BLAKE MILLS is the go-to guitarist with a big hand in Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan’s recent revivals, and a solo artist of grace and invention. But whether working for legends or for himself, he’s always mining for “some precious ore”. “You never want to sound like you’re just talking,” he tells VICTORI A SEGA L.

Stratospheric heights: Blake Mills unlocking levels at home, Los Angeles, June 2023.

Photography by GABI ZECCHETTO

SOMETHING “PRETTY EXTRAORDINARY” HAPPENED TO BLAKE MILLS THIS morning. He’s feeling oddly jet-lagged after a “super-early” start, but that doesn’t quite explain the surreal haze collecting round the edges of his day. That’s something different – the special kind of disorientation that happens when you find yourself face-to-face with a Beatle before lunch.

The guitarist, producer and – amazing, given his packed schedule – solo singer-songwriter was asked to play in a band at Ringo Starr’s birthday celebrations in Los Angeles’ Beverly Gardens Park, performing three Starr turns – Don’t Pass Me By, Photograph and Good Night – while the newly minted 83-year-old sat watching in the front row, right in his eyeline.

“It was like a video game – you’re just collecting rings, or coins,” says Mills, laughing. “It’s like a shopping spree of exciting dreams coming true before your eyes. Ever ything he’d say to you starts and ends with ‘peace and love’. Classic Ringo!”

Indicating how Mills’s life is unfolding, however, it’s not his only recent brush with a Beatle.

“No, I’ve had a Paul McCartney encounter that was wonderful. It was at Joni Mitchell’s house one time,” explains Mills, a regular at Mitchell’s musical salons. “The vibe that night was good and before he took off, he was like, ‘OK, sure. I’ll do a couple.’”

McCartney sat at the piano and played Lady Madonna and Maybe I’m Amazed while Mills, on guitar, quietly started to worry. “As we were approaching the guitar solo on Maybe I’m Amazed, I was thinking, ‘Oh no…’ – because you have to play that solo verbatim, and I was hoping I could remember it. I was going over it in my brain – ‘There’s a key change right before it’ – but being the professional he is, he’d worked out a version that takes a detour right before the solo and comes back around to the chorus.” Mills laughs. “It was kind of a near-death experience that he tastefully avoided. It was an act of kindness.”