Paul Simon, 2011.
Photo: Redferns, Tabatha Fireman. All rights reserved.
Paul Simon is beginning to accept the hearing loss in his left ear. The singer/songwriter made the announcement during a Q&A for the premiere of Alex Gibney’s documentary “In Restless Dreams: the Music of Paul Simon” at the Toronto Film Festival.
“I haven’t fully accepted it yet, but I’m starting to,” says Simon. “I play guitar every day. It is the instrument that allows me to express myself creatively. But it also gives me comfort when I’m feeling… whatever. So it has a lot of meaning for me. Something happens to you when you have a disability that changes your consciousness or the way you deal with life.”
The 81-year-old first mentioned his acute hearing loss in May 2023. It happened while he was writing the music for his latest album, “Seven Psalms.” “Suddenly I lost a lot of my hearing in my left ear and no one has an explanation for it,” shares Simon. “So everything became more difficult.” At first the singer thought it “would pass, fix itself,” but since May there has been no improvement.
The sudden stroke of fate also led Simon to reconsider which songs he even wanted to play live. “Sometimes there are songs I like and then there comes a point in the tour where I’m like, ‘What the hell are you doing here, Paul?’ This occurs more frequently during ‘You Can Call Me Al’. I then think to myself, ‘What are you doing? You sound like a Paul Simon cover band. You should go home.’”
Gibney’s documentary, “In Restless Dreams,” is a chronology of Paul Simon’s rise as an artist, from his time as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel to his solo career. An official release date is currently unknown.