TORONTO — Music icon Joni Mitchell has roots in Saskatoon but isn’t interested in being a part of any official recognition by the city.
“If you want to do something, leave me out of it,” she told the StarPhoenix. “Honour me when I’m dead.”
The 69-year-old singer described Saskatoon as “very isolated, very unworldly” and said it “has always been an extremely bigoted community.”
The city, Mitchell told the newspaper, is “like the deep south.”
The “Big Yellow Taxi” star is anxious to retrieve a collection of personal items, including scrapbooks compiled by her mother Myrtle Anderson, from Saskatoon.
“I want to get my stuff out of there,” Mitchell said. Several universities, she added, have made offers for the material.
“I need to be in a place that recognizes the international achievements.”
Former Saskatchewan premier Lorne Calvert, who is part of a group hoping to honour Mitchell’s time in the province, told the StarPhoenix arrangements are being made to return the collection to the singer.
Born in Fort Macleod, Alberta in 1943, Mitchell moved to Saskatchewan with her parents after the war.
In June, Mitchell attended a celebration of her life at Toronto’s Massey Hall — part of the city’s Luminato festival.
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