Seven years after retiring from touring, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Paul Simon is set to hit the road again despite suffering a near-total loss of hearing in his left ear.
The North American tour, which features shows in 20 cities across the United States and Canada, kicks off on April 4 at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Concert venues include Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Toronto, Canada; Boston, Massachusetts; and Los Angeles, California, among other cities. Simon will conclude his tour in early August at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington.
The touring announcement came just two days after the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer opened the “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special, performing a duet of Simon & Garfunkel’s 1966 hit song “Homeward Bound” with singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter.
“A Quiet Celebration” will mark Simon’s return to touring. In early 2018, he announced he was stepping back from live performances before embarking on his farewell tour in June of that year.
Simon said the death of Vincent N‘guini, his lead guitarist and friend of 30 years, was a contributing factor in his decision to stop touring. N’guini died in December 2017 at age 65 after a battle with liver cancer.
Simon also noted that he wanted to spend more time with his family—his wife, Edie Brickell, and four children. The singer shares three children—Adrian, 32; Lulu, 29; and Gabriel, 26—with Brickell, whom he married in 1992. He also has a son, Harper, 52, from his first marriage.
“I'd like to leave with a big Thank You to the many folks around the world who’ve come out to watch me play over the last 50 years,” he wrote in his farewell message.
Battling Hearing Loss
Simon’s upcoming tour comes amid a years-long struggle with hearing loss, which the singer first experienced while recording his 15th solo album, “Seven Psalms.”Released in May 2023, “Seven Psalms” is Simon’s first album since “In the Blue Light” in 2018.
During a June 2023 appearance on the talk show “CBS Mornings,” Simon said he had been battling the health issue for about two and a half years, noting that he had lost around 92 percent of hearing in his left ear.
Despite being able to hear well enough to play the guitar, Simon said he struggled to perform in noisy environments, such as when playing with his band.
“The most frustrating thing is I really took it for granted that I could do this thing, which is hear very well—hear sound very well,” he said. “When it went away, I was frustrated, I was angry.”
“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,” he said.
To help counter his hearing challenges, Simon said he has had to make minor adjustments to his concert setup, including placing larger speakers near him so he can hear himself sing.
Simon said he has also had to stop performing his lively, upbeat songs, such as his 1986 hit “You Can Call Me Al,” from his seventh studio album, Graceland.
“I’m going through my repertoire and reducing a lot of the choices that I make to acoustic versions,” he explained. “It’s all much quieter.”
“A Quiet Celebration” will showcase a similar, more subdued musical approach.
“Simon often says the listener completes the song, and he was eager to expand the experience into the live forum by performing this intricately layered work in intimate rooms with pristine acoustics.”
