Paul Simon To Embark On Farewell Tour

John Davisson – Paul Simon
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Fairgrounds Racecourse, New Orleans, La.

A chapter of music history will come to a close in 2018 when Paul Simon returns to the road for his final concert tour.

Although one of Simon’s big hits was “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” the artist’s 2018 routing is, so far, numbering nearly 30 cities spread across North America and Europe.  The tour opens May 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and wraps July at the Barclaycard British Summer Time fest at Hyde Park in London.  James Taylor & His All-Star Band and Bonnie Raitt will appear with Simon on the BST show as well as the July 13 gig at Dublin’s RSD Arena.

“I’ve often wondered what it would feel like to reach the point where I’d consider bringing my performing career to a natural end,” Simon said in a statement.  “Now I know: it feels a little unsettling, a touch exhilarating and something of a relief.  I am very grateful for a fulfilling career and, of course, most of all to the audiences who heard something in my music that touched their hearts.”

Simon’s spectacular catalog spans decades, beginning with songs like “The Sound Of Silence,” “Homeward Bound” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” all recorded with Art Garfunkel, to solo efforts such as “Still Crazy After All These Years,” “Kodachrome” and “Loves Me Like A Rock” and “The Boy In The Bubble.”  Collectively, Simon’s songs have broken the Top 40 29 times, 14 of which hit the Top 10. 

A member of the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, Simon has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame twice – as one-half of Simon and Garfunkel and for his solo career.

Simon’s concert legacy is also a winner, having toured with artists ranging from Sting to Bob Dylan.  The shows reported to Pollstar’s number-crunching Box Office department for Simon’s June 2017 brief run across North America show a total gross just over $138 million with an average nightly gross upwards of $5.6 million.

Tickets for shows in Europe go on sale Feb. 8 and North America concerts go on sale Feb. 9. Be sure to follow Pollstar’s Paul Simon page for further developments.