Months after revealing his struggle with hearing loss, Paul Simon hasn’t fully “accepted” his condition, and he hopes to find a way to tour once again. In May 2023, the 81-year-old singer and songwriter first revealed that he has been suffering from hearing loss in his left ear for several years and is still finding it challenging to perform with his band.
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“I haven’t accepted it [the hearing loss] entirely, but I’m beginning to,” said Simon during the premiere of his documentary, In Restless Dreams, at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday (September 10). “Usually, when I finished an album I went out and toured with it, and then I have the opportunity to really investigate the piece. And then it evolves to another standard, and goes further.”
Unhindered by his hearing loss, Simon said he is going to start working with two guitarists, who played on his 2023 album, Seven Psalms, who may be able to fill in some parts for him during live shows.
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“I’m not sure how I can integrate my voice with the guitars,” said Simon, who added that he continues to play guitar daily, which has helped him mentally deal with his hearing loss. “I play the guitar every day,” he said. “It’s the instrument that allows me to express myself creatively. But it’s also where I go for solace. If I’m feeling…whatever.”
Simon continued, “So it’s a very crucial thing to me. You know, something happens to you when you have some sort of disability that changes your awareness or changes how you interact with life.”
In 2018, Simon retired from touring after his Homeward Bound—The Farewell Tour, and final show in his hometown of Forest Hills, Queens in New York City on September 22 of that year. Less than a year later, Simon returned to the stage with a performance at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco, California on August 11, 2019.
On May 19, 2023, Simon released his 15th album, Seven Psalms, a seven-track, 33-minute album intended to be listened to as one continuous piece, which was recorded entirely on acoustic instruments with a majority performed by Simon.
Following the release of Seven Psalms, Simon also revealed that he has three new songs in the works. “I have three songs in motion,” he said. “One of them is finished. It feels like a half-step beyond what ‘Seven Psalms’ is, evolving into something else.”
When speaking about his farewell tour in 2018, Simon said it felt “unsettling, a touch exhilarating, and something of a relief.”
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“I love making music, my voice is still strong, and my band is a tight, extraordinary group of gifted musicians,” said Simon. “I think about music constantly. I am very grateful for a fulfilling career and, of course, most of all to the audiences who heard something in their music that touched their hearts.”
Directed by Alex Gibney, In Restless Dreams—which takes its title from a lyric in the 1964 Simon & Garfunkel classic “The Sound of Silence”—spans Simon’s 60-plus career, from growing up in Queens, New York with Art Garfunkel to the duo’s success and his rise as a solo artist. In Restless Dreams also captures Simon’s struggles while making Seven Psalms.
During the festival on Sunday, Simon said that he is always writing and that songs still come to him in the night, before revealing the title of one new song he’s been working on.
“The other night I dreamed again,” said Simon. “I dreamed it would be a good idea if I wrote a song called ‘It’s What’s His Name.’”
Simon also mentioned another song that he recently completed. “I wrote a new song called ‘When I Learned to Play Guitar,’” he said, “but I don’t know if I’ll ever do anything with it.”
Photo: Ian Gavan/Getty Images
