Patti Smith has made her first public appearance since her hospitalisation to honour Lily Gladstone.
Last December, the punk singer was forced to cancel a show in Bologna after a “sudden illness” prompted Smith to be rushed to the hospital. A few days later, it was reported that the singer was “in good health“, with Smith taking to social media: “I am resting, as the doctor ordered, grateful to have had such care, though being painfully aware that many are not so fortunate.”
Nearly a month later, Smith has made her first public appearance to present Gladstone with the award for Best Actress at the National Board of Review Awards Gala. She won the honour with her performance in Martin Scorsese‘s Killers Of The Flower Moon, for which she also won a Golden Globe.
Smith praised the film in her speech, saying: “It pierces the vein of human weakness, greed, cowardice, and betrayal. And what is more piercing than the face of Lily Gladstone as the camera captures the shifting tones of her interior process seamlessly embodying the courageous Mollie Burkhart?”
“Within the fabric of the film, even off-screen, Lily is like the new moon that can be felt, but not seen,” she continued. “She has always felt.”
“As Mollie, Lily’s sense of the space around and the rushing energy of her own blood can be felt in every gesture, every side glance, in the lift of her head, in the folding of her hands, in the burgeoning illness that can be felt cell by cell that mirrors the afflictions imposed on her people coupled with her stamina to love, to heal, and quietly condemn,” she finished.
Smith appeared on stage with The National back in September, for a duet on their track ‘I Need My Girl’.
In other news, John Lydon recently said that he believes it’s “wrong” to credit Patti Smith and, more broadly, New York with punk’s origins – saying the UK did it first.
In an interview with The Sun, Lydon said: “T.Rex, David Bowie, Slade, Mott The Hoople, The Alex Harvey Band — their influence was enormous. And they try to write that all off and wrap it around Patti Smith. It’s so wrong!”
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