Paul Simon defies odds to return from retirement and hearing loss fears to kick off 2025 North American tour

Paul Simon has defied odds by kicking off his 2025 North American tour, following a return from retirement and struggles with his hearing.

• READ MORE: Art Garfunkel tells us about reconciling with Paul Simon: “I burst into tears – and then there were hugs”
  

The live shows kicked off in New Orleans on Friday night (April 4), and marked the beginning of the iconic songwriter’s ‘A Quiet Celebration’ tour. It also came as a huge milestone, as it was his first headline performance in two years, following rumours that he may never play live again due to severe hearing loss.

Taking to the stage at the Saenger Performing Arts Theater, the 83-year-old kicked off the set with a handful of songs from his most recent studio album, ‘Seven Psalms’, and was joined by his wife Edie Brickell for renditions of ‘Wait’ and ‘The Sacred Harp’.

As the set developed, Simon moved into some of his most popular tracks including ‘Homeward Bound’, ‘Slip Slidin’ Away’ and ‘Graceland’, before wrapping up the 19-song setlist with performances of two huge Simon & Garfunkel songs: ‘The Boxer’ and ‘The Sound Of Silence’.

Check out the footage and setlist below.

Paul Simon’s New Orleans setlist was:

‘The Lord’ (Live debut)
‘Love Is Like A Braid’ (Live debut)
‘My Professional Opinion’ (Live debut)
‘Your Forgiveness’
‘Trail of Volcanoes’ (Live debut)
‘The Sacred Harp’ (with Edie Brickell, ;ive debut)
‘Wait’ (with Edie Brickell, live debut)
‘Graceland’
‘Slip Slidin’ Away’
‘Train in the Distance’
‘Homeward Bound’ (Simon & Garfunkel song)
‘St. Judy’s Comet’
‘The Late Great Johnny Ace’
‘Spirit Voices’
‘Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War’
‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’
‘Under African Skies’ (with Edie Brickell)
‘The Boxer’ (Simon & Garfunkel song)
‘The Sound of Silence’ (Simon & Garfunkel song)

As highlighted by Consequence, the singer-songwriter worked alongside the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss to help overcome the obstacles around playing live. This included repositioning the monitors on stage and opting for smaller venues with better acoustics – allowing him to hear himself better during the performances.

Simon also revealed recently that he will be omitting the classic track ‘You Can Call Al’ from all setlists as he is unable to perform it with his hearing issues.

The tour continued over the weekend with a second night in New Orleans, and will head over to Austin this week for three shows at the Bass Concert Hall. Other stops include Denver, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Boston, Chicago and more throughout the summer.

Other highlights include five shows at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles and five shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre. Visit here for tickets.

Back in 2018, Simon played what at the time was described as his final-ever concert in Queens, New York’s Flushing Meadows Corona Park. “I’ve often wondered what it would feel like to reach the point where I’d consider bringing my performing career to a natural end,” he said at the time. “Now I know: it feels a little unsettling, a touch exhilarating and something of a relief.”

He then went on to discuss his struggles with hearing loss last year, explaining how it made the recording process of his 2023 album ‘Seven Psalms’ “incredibly frustrating”.

After telling The Times that he lost “most of the hearing in my left ear […] quite suddenly” in 2023, he then said to The Guardian in November 2024 that he was “optimistic” about returning to perform live.

While the show in New Orleans marked his first headline show in years, Simon did break out a televised performance with Sabrina Carpenter recently, joining the pop star for a duet of ‘Homeward Bound’ on the 50th-anniversary episode of Saturday Night Live.

In late 2024, Simon’s old partner Art Garfunkel spoke to NME about the duo’s recent meeting, which brought to an end “years of detachment with a lot a sweet candour”.

Discussing how they went for lunch together recently, Garfunkel said: “Paul’s ex-wife, Peggy Simon, had moved into the place where I live, and their son, Harper, ran into me in the halls. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

“Harper set up a lunch with Paul and I, and we ended years of estrangement with a lot of sweet candour. Paul said to me, ‘Arty, it’s not that you spoke to the British press and that you didn’t do it well. I know you said you wanted to put spice into the image of Simon and Garfunkel. I know you felt that we were too conservative’. Well, my idea of spice meant a certain candour that must have hurt Paul’s feelings. I realised; I did hurt his feelings.

“He said, ‘I felt you wanted to hurt me. That’s what got me’. And I thought, ‘That’s true’. I wanted to hurt him. The next thing I knew, I burst into tears.”

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