Art Garfunkel Recalls Tearful Reunion with Paul Simon and Teases Their Music Future: 'I Can Still Feel His Hug'

Mar. 15, 2025

Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert in New York City in October 2009.Photo:Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Art Garfunkelsays the future is hopeful for Simon & Garfunkel.

The musician, 83, revealed inan interview withThe Timesthat he recently had a tearful reunion with his former music collaboratorPaul Simon, 83.

While promoting his upcoming Garfunkel & Garfunkel albumFather and Sonwith his son Art Garfunkel Jr., 33, the eight-time Grammy winner said that he caught up with Simon “a couple of weeks back.”

“First time we’d been together in many years,” Garfunkel said in the interview. “I looked at Paul and said, ‘What happened? Why haven’t we seen each other?’ Paul mentioned an old interview where I said some stuff.”

Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon at the Grammys in the 1970s.Bettmann Archive

The “Bright Eyes” singer continued to share his regrets over their feud. “I cried when he told me how much I had hurt him,” he said. “Looking back, I guess I wanted to shake up the nice guy image of Simon & Garfunkel. Y’know what? I was a fool!”

Garfunkel revealed that the two “made plans to meet again” and teased that they may revisit their music legacy – although that is not his priority. “Will Paul bring his guitar? Who knows. For me, it was about wanting to make amends before it’s too late,” the singer said. “It felt like we were back in a wonderful place. As I think about it now, tears are rolling down my cheeks. I can still feel his hug.”

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Garfunkel and Simon released a total of five studio albums from 1964 to 1970. After the final studio album,Bridge over Troubled Water, they split. However, they reunited over the years while growing their solo music careers.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel perform during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in New York City in January 1990.Larry Busacca/Getty Images

The duo famously came back together in 1981 for a benefit concert in Central Park, which was later released as an album and a concert movie.

In the 2024 documentaryIn Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, Simonrecalled the events that led to their breakup.

“We were really best friends up untilBridge over Troubled Water,” Simon said of his former bandmate and friend since elementary school. “[Afterwards], it didn’t have the harmony of the friendship… that was broken.”

According to Simon, when Garfunkel was cast in the movieCatch-22, he expected him to hold the fort down with their music career. “Artie said, ‘Yeah, the way it’s going to be is that I will do movies for six months, then I’ll come back, you’ll have written the songs, and we will do the album,’ and I thought, ‘Yeah? Actually, no. That’s not gonna happen. I am not gonna do that,’ " Simon recalled.

Inan exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Simon said that their Central Park reunion was just “a luxurious bandage.”

Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon in 1957 in New York City.James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

“The breakup that happened afterCatch-22was never repaired,” he explained. “It was just a bandage put over it. But the bandage was such a luxurious bandage — the concert in Central Park — we forgot that essentially, we were done as a team.”

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Garfunkel’s son also spoke withThe Timesabout his father’s recent reunion with Simon, saying, “They’ve had their ups and downs over the years, but after the meeting, Dad was so happy. He called me and said, ‘Paul’s my brother; he’s family.’ "

Garfunkel and Garfunkel’s new albumFather and Sonis out now.

source: people.com