'YOU CAN'T LIVE ON YOUR PAST'

THE MUSIC ICON REFLECTS ON HIS LEGACY, HIS LOVES AND HIS FUTURE AS HE PLOTS A NEW TOUR

- RACHEL DESANTIS

A Joy Revisited Garfunkel (inset, right, with Paul Simon) says his return to the stage is inspired by a memory of performing the duo's 1966 tune "Kathy's Song."

Art Garfunkel is mid-interview when he asks if he can be granted an “indulgence.” A prolific writer, Garfunkel, best known as a singer—first with his childhood friend Paul Simon and later as a solo artist—would like to read aloud a poem he’s written about London’s Royal Albert Hall, where he’ll play in October as part of his upcoming What a Wonderful World tour. Twenty minutes later he asks to read another, this one about falling in love with the way his parents sang harmony together when he was 6 years old, selections that perfectly bookend his nearly 70-year career. “It’s not so long,” he says, pausing during the second poem. “I won’t bore you.”

Garfunkel, 84, has read the dictionary cover to cover (for fun!), so he knows his words have power. A Grammy-winning singer, actor and poet who sold more than 100 million records as part of Simon & Garfunkel, he’s currently gearing up for his first full-scale tour in seven years. “I didn’t know I was going to do this. I’m getting up in years. But I’m a singer. I’m good at it. I want to be known rather than fade away,” he says. “I’m more nervous now, but I flip over from fear to confidence immediately as I hit the stage. I lean on my voice. It’s my friend.”

'I KNOW THAT SINGING BRINGS JOY. GOD GAVE ME A GIFT' -ART GARFUNKEL