Paul Simon on performing with near-total hearing loss: “I don’t think creativity stops with disability”

Paul Simon has spoken out about his experience performing with near-total hearing loss.

The Simon and Garfunkel singer-songwriter was diagnosed with hearing loss whilst recording 2023 song cycle ‘Seven Psalms’, and has since tried to find a solution for performing live with the disability.

Now, Simon has spoken about his hearing impairment with CBS Mornings, admitting his journey with hearing loss was initially “incredibly frustrating”.

“I was very angry at first that this had happened,” Simon admitted, adding: “I guess what I’m most apprehensive about would be if I can’t hear well enough to really enjoy the act of making music.”

Simon also told CBS Mornings that he was “going through my repertoire and reducing a lot of the choices that I make to acoustic versions.”

“It’s all much quieter,” he continued. “It’s not ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ That’s gone. I can’t do that one.”

However, Simon has said the hearing loss hasn’t affected his creativity just yet, going on to say: “You know Matisse, when he was suffering at the end of his life, when he was in bed, he envisioned all these cut-outs and had a great creative period.

“So I don’t think creativity stops with disability. So far, I haven’t experienced that. And I hope not to.”

Last year, Simon told The Times that he lost “most of the hearing in my left ear”, saying the process happened “quite suddenly”. “Nobody has an explanation for it,” he explained, “so everything became more difficult.”

Earlier this year, he also gave a hopeful update on performing with hearing loss. During the premiere for two-part documentary In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon [via People], Simon said his hearing had come back to “enough of a degree that I’m comfortably singing and playing guitar and playing a few other instruments”.

“I can hear my voice the way I want it in the context of the music,” he continued. “If there’s a drum or an electric guitar, it’s too loud and I can’t hear my voice. But when I first lost the hearing, I couldn’t get, it threw me off. Everything was coming from this side.”

Simon went on to tell The Guardian earlier this month that he was “optimistic” about returning to perform live, saying he was “hoping to eventually be able to do a full-length concert”.

However, he added that “six months ago I was pessimistic.”

In other news, Art Garfunkel has reflected on a recent reunion with Simon, saying: “I was crying at a certain point because I felt that I had hurt him”.

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