Paul Simon opens up about how his hearing loss affects him
Paul Simon is grateful that despite struggling with his hearing, creativity doesn't stop with disability.
In 2023, Paul Simon revealed that he has been experiencing hearing loss.
In a recent interview with CBS Mornings, the 'Bridge over Troubled Water' hitmaker said experiencing hearing loss initially made him angry.
“It was incredibly frustrating. I was very angry at first that this had happened,” Simon told CBS.
The legendary singer added that he was fearful of his hearing problem affecting his music creativity.
“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 added.
The singer says he now has about 6% hearing in his left ear, so he has had to adjust how he makes his music.
"I'm going through my repertoire and reducing a lot of the choices that I make to acoustic versions. It's all much quieter. It's not 'You Can Call Me Al.' That's gone. I can't do that one," Simon told the publication.
Simon added that disabilities do not have to stop creativity.
"So I don't think creativity stops with disability. So far, I haven't experienced that. And I hope not to," he said.
Simon's first realisation that his hearing was negatively affected occurred while he was recording his album, 'Seven Psalms'.
The singer told The Times newspaper last year: “Quite suddenly, I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, and nobody has an explanation for it."
As a result, he said, "everything became more difficult.”
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