Singer Carly Simon reveals she has Parkinson’s disease, received treatment for skin cancer
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Singer-songwriter Carly Simon (seen here in a 2018 photo) has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she announced on July 27.
PHOTO: ELIZABETH CECIL/NYTIMES
Derrick Bryson Taylor
- Carly Simon, 83, has revealed her diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease and shared her struggles with its symptoms and emotional impact.
- She is releasing her first album of original songs in 18 years, Comes In Waves, in August, which has helped her cope.
- Simon emphasised that despite health challenges, she remains active, leans on others and values music as a source of strength and purpose.
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American singer-songwriter Carly Simon has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she announced on July 27.
“It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it and to decide how much I wanted to say about it,” Simon, 83, said in a statement, adding that she was still learning how to accept the condition “without feeling that I have surrendered something essential”.
She decided to reveal the news, the statement said, after people began to wonder why she had not responded to their inquiries about her relative public silence lately.
“The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease,” she said. It was unclear when Simon had received her diagnosis.
She is best known for 1970s hits like You’re So Vain and Nobody Does It Better, as well as Let The River Run, which was released in 1989 as a single and won an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy.
Her first new album of original songs in 18 years, titled Comes In Waves, is set to be released in August. Its lead single, Howl, came out in June.
Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that damages nerve cells in the brain, include tremors, stiffness and trouble with balance and movement. The disease has no cure.
In her statement, Simon said that she sometimes found herself “so tired, I can’t get the day moving at all”, but that at other times, Parkinson’s gave her “more room to move, think, work and feel like myself”.
Her health problems began, she said, after she had her knees and a hip replaced because of arthritis. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after being evaluated at the Mayo Clinic.
She had found the feelings of apathy that the disease could provoke particularly challenging. “It is not simply sadness or laziness,” she said. “It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.”
Around the time of her diagnosis, Simon was also treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face.
The surgery to remove the cancer had affected her appearance, making her more self-conscious about being seen in public.
But working on her new album gave shape to her days, she said. “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.”
Music “has rescued me more times than I can count”, added Simon. These days, “I lean on others more than I once did, and I have learnt to accept that every day will look a little different. But I am still very much here”. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
