Art Garfunkel has shared more details about his recent reunion with singing partner Paul Simon.
Back in November, the musician shared that he and Simon had an emotional lunch together, noting he cried when Simon told him how much he had hurt him with comments he made in an old interview. Those comments led to their yearslong estrangement.
In a new interview with NME, Garfunkel admits he likely said the things he said intentionally to hurt Simon.
“Paul said to me, ‘Arty, it’s not that you spoke to the British press and that you didn’t do it well. I know you said you wanted to put spice into the image of Simon & Garfunkel. I know you felt that we were too conservative,'” Garfunkel said. “Well, my idea of spice meant a certain candor that must have hurt Paul’s feelings. I realized; I did hurt his feelings.”
“He said, ‘I felt you wanted to hurt me. That’s what got me.’ And I thought, ‘That’s true.’ I wanted to hurt him,” Garfunkel added. “The next thing I knew, I burst into tears.”
“The admission of the truth is psychological. You give it up and admit that you wanted to hurt somebody. You’re touched by your own confession. And then there were hugs,” he said. “It was a wonderful moment for Simon & Garfunkel. It basically ended the years of detachment.”
Garfunkel also had some great things to say about his former singing partner.
“Paul’s very funny. The basis of the Simon & Garfunkel relationship is laughter and jokes – even more than music,” he said. “Right from the beginning, we laughed all the time, and it was the source of our connection.”
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