Art Garfunkel, 84, Returns to Touring After 20 Years of Sparse Singing

Q: After years of silence and a tearful reunion, could a final Simon and Garfunkel performance be secretly in the works?

There is no solid evidence that a final Simon and Garfunkel performance is secretly being planned. What is clear is that Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon did reconnect emotionally. Garfunkel said they had dinner, with “tears” and “hugs,” after years of limited contact. But he has also been explicit that he does not know if it will lead to anything and added, “I don’t think so much about him as I think about what’s ahead of me.” That is the strongest direct evidence available, and it points to uncertainty rather than a hidden reunion plan. The broader context also argues against reading too much into the meeting. Simon and Garfunkel have a long history of breaking apart and briefly reuniting, including the huge 1981 Central Park concert and later comeback attempts. A planned 2010 run was derailed by Garfunkel’s vocal problems, and they have not performed together since. At the same time, both men, now in their mid-80s, have been focused on their own late-career paths. Garfunkel is now concentrating on his revived solo performing, saying small New York shows restored his voice and enthusiasm and that he is singing more than at any point in two decades. Simon, separately, has also returned to selective live performance in recent years despite health challenges. So the reunion dinner makes a final duet more imaginable than it was before, but there is still no reported booking, rehearsal, announcement or insider confirmation. For now, the idea remains possible, not probable.

Q: How did walking across continents and teaching math save the voice behind some of history's biggest songs?

Walking and teaching math helped save Art Garfunkel by giving him distance from fame, structure outside show business, and a way to rebuild himself after personal and professional strain. Garfunkel has said that after difficult periods, especially in the early 1980s, he took long walks across the United States and Europe. Those journeys were not publicity stunts; he described them as restorative, helping him recover emotionally and physically. For a singer whose identity had long been tied to performance, the walks appear to have acted as a reset, replacing pressure with endurance, solitude and reflection. Teaching mathematics served a similar purpose earlier in his life. After Simon & Garfunkel’s early interruptions and amid his unease with the ego of the music industry, Garfunkel taught math at a Connecticut prep school and pursued advanced study in the subject. He later said teaching was a “resting time” and a deliberate turn away from show-business vanity. It gave him routine, intellectual focus and a version of life in which he was valued for discipline and clarity rather than celebrity. Taken together, those detours helped preserve the man behind the voice. They did not directly “fix” his singing, but they kept him grounded enough to return to it. Garfunkel now says that after years of near silence, small New York shows reignited the joy he had felt all along: that singing before an audience, when it becomes effortless, is still the center of his life.

Q: What secret pushed an 84-year-old music legend to release an AI track while refusing to own a computer?

The “secret” was not a hidden embrace of technology but a renewed creative push from Garfunkel’s comeback and the people around him. He said his new management arranged the AI-assisted release of “Authorship,” which pairs a spoken excerpt from his memoir with generated piano backing, even though he still jokes that he owns no computer and has no internet. What drove it was his rediscovered desire to perform and create again after years of near silence. Garfunkel said small, informal shows in New York revived the joy he feels when singing becomes effortless and reaches what he called a “high point of pure joy.” That revival appears to have opened the door to related projects tied to his memoir, including the AI track. So the answer is practical rather than mysterious: Garfunkel did not personally turn into a tech enthusiast. Instead, his management used AI as a production tool for a memoir-linked piece while he remained focused on what he says has always defined him — singing, storytelling, writing and reading. His refusal to own a computer underscores that the track was a curated collaboration around his voice and words, not a personal conversion to digital culture.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 4

At 84, Garfunkel says he is back on the road and singing more than at any point in two decades, with a UK run scheduled for October after years largely away from regular performing.
A 60-seat trial run north of New York restarted that comeback: after reflecting on what still brought him joy, he took a friend's advice to sing and tell stories, then decided after three nights to return.
The Simon & Garfunkel singer said he had barely been singing until about a year ago and had not toured since 2019, though he recorded 2024's Father and Son with his son Art Jr.
The return adds a new chapter to a career that made Simon & Garfunkel the best-selling pop duo in history, even as any reunion with Paul Simon remains uncertain despite a warm 2025 dinner.