Carly Simon has revealed some health struggles, admitting she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and underwent treatment for basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer).
In a statement issued to the press, Simon explained, “So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”
“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 publicly,” she continued. “Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.”
Simon says the problems began after undergoing “replacement surgeries on both knees and one hip.” But her “mobility continued to worsen” and she quickly found it difficult to even get up from furniture and walk on her own.
She is undergoing treatment, including medication to help with stiffness and other symptoms, but she admits she is never sure “what kind of day I am going to have.” Anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and apathy prevent her from doing everything from getting up, reading, watching, writing, singing, calling someone, or doing much of anything at all.
“That has been one of the hardest things to explain,” she says. “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.”
In addition to Parkinson’s, Simon revealed that at the same time she was also treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face. “The cancer was removed, but the surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public,” she explains. “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.”
While Simon confesses to withdrawing from the public eye, she says she has “not stopped living” and has “not stopped working.”
During all of this, Simon has recorded a new album, Comes in Waves, which will be released on August 14.
About the record, she says, “Music has always known when to arrive. It has rescued me more times that I can count. It is like a cat or dog that quietly appears beside you when it senses you are not quite yourself.”
“The album includes songs and fragments of songs that had been waiting for me, some for years,” she adds. “There were melodies, verses, and ideas written down and tucked away for some unknown future when I would have the time and attention to finish them.”
“I do not consider Parkinson’s a gift or a blessing. It is neither,” she concluded. “It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening... 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.”