Paul Simon won’t be playing ‘You Can Call Me Al’ anymore due to hearing loss

Paul Simon has revealed that in the wake of his hearing loss he’ll no longer be playing one of his biggest hits.

In an interview with CBS Mornings, Simon opens up about the hearing loss he experienced four years ago during the making of his 2023 album, Seven Psalms, sharing, “It was incredibly frustrating. I was very angry at first that this had happened.”

Not surprisingly, he says that when it happened he worried about not being able to make music anymore, saying he was concerned that “I can’t hear well enough to really enjoy the act of making music.”

But Simon has learned to adapt and has found a way to still perform, although he says he can’t play all the songs he used to play.

“I’m going through my repertoire and reducing a lot of the choices that I make to acoustic version,” he explains. “It’s all much quieter. It’s not ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ That’s gone. I can’t do that one,” referring to the 1986 Graceland track.

His hearing loss hasn’t stopped him from writing music either.

“You know Matisse, when he was suffering at the end of his life, when he was in bed, he envisioned all these cut-outs and had a great creative period,” Simon said. “So I don’t think creativity stops with disability. So far, I haven’t experienced that. And I hope not to.”