Paul Simon
Disability “changes the way you deal with life,” says the singer-songwriter, months after revealing he has almost completely lost the hearing in his left ear
Paul Simon said he is “beginning” to come to terms with his near-total hearing loss in his left ear, which is affecting his ability to play music live.
The 81-year-old singer-songwriter spoke at the world premiere of “In Restless Dreams: the Music of Paul Simon” at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“I haven’t fully accepted it yet, but I’m starting,” Simon told the audience in a question-and-answer session after the screening alongside the documentary’s director Alex Gibney.
“I play guitar every day. It is the instrument that allows me to express myself creatively. But it’s also the place I go for solace. When I feel like… “whatever.” That’s why it’s a very important thing for me. You know, when you have a disability, something happens to you that changes your consciousness or changes the way you approach life.”
He said there has been no improvement since he first discovered the hearing loss in May.
Paul Simon: Seven Psalms review – a surprise and a revelation
“Usually when I finish an album I take it on tour and then I have the opportunity to really examine the piece. And then it evolves to a different standard and moves on,” Simon said.
“Although in a week I’m going to try to work with two guitarists who play the parts I played on the record and see if I can sing the piece. I’m not sure how to integrate my voice with the guitars,” he added.
In May, Simon revealed that the hearing loss occurred while writing music for his latest album, Seven Psalms.
“All of a sudden I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, and no one has an explanation for it,” he said. “So everything became more difficult.”
He said he mostly felt “frustration and anger,” but not anger, “because I thought it would pass, it would fix itself.” He also said it changed his mindset to perform certain songs “that I don’t want to sing live anymore.”
“Sometimes there are songs I like, and then at a certain point in a tour I say, ‘What the hell are you doing, Paul?'” he said. “That happened quite a bit during You Can Call Me Al. I thought, ‘What are you doing?’ You’re like a Paul Simon cover band. You should get off the road and go home.’”
Famed director Gibney, who also directed the Scientology documentaries Going Clear, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, has in his latest documentary In “Restless Dreams” takes a look at Simon’s six-decade career. The three and a half hour film deals with the musician’s life Time in Simon and Garfunkel with his childhood friend Art Garfunkel, the recording of his successful 1986 solo album Graceland and his later recordings in his home studio in Texas.
General release dates for In Restless Dreams have yet to be announced, but the film will screen at the London Film Festival in October.
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