A music legend explains why he will no longer perform his biggest hit song.

Paul Simon revealed this in a new interview for “CBS Mornings» that he has suffered considerable hearing loss over the past four years and now hears about 6% in his left ear. He was afraid he would go completely deaf and have to give up music altogether.

“It was incredibly frustrating. At first I was very angry because this had happened,” Simon told CBS.

The 83-year-old singer-songwriter, also known for his work with Art Garfunkel like Simon & Garfunkel, said he made adjustments to continue playing. He uses larger speakers, placed around him when he performs, and has made dramatic changes to his setlists.

“I go through my repertoire and narrow down a lot of my choices to acoustic versions. Everything is much calmer. It’s not “You can call me Al.” Here we go. I can’t do that one,” Simon said.

“You Can Call Me Al”, from Simon’s famous album “Graceland”, was not his highest solo hit – it reached #23 in 1986 – but remained his most popular track, reaching over 645 million streams on Spotify and 133 million on YouTube. That’s more streams than his next two most popular solo songs, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” (his only song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100) and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” combined .

Hearing loss is generally irreversible and affects nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide. Hearing aids and cochlear implants can help, but not cure, disability.

Simon, who is married to fellow musician Edie Brickell, told CBS he recently met with scientists from the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss. The SICHL team is studying zebrafish, whose inner ear structures are similar to those of humans, and is experimenting with drugs that can treat zebrafish hearing loss, among other ways to prevent, repair and replace tissue. damaged inner ear.

Simon is a 16-time Grammy winner and two-time member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted as a solo artist and with Simon & Garfunkel. His catalog includes solo favorites like “Kodachrome,” “Still Crazy All These Years” and “Slip Slidin’ Away,” as well as folk-rock classics with Garfunkel like “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “The Sound of Silence” and “Mrs. Robinson.” »

Garfunkel, also 83, told The Sun earlier this month that he recently reunited with Simon for the first time in years. They had lunch together, more than a decade after their last performance as Simon & Garfunkel.

“It was very, very warm and wonderful. There were tears. I was crying at one point because I felt like I had hurt him – but there were hugs,” Garfunkel said. “I cherish this memory of two weeks of lunch with Paul Simon.”