchell is still capable of bringing to a performance.

Joining her at each of those gigs was Brandi Carlile, an avowed acolyte whom Mitchell has described as “my ambassador.” Naturally, Carlile joined Mitchell onstage Saturday at the Bowl, too, radiating joy and nervous excitement as she sang with her hero and served as the de facto emcee/hype woman for the evening. Carlile even revealed that the Joni Jams – when held in Mitchell’s real-life living room “five or six years ago” – helped Mitchell heal following the aneurysm. It started out with friends and musicians singing Mitchell’s own material to her as she recovered, an experience Carlile said was “terrifying”; before too long, Mitchell began harmonizing and taking a verse or two from the comfort of her couch. Now, she’s regained enough vocal control to command an audience of thousands.

“Joni is about to destroy us right now,” Carlile said with a Cheshire Cat grin before Mitchell sang the Blue standout “A Case of You” in a resonant, husky tone. That statement could easily have been inserted into any number of between-song moments, given how frequently folks could be spotted wiping away tears to the icon’s lyrically incisive meditations on love, pain and our brief lives on a rock circling a giant ball of gas.

“I’m honored to have her as a friend because she brought me out of retirement,” Mitchell said of Carlile during the show, laughing.

Thanks to a backing band that included Blake Mills, Robin Pecknold, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, Jon Batiste, Allison Russell, Wendy & Lisa, Rita Wilson, Celisse and more, Mitchell’s remarkable songs were treated more like jazz compositions than pop songs, stretched out and contracted depending on the lead vocal, embellished with curious flourishes in some moments then pointedly unadorned the next. Even if the Bowl got a little chilly toward the end of the evening, the warm tapestry of Mitchell’s music kept spirits warm.

Here are some of the highlights from an unforgettable evening.

‘Hejira’ Highlights

Blue (1971) is easily Mitchell’s most acclaimed, enduring album, while Court and Spark (1974) is her highest-charting studio LP (No. 2 on the Billboard 200, boasting her sole Billboard Hot 100 top 10, “Help Me”). But Hejira (1976) is her most enigmatic, alluring album (and easily one of her five best), so it was an unexpected, thrilling curveball when Mitchell & Co. delivered a Hejira-heavy setlist. “I don’t want to freak anybody out, but you just heard Joni Mitchell sing ‘Hejiri’!” Carlile emphasized after the night’s third song. The evening ended up including no less than half of that moody, contemplative classic (“Refuge of the Roads,” “Coyote” and “Amelia” were also performed) born of a peripatetic period in Mitchell’s life.

Weep Then Boogie

Mitchell gave several of her late-career tunes their stage debut at the Bowl on Saturday, and two of them – “If I Had a Heart” and “The Sire of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)” – were pointedly about the confusion and bitterness that can result from trying to make sense of a brutal, hateful world. But Mitchell, according to Carlile, had been “worried” the subject matter was too sad, so she directed the band to follow the latter tune with her playful, jazzy “God Must Be a Boogie Man,” a loose, Charlie Mingus-inspired song that found Jacob Collier letting loose on the keys. “’God is dead’ – Nietzsche. ‘Nietzsche is dead’ – God,” Mitchell said at the conclusion of the song, laughing heartily.

Both Sides, Now

The show was divided into two sections with an intermission, and the songs Mitchell chose to end each one were the most emotionally gutting moments of the evening: “Both Sides, Now” and “The Circle Game.” While the setlist included songs that were more lyrically dour, those performances demonstrated the way time, pain and experience can deepen and enhance art. Both frequently covered tunes are deceptively simple meditations on the passage of time and our insignificance in the greater scheme of the things, written in the ‘60s when Mitchell was in her twenties. Six decades later, Mitchell’s weathered voice imbues them with a wistful wisdom; arguably, they’re more of an emotional gut punch now thanks to the years of experience she brings to her phrasing. When “Both Sides, Now” wrapped, the waning gibbous moon, as if on cue, began to peep out over the Hollywood Hills; only Joni could convince a celestial object to gamely participate in her show.

Mumford & Lennox Guest Spots

The second half of the evening brought out even more musicians, who delivered a forceful performance of Mitchell’s ever-relevant environmental ode “Big Yellow Taxi” – an all-smiles Jon Batiste sitting next to Collier at a baby grand while hammering away on the keys was a standout moment. Soon after, Marcus Mumford took lead vocal on “California” (though British, he was born in Anaheim, Calif.), with Mitchell blending her voice with his on a few key lines. When Annie Lennox took center stage to thunderous applause for a soulful take on “Ladies of the Canyon,” Mitchell herself was rapt during the performance, only piping up at the very end to sing the final lyric of the song with Lennox.

“F–k Donald Trump”

When a member of the crowd shouted out a Trump diss, Mitchell chuckled and took a moment to give her piece. “’F–k Donald Trump’ – I love that song,” Mitchell said, unexpectedly referencing YG’s 2016 hip-hop banger “FDT.”  It didn’t come out of nowhere – Mitchell had just sung “Dog Eat Dog,” a track about powerful people who “lie, cheat, skim, scam,” and after the lyric about “big-wig financiers,” Mitchell tossed out the aside, “Like Donald Trump.” She went in deeper after the song wrapped, putting in her two cents on the Republican presidential candidate. “F–k Donald Trump,” Mitchell reiterated. “Everybody get out and vote. This is an important one. I wish I could vote – I’m Canadian. I’m one of those lousy immigrants,” she said, cackling. At that point, nearly everyone in the 17,000-strong crowd was on their feet applauding.

It was a shocking moment that took a beat to soak in — not that Mitchell detests a race-baiting former president who has 34 felonies to his name, but the fact that she’s a fan of YG’s music.

Covers & Rewrites

Earlier this year, Mitchell was one of the artists on hand to salute Elton John and Bernie Taupin as they received the Gershwin Prize in Washington, D.C. Laughing, Carlile told the crowd that Mitchell accepted the invite to perform, but only after doing “the most Joni Mitchell thing ever” by asking to rewrite their song to suit her. “That was audacious,” Mitchell agreed with a chuckle. The song in question was “I’m Still Standing,” which Mitchell, who remained seated until the very end of the night, did not stand up for. “I’m still sitting after all this time,” she sang, casting Carlile a sideways glance and giggling. Mitchell did, however, remain faithful to the original words during a cover of Gershwin’s “Summertime,” which may have been her strongest vocal of the evening. “You just sang the sh-t out of that Joni,” Carlile raved after the song concluded.

Shine On

Mitchell’s last studio album to date, 2007’s Shine, received positive notices but certainly isn’t among her best known. Even so, the title track yielded a marvelous moment of camaraderie and unity when well over half of the venue put up their cell phone lights to wave along to the hopeful, graceful plea. “Oh, boy. What a spectacle,” Mitchell marveled. “Everybody turn around and look,” she instructed the crowd. “It’s so beautiful.” People were happy to oblige — giving an iconic talent a moment of wonder and joy toward the end of an emotionally rich evening was the least anyone could do.

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