Paul Simon "suddenly lost" his hearing.
Paul Simon reveals sudden hearing loss
The 81-year-old musician has enjoyed a career spanning more than six decades and is best known as part of folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel alongside Art Garfunkel but revealed that mysteriously became deaf in his left ear and often has the urge to go home when he is in the middle of a tour.
He told The Sunday Times: "Quite suddenly I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, and nobody has an explanation for it. So everything became more difficult. My reaction to that was frustration and annoyance; not quite anger yet, because I thought it would pass, it would repair itself. The songs of mine that I don’t want to sing live, I don’t sing them. Sometimes there are songs that I like and then at a certain point in a tour, I’ll say, ‘What the f*** are you doing, Paul?’ Quite often that would come during You Can Call Me Al. I’d think, ‘What are you doing? You’re like a Paul Simon cover band. You should get off the road, go home."
However, the 'Bridge over Troubled Water' hitmaker has continued to pursue writing and after releasing 'Seven Psalms' in the summer of 2022, went on to explain that it was "spooky" to be still writing even after many of his musical peers have passed away.
He said: "It’s a spooky thing to be writing something and just be thinking, ‘Oh, this is what the song needs. And then it’s, ‘By the way, this is about you. You’re actually the subject of this. It’s just the age we’re at. Gordon Lightfoot just passed away; Jeff Beck too. My generation’s time is up."
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