Singer Carly Simon made a serious announcement this week – while also modeling strength and perseverance in the face of difficulty.
“So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing,” Simon said to Variety in a statement. “The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”
Simon, 83, described periods of struggling to walk without assistance, as well as bouts of “anxiety, depression, exhaustion and apathy” following her diagnosis. “It is not simply sadness or laziness. It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.”
Her health woes continue from there, as she also grappled with basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. “The cancer was removed, but the surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public,” Simon said. “I have always been more critical of my appearance than anyone else could possibly imagine – check out the irony of having written ‘You’re So Vain’ – and this gave my inner critic quite a lot of new material.”
She is perhaps best known for that hit single, a lilting lamentation of selfish male lovers inspired by actor Warren Beatty, among several other men. She notably allowed the use of “You’re So Vain” in an ad against President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign for office, citing the leaked “Access Hollywood” recording featuring Trump making several sexist, lecherous statements.
But her discography extends far beyond that Grammy-nominated track, to include nearly two dozen albums, and songs for films such as “Working Girl,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Her work has garnered several Grammy wins, as well as an Oscar and a Golden Globe. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.
Simon, the daughter of Simon & Schuster founder Richard Simon and classical musician / civil rights activist Andrea Simon, has weathered adversity beyond this recent bout of illness – including a severe stutter in her younger years, a painful divorce from ex-husband and fellow musician James Taylor in the 1980s, a mastectomy and chemotherapy for breast cancer in the late 1990s, and a Ponzi scheme led by financial advisor Kenneth Starr in 2010.
Despite her myriad health and personal woes, Simon continues to do what she loves most – making music. In fact, her first full-length album since 2008, “Comes in Waves,” will be released on Aug. 14.
“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape. It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room. It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life,” she said of the recording process.
Indeed, “these days I move more slowly, I lean on others more than I once did, and I have learned to accept that every day will look a little different. But I am still very much here.”
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