Joni Mitchell on Bob Dylan through the years

Rolling Stone, July 26, 1979

Interviewer: When did you first meet Bob Dylan?

The first official meeting was the Johnny Cash Show in 1969. We played that together. Afterward Johnny had a party at his house. So we met briefly there.

Over the years there were a series of brief encounters. Tests. Little art games. I always had an affection for him. At one point we were at a concert whose concert was that? {shrugs} How soon we forget. Anyway, we’re backstage at this concert. Bobby and {Dylan’s friend} Louie Kemp were holding up the wall. I went over there and opened up the conversation with painting. I knew he was discovering painting. At that point I had an idea for a canvas that I wanted to do. I’d just come from New Mexico, and the color of the land there was still very much with me. I’d seen color combinations that had never occurred to me before. Lavender and wheat, like old fashioned licorice, you know, when you bite into it and there’s this peculiar, rich green and brown color? The soi…