Art Garfunkel reveals he cried during recent reunion with Paul Simon
Art Garfunkel has revealed that he was brought to tears during a recent meeting with his former musical partner, Paul Simon.
The two men haven’t performed together since 2010, when they were due to play a huge reunion tour across North America. However, after one concert in New Orleans, plans for the run of dates were shelved due to Garfunkel suffering from vocal issues which made touring impossible.
Since then, Simon has shut down all reports of the duo ever joining forces ever again and drawn a firm line under their partnership. Instead, he has remained focussed on his solo career, with his most recent album, Seven Psalms, arriving in 2023.
Notably, Simon said about Garfunkel to biographer Robert Hilman: “He let us all down. I was tired of all the drama. I didn’t feel I could trust him any more.”
Meanwhile, Garfunkel told The Telegraph in 2015 of his former right-hand man: “How can you walk away from this lucky place on top of the world, Paul? What’s going on with you, you idiot? How could you let that go, jerk?”.
Although it seemed like their friendship had run its course, and too many things had been said for the duo to recover, now, Garfunkel has revealed they recently enjoyed lunch together.
In a new interview with The Sun, Garfunkel shared: “I met with Paul Simon for the first time in years just recently. We had a lunch together. It was very, very warm and wonderful.”
While it was an enjoyable encounter, Garfunkel also found the meeting to be an extremely emotional affair, noting, “There were tears. I was crying at a certain point because I felt that I had hurt him.”
Nevertheless, Garfunkel holds nothing but positive feelings about their recent lunch, stating, “But there were hugs. I’m cherishing this two-week-old memory of having lunch with Paul Simon.”
One topic that was off menu was their success in the 1960s with Simon and Garfunkel choosing not to reminisce about those sacred times they shared, explaining, “No, we didn’t. That speaks for itself.”
On a wider note, Garfunkel stated that it’s not within his personality to hold grudges, and he’s relieved to have moved on from their feud, stating, “I like to think I’m a man who has a lot of love. There are NO relationships of mine that don’t have love at the bottom. I love everyone. I can’t imagine holding a position of dislike and clinging to it. It’s all meant to be resolved so we can die easy.”
Could Simon and Garfunkel reunite?
At the moment, it seems incredibly unlikely that Simon and Garfunkel will reunite despite burying the hatchet between them. Simon retired from touring in 2018, and has since struggled with his hearing which has prevented him from performing live.
However, recently, Simon provided a positive update to The Guardian, optimistically saying, “I’m hoping to eventually be able to do a full-length concert. I’m optimistic. Six months ago I was pessimistic.”
Nevertheless, even if Simon can play full-length concerts again, it seems he would have no interest in playing huge arena shows alongside Garfunkel. The singer-songwriter admitted that he doesn’t want to participate in “extraordinary stadium spectaculars” like his peers, and would rather focus on refreshing his songwriting abilities.
“I’m interested in relearning how to write songs, like I did in England, and developing new acoustic sounds,” he added.
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