Las year, Paul Simon revealed that he suddenly, and without explanation, lost almost all hearing in his left ear while recording his latest album Seven Psalms.

It's been a challenging road for the legendary singer-songwriter, who a year ago admitted “I haven’t accepted it entirely, but I’m beginning to." Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, Simon divulged that he's feeling much more "optimistic" about the prospect of playing live again than he did earlier this year.

“I’m hoping to eventually be able to do a full-length concert,” he said. “I’m optimistic. Six months ago I was pessimistic.”

Simon also opened up about the "scary, frustrating" experience and how he's processed it. “You’re in denial and then you’re overwhelmed by this change in your life because you now have a disability,” he explained. “But even though it wasn’t pleasurable any more, I started to think that this was some new information that I needed to absorb into the piece. I started to focus on sounds, not from computers or synthesizers, but acoustic instruments used in unusual ways.”

Simon embarked on his farewell tour in 2018, but has played some one-off shows since then.

“I never said I was going to retire,” he clarified to The Guardian. “I said I was going to stop, which I did. I thought that with that band and the repertoire we were doing we’d developed it as far as we could. It was enjoyable, but I wanted to find out what happens when you stop.”

Jeffrey T. Mason