NEWS AND COMMENT: Today, Joni Mitchell is in the news in the right way. She is removing her music from Spotify. She was encouraged to do so by Neil Young who demanded that Spotify removed Joe Rogan’s podcasts or he’d leave the platform. Spotify rate money higher than morals it seems so they refused to do as requested. Brogan has a $100m deal with Spotify and he is prolific and outspoken. He is one of those ‘my rights are inviolable’ types. Human rights are not absolute.
Brogan has persistently allowed anti-vaxxers onto his podcast which arguably deters waverers from taking the vaccine. This leads to unnecessary deaths on occasions. This is why Young made a stand and why Mitchell is following suit. James Blunt will follow, it seems.
I am all for the stand that these super-stars are making. They deserve all the praise they can get.
But it got me thinking. Does Joni Mitchell have pets? It can be tricky to find good information on cats and dogs living with high profile celebrities. They can keep the information secret sometimes.
But Joni Mitchell has a very popular Facebook page and on it, low-and-behold, is a cat called Bootsy. He is lying under the Christmas tree at Mitchell’s home, I guess. The picture was taken on December 24th 2021. There are hundreds of comments. Here is one from one of her many fans:
“I came of age listening to your music, Every. Single. Word. I will love you forever, Joni.” – Cynthia Robinson
Bootsy is so called because he has white boots. He is a ginger tabby with some white.
I think that he is a rescue cat because in a Joni Mitchell Facebook post of October 29, 2020, either Joni Mitchell or a friend of hers (the person who runs her FB page) posted the following accompanying a nice photo (above). In the post, Mitchell says the following. It is a quote and photo from Joni’s recent interview with Cameron Crowe in The Guardian on National Cat Day.
“I was lying in bed last night thinking about getting a cat,” says Joni Mitchell. It’s an early summer Sunday, and she’s sitting in her backyard patio, nicknamed Tuscany. Behind her a bird feeder is busy with hungry visitors. “And this guy shows up at the gate around midnight, meowing.” A light-brown kitten with long white paws, only a few months old, leans contentedly against her shoulder. “I hope nobody comes to claim him,” she confides softly.
It is a slightly mysterious posting but I think it is saying that Bootsy turned up at her home and invited himself into her life. She accepted.
The picture of her cuddling Bootsy shows a woman who loves her cat and I sense animals generally. She is a kind person, I would say. Look at her face. Gentleness written all over it. There are also old photos of Mitchell with cats. This has been a lifelong relationship.
And a woman of integrity for standing up to Spotify, a $32 billion company that squeezes the blood out of artists by paying them a pittance for each download. That’s another story which will bounce back into the news media over the forthcoming months and perhaps years.
