Art Garfunkel Plans Return of Simon & Garfunkel As His Voice Mends

Last summer Simon & Garfunkel postponed their North American tour indefinitely when Art Garfunkel was diagnosed with vocal cord paresis. But Friday the singer told Rolling Stone exclusively that he's on the mend and hopes to reschedule the dates next summer. "My voice is coming back slowly, too slowly," he said. "In my bones I feel healthy. I know it's coming back. I just have to be patient."

Two and a half months ago Garfunkel quit smoking to help his voice recover. "Two weeks ago my doctor put a camera down my nose into my throat," he said. "He said 'I really like what I see. You're in good shape, basically. All the apparatus is right. You will definitely be a singer and just fine again. You just have to have patience. You just irritated it with the heat of smoking until two and a half months ago.'"

Read Rolling Stone's review of Simon & Garfunkel's concert at JazzFest

As of now Garfunkel has pulled all solo and Simon & Garfunkel dates, but in the spring he plans to be begin rehearsing again. "That means that our tour of last summer will have taken a one year pause," he said. "Think of me like Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies. In print I saw him say, 'I expect to be fully better around February or March.' When he said that I thought, 'Maybe my vocal chord is like Jimmy Rollins' hamstring.'"

Simon & Garfunkel reunited in 2003 for the highly successful Old Friends tour, and resumed it last year in Australia and Japan. "I'm delighted in 2009 that Simon & Garfunkel was alive and well," said Garfunkel. "I was touched. I really feel we've led a charmed life."

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter