Paul Simon says he is ready to give up making and playing music, 61 years after he started as a 13-year-old. “You’re coming towards the end,” he said in an interview this week, discussing the mysterious epiphanies that delivered some of his greatest songs, the toxic qualities of fame, and his yearning to explore questions of spirituality and neuroscience.
“Showbiz doesn’t hold any interest for me,” Mr. Simon said. “None.”
Here is why you might consider believing him.
As someone who saw The Who at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in 1982, during the first of their many, many “farewell tours,” I’ll take Simon’s claim he’s retiring from showbiz with a healthy smidgen of sodium chloride.