Joni Mitchell Has Always Defended Her Use of Blackface, in Spite of the Controversy

For decades, Joni Mitchell has written and released some of the most important music ever recorded. She has legions of fans of all ages, and with good reason. She is truly a living legend.

This is all true despite the fact that, at least since the mid-1970s, Joni has experimented often in public with blackface. Although she hasn't worn it more recently, it was a frequent part of her performances and albums through the '70s and '80s. As we look back on her career, here's what we know about one of its chief controversies.

Joni first experimented with blackface during the 1970s when she was part of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour with Bob Dylan. In 1976, she attended a Halloween party as a Black man after seeing one pass her in the street in Hollywood.

"I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard, in search of a costume for a Halloween party when I saw this black guy with a beautiful spirit walking with a bop," she explained.

"As he went by me he turned around and said, 'Ummmm, mmm ... looking good sister, lookin' good' Well I just felt so good after he said that. It was as if this spirit went into me. So I started walking like him. I bought a black wig, I bought sideburns, a mustache. I bought some pancake makeup. It was like, 'I'm goin' as him!'" she continued.

In 1977, she even put herself in blackface on the cover of "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter," her album from that year.

Although she has received plenty of criticism for it over the course of her career, Joni has always defended her use of blackface and suggested that she shares an affinity with Black people.

“When I see black men sitting, I have a tendency to go — like I nod like I’m a brother. I really feel an affinity because I have experienced being a black guy on several occasions," she told The Cut in 2015.

She went on to tell the story of dressing in blackface, adding that a dentist had once told her that she had "teeth like a Negro male."

When she was interviewed by David Yaffe for Reckless Daughter, a biography about her life, Joni once again defended the practice, suggesting that "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" received its best reviews in Black magazines because they "got it."

Joni clearly believes that her choices are justified in part because of her own relationship with the Black community. Of course, by modern standards and even at the time, blackface was considered to be both offensive and controversial, in part because it plays up stereotypes about the Black community.

The history of blackface in America is one littered with abuse and racism. Regardless of her intentions in donning blackface, Joni was a part of that history, and has never fully reckoned with the damage she might have done.