David Crosby Says Joni Mitchell Still Isn’t Speaking
Late last month, it was reported that Joni Mitchell was recovering from an aneurysm she allegedly had in April. Now her longtime friend David Crosby has confirmed that she did have an aneurysm and, as far as he knows, she still isn't speaking.
Crosby told HuffPost Live that he hasn't spoken to Mitchell since the April incident, in which she was rushed to the hospital after being found unconscious. "To my knowledge she is not speaking yet," Crosby says in the above video. "She is home, she is in care, she is recovering."
The singer-songwriter, who has known Mitchell since the '60s, says that "she took a terrible hit. She had an aneurysm, and nobody found her for a while. And she’s going to have to struggle back from it the way you struggle back from a traumatic brain injury."
Crosby and Mitchell dated in 1967, when the former was still a member of the Byrds and the latter was just getting started as one of her generation's most respected songwriters. Mitchell later moved on to his Crosby, Stills & Nash bandmate Graham Nash, whom she dated from 1968 to 1970 (the group's hit "Our House" was based on their relationship).
"She’s a tough girl, and very smart," Crosby says. "So, how much she’s going to come back and when, I don’t know and I’m not going to guess. I love her … She’s probably the best of us — probably the greatest living singer-songwriter."
See Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Other Rockers in the Top 100 Albums of the '70s
Watch Crosby, Stills & Nash Perform 'Marrakesh Express' at Woodstock