Carly Simon said on July 27 that she has Parkinson’s disease and skin cancer, and the update explains years of silence from the 83-year-old singer. She also said her new album, Comes in Waves, is scheduled for August 14.
“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. She added, “The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”
Mayo Clinic Diagnosis
Simon said she was evaluated at the Mayo Clinic and learned she had Parkinson’s disease after first dealing with arthritis in both of her knees and one hip. She said all three joints were replaced, then treatment began, including medication.
Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and Simon said it has brought exhaustion and apathy on some days, while on others it leaves her more room to move, think, work, and feel like herself. That swing helps explain why public absence can look like disappearance even when work continues behind the scenes.
Skin Cancer Surgery
Simon said she was also diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma on her face while undergoing treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and that the cancer was removed. She said the surgery changed her appearance and made her more self-conscious about being seen in public.
“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 said. The result is a health update that reads less like a comeback announcement than a reset of what public life has meant for her.
Comes in Waves
“Between my mobility issues, the Parkinson’s diagnosis, the surgery, and the emotional effects of it all, withdrawing from public view was the most palatable reaction,” Simon said. She also said, “But I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working.”
That is the useful takeaway for readers tracking her return: Simon did not frame silence as retirement, only as a response to stacked health problems. With Comes in Waves due on August 14, the next measurable step is whether the album becomes the public-facing proof of that promise.
