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

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.