Elton John, Chappell Roan, Lucy Dacus and more were backstage at Joni Mitchell‘s Hollywood Bowl concerts this past weekend for a secret jam session – watch a clip of the jam below.
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This past Saturday and Sunday (October 19 and 20), Joni Mitchell held her first headlining concerts in Los Angeles in over 24 years. The concerts were a massive deal and featured a star-studded cast of supporting musicians and guest performers.
However, it now appears that some major stars reserved their attendance for a secret backstage jam with Joni herself. In the clip below, shared on social media by Brandi Carlile, Joni can be seen jamming along to Elton John’s 1983 classic ‘I’m Still Standing’. In attendance besides Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile were Elton himself, Chappell Roan, Lucy Dacus, Tim Hanseroth, Blake Mills and Allison Russell.
In the clip, cheekily captioned “the ultimate backstage Joni Jam” and “backstage antics at the Hollywood Bowl,” Elton John can be seen leading the charge as Mitchell smiles widely, tapping her cane on the floor.
Carlile later shared a photograph of herself with Mitchell, John, Roan and Dacus and captioned the post: “Joni Mitchell with the full backing of the gay mafia…”
Elsewhere, during the first of her two Joni Jam shows at the Hollywood Bowl, Mitchell performed the political track ‘Dog Eat Dog’ for the first time since 1985. After the song, a fan shouted an insult directed towards Donald Trump, promoting Mitchell to echo back: “Fuck Donald Trump”.
Mitchell continued: “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.”
Across both nights, Mitchell’s band was made up of musicians such as Brandi Carlile, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, Jon Batiste, Jacob Collier and many more.
At the shows, Joni also broke out numerous rarities that had not been played live in decades, including ‘Be Cool’, ‘Hejira’, ‘Cherokee Louise’ (first time since ’95), ‘Coyote (first since ’01), ‘God Must Be A Boogie Man’ (first since 1983), ‘Sunny Sunday’ (first since 1995), and more.
