David Gilmour’s opinion on Joni Mitchell

David Gilmour has a broad musical taste and that was fundamental to the development of his style. Influences from different genres helped him shape his unmistakable guitar playing. Over the decades, he has spoken about many artists from various genres who inspired him and shared his opinion on Joni Mitchell.

What is David Gilmour’s opinion on Joni Mitchell

David Gilmour has always been a big fan of hers and already acknowledges that he was very influenced by her guitar playing. He even chose her song “For Free” as one of the tracks he would like to take to a desert island. “This is Joni Mitchell with ‘For Free’. This is a song about the same sort of struggle that I’ve been talking about. This Joni Mitchell’s struggle with her wall if you like, struggle with her conscience, with being a rich person but still being an artist,” he told BBC radio back in 2003. That song is from her third studio album “Ladies of the Canyon”, released in 1970.

When it comes to her guitar playing, Gilmour listed her among other favorites of his like Clapton and Beck. “I like the standard classic ones everyone likes. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck. I also like a lot and I’m very influenced by Joni Mitchell’s guitar playing, for example,” he said a few years before in an interview in 1987. She is one of the few artists he has followed throughout her entire career and continues to take an interest in what she is doing.

David Gilmour is always interested in the albums Joni’s new albums

When asked in 2023 if he followed what was going on in music these days, Gilmour said that he wasn’t quite aware of the musical scene. He said that nowadays he doesn’t search for new music and let other people occasionally present him to new artists. However: “I’d buy the new Bob Dylan, the new Leonard Cohen and the new Neil Young record. Probably a new Joni Mitchell record if she made one,” he told Prog in 2023.

Although Joni Mitchell is a few years older than Gilmour, she began her musical career in 1964, just one year after him. However, the first time they appeared on a studio album was in the same year, 1968. That year, she released her debut record, “Song to a Seagull” and the British musician was part of Pink Floyd’s second album “A Saucerful of Secrets”.

David Gilmour puts Joni Mitchell in the same category as Pink Floyd in terms of musical quality

In Gilmour’s opinion, Joni Mitchell is part of a select group of artists, which he also includes Pink Floyd in, who have written about universal themes and created music that each new generation discovers and becomes a fan of. “Quality, universal themes. I can understand it. It’s good stuff. People listen to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell the same way. We’re in a fine, select group it’s great for every new generation to investigate. I’m happy to be considered part of it,” he said  in an interview with Record Collector in 2003.

When both artists are compared, Joni was slightly more prolific than Pink Floyd, having released 19 studio albums. The Progressive Rock band put out 15 records and Gilmour released only five solo albums. Almost every time the guitarist and singer was asked about his influences over the decades, he mentioned Mitchell.

“It’s so hard, I’m doing people injustice if I pin down. Because my musical taste is so broad and encompasses so many people from the Folk music world. (Some of them are) Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Hank Marvin, Eddie Cochran, you know, thousands (of people). All of those people’s music has entered my subconscious. (They) created a sort of mishmash that has become what is I suppose my style,” David Gilmour told Q107 Toronto.

Some fans often point to a few parts of Pink Floyd songs that could have been influenced by Mitchell’s music. The bass playing on “Animals” (1977), for example, has been mentioned by some as being similar to Jaco Pastorius’ playing on Joni’s 1976 album “Hejira”.

Joni Mitchell performed Pink Floyd songs with Roger Waters

Although David Gilmour never had the chance to perform with Joni Mitchell, his former bandmate Roger Waters did. She took part in the special show he staged in Berlin in 1990, performing the complete album “The Wall” to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Canadian artist sang on the song “Goodbye Blue Sky” and returned with the rest of the special guests in the end to sing “The Tide is Turning”. Besides her were also part of that show Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, The Band, Bryan Adams, Van Morrison and Sinéad O’Connor.

Curiously, in an interview with The Independent in 2025, Waters admitted that at one point in his life, he was romantically interested in Joni. “I sort of loved Joni Mitchell until she decided to be a Jazzer and then I went ‘nah’. But I did (try to flirt with her) at one point. Maybe when I was 27, 28, 29, something like that. I bet she’s about my age. Because everybody fancied her, you know, my generation, because she was gorgeous. And also she wrote ‘Clouds’ (1969) ‘Paved Paradise’ (Which is ‘Big Yellow Taxi – 1970’), you know.”

“So there was a moment in and around whatever that festival was called in North America. She did had a beautiful voice, she is very talented. She did go on smoking cigarettes, she was a painter. And she did have a thing for bass players, as I recall. It never developed to anything. But you know, who knows, you never know,” Roger Waters said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).