Joni Mitchell has been described as one of the greatest songwriters ever by music magazine Rolling Stone.

On Tuesday, she was awarded the title of honorary doctorate at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

However, she received the award itself at a private event in Santa Monica, California.

The award also came with an accompanying beret.

"Mother would have been particularly proud"

During her acceptance speech, she said no one needed to worry about her getting hubris.

- Luckily I'm too old for it to go to my head, she said according to NME.

She also turned to her parents who are no longer alive.

- My mother would have been particularly proud of this because she wanted me to go to college.

I went to art school for a year before dropping out, so she had been impressed with this award.

Surprised earlier this year

In July of this year, Mitchell surprised the audience at the Newport folk festival when she stepped on stage during Brandi Carlile's performance.

Together they sang two of Joni Mitchell's classics, "Both sides now" and "A case of you".

She also played the guitar solo from "Just like a train".

In the clip below you can see the guest performance.

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be enabled to play video

Read more about browser support

Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival.

Photo: Amy Karibian