Paul Simon Reveals He Lost Most Of His Hearing In His Left Ear

Paul Simon admits that he already lost most of his hearing in his left ear.

During an interview with The Times, the singer-songwriter reveals that his condition came on “quite suddenly.” He further explained:

“Nobody has an explanation for it.

“So everything became more difficult. My reaction to that was frustration and annoyance; not quite anger yet, because I thought it would pass, it would repair itself.”

In 208, Simon retired from touring but has occasionally performed some shows here and there. He confessed the hearing issue continued and would likely end up with him ruling out any concerts or live performances.

Talking about his relationship with music, Simon mentioned:

“The songs of mine that I don’t want to sing live, I don’t sing them.

“Sometimes there are songs that I like and then at a certain point in a tour, I’ll say, ‘What the fuck are you doing, Paul?’ Quite often that would come during ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ I’d think, ‘What are you doing? You’re like a Paul Simon cover band. You should get off the road, go home.’”

Even with his love-hate connection with music, Simon recently released his fifteenth solo album, Seven Psalms. On that album, Simon talks about faith, spirituality, and mortality through his songs.

The rocker, now 81, also thinks about his own health problems. Noting his struggles with COVID on top of the aforementioned hearing loss he said:

“Boy, have I been beaten up in these last couple of years.”

When talking about the recent passing of Gordon Lightfoot and Jeff Beck, he stated:

“My generation’s time is up.”