Garfunkel Has Some (Weird) Stuff to Say About Simon

It seems the one word that might best sum up the relationship between Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon is "complicated." In a new interview with the Telegraph, Garfunkel (who is set to tour the UK in September) vacillates between bitterness and apparent affection for his old singing partner:

• George Harrison of the Beatles "came up to me at a party once and said 'my Paul is to me what your Paul is to you,'" Garfunkel recalls. "He meant that psychologically they had the same effect on us. The Pauls sidelined us."
• When asked why Simon & Garfunkel broke up in 1970 at the height of its success, Garfunkel replies, "It was very strange. Nothing I would have done. I want to open up about this. I don't want to say any anti Paul Simon things, but it seems very perverse to not enjoy the glory and walk away from it instead. Crazy. What I would have done is take a rest from Paul, because he was getting on my nerves. The jokes had run dry. But a rest of a year was all I needed."

• Garfunkel asks the reporter if, at a recent concert with Sting, Simon sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (which, in the Simon & Garfunkel days, Garfunkel always sang solo). Upon hearing that he did, Garfunkel calls the move "a gamble," then reads the reporter a poem he wrote about a zebra.
• But there's affection for Simon, whom Garfunkel grew up with, too. "Will I do another tour with Paul? Well, that’s quite do-able," he says. "When we get together, with his guitar, it's a delight to both of our ears."
• The affection doesn't last long: Garfunkel goes on to call Simon an "idiot" and a "jerk" for walking away from "this lucky place on top of the world" (presumably, Simon & Garfunkel's glory days), and theorizes that the short-statured Simon might have a bit of a Napoleon complex. When they first met as youngsters, Garfunkel notes, he felt bad Simon was so short, and became friends with him because of it. "And that compensation gesture has created a monster. End of interview."

Click for the entire, strange interview. (More Art Garfunkel stories.)