Paul Simon, 83, has stepped out of his retirement, as he announced his plans to go on tour.
The singer, who initially retired in 2018, shared a post to Instagram on Tuesday to announce his 2025 US tour, Paul Simon in Concert: A Quiet Celebration. His post included a list of the tour dates, with the caption noting that tickets would go on sale on Friday, February 21 on his website.
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All of Simon’s shows will be taking place at intimate venues around the country, a decision made in response to his hearing loss as “the acoustics are optional” in these spaces, according to a press release.
The Grammy winner is working with his production team and the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss for the tour, to plan out his stage setup with “moving monitors to surround him.”
Along with songs from his latest album Seven Psalms, which was released in 2023, concertgoers can expect to hear Simon perform some of his beloved classics.
“The Sound of Silence” singer will begin his tour in April, with two nights at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana. The following three shows will be in Austin, Texas at the Bass Concert Hall. Some of the other cities he’ll be visiting are Kansas City, Nashville, Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles.
His final three shows of this tour will be on July 31, August 2, and August 3, and they’ll all be held at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington.
Simon announced his retirement in 2018, noting that the American and European Homeward Bound tour would be his last one.
“I feel the travel and time away from my wife and family takes a toll that detracts from the joy of playing. I’d like to leave with a big thank you to the many folks around the world who’ve come out to watch me play over the last 50 years,” he said in a statement at the time. “I am very grateful for a fulfilling career and, of course, most of all to the audiences who heard something in my music that touched their hearts.”
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Still, he went on to create new music, releasing Seven Psalms years later. However, in 2023, he also confessed that while he was writing this album, he suffered a near-total loss of hearing in one ear. He also claimed that doctors had been unable to diagnose the cause of the hearing loss.
“Quite suddenly I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, and nobody has an explanation for it,” he told The Sunday Times in 2023, then noting that it was “extremely” unlikely for him to return to the stage again. “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.”
The “You Can Call Me Al” singer gave a rare update about his health in March 2024, revealing that his hearing had returned in some capacity.
“That’s come back to enough of a degree that I’m comfortable singing and playing guitar and playing a few other instruments,” he said, while attending the premiere of the two-part documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, from director Alex Gibney.
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“I can hear my voice the way I want it in the context of the music,” Simon added. “If there’s a drum or an electric guitar, it’s too loud and I can’t hear my voice. But when I first lost the hearing, I couldn’t get, it threw me off. Everything was coming from this side.”
Simon’s return to the stage comes a day after he appeared on SNL 50 on Sunday. During the New York City event, Simon had the opportunity to open the live special, singing “Homeward Bound” with Sabrina Carpenter.
