The Disease Works in Mysterious Ways
“They said I might not walk again and that I would not be able to go home for Christmas,” she told journalist and filmmaker Cameron Crowe. “I wouldn’t go for it,” she said. “So I started to sing Christmas carols, and I used to sing them real loud. When the nurse came into the room, I would sing louder… And I discovered I was a ham.”
Source: Facebook
Her bout with the crippling illness ended up influencing her music in unforeseen ways. The polio weakened her left hand, making it impossible for her to play conventional guitar chords. What she did then was experiment with alternate tunings – a method that has since become part of her signature sound.