Paul Simon “optimistic” about playing full-length concerts again

Paul Simon is looking to get back out on the stage.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer previously said that his hearing loss had prevented him from performing. But in March he shared that his hearing has improved, enabling him to play some short acoustic shows, including a charity concert in New York in September.

And now he’s giving fans some hope of even bigger shows in the future.

“I’m hoping to eventually be able to do a full-length concert,” he told The Guardian. “I’m optimistic. Six months ago I was pessimistic.” 

Simon went on what he said would be his last tour back in 2018, but apparently he never meant for it to be the end of his live performing. 

“I never said I was going to retire,” he shared. “I said I was going to stop, which I did.”

“I thought that with that band and the repertoire we were doing we’d developed it as far as we could. It was enjoyable, but I wanted to find out what happens when you stop,” he added. “Then I had a dream, and everything changed back to a new version of reality.”

That dream led to his most recent album, Seven Psalms, released in 2023. Simon says he’s already working on new music, including two new songs that have already been written. One of them is a duet he wrote with wife Edie Brickell, which he says “is different from anything I’ve written.”