Is it true that Simon Paul and Art Garfunkel (Simon and Garfunkel) never actually liked eachother?

Jon Mixon

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 Probably listening to music while I'm answering this question.21h

Question: Is it true that Simon Paul and Art Garfunkel (Simon and Garfunkel) never actually liked each other?

Not according to the two men.

In fact the fact that they used to be very good friends is among the few things upon which they agree even at this late date.

What happened?

Let’s see:

1. Fame - Both men became more famous than they ever dreamed of being and it certainly went to both of their heads. Unfortunately neither one of them coped with it well and the results were the end of their friendship even before the end of the musical partnership.
2. Money - There’s was never an equal partnership financially. Simon wrote the songs and so made most of the money. Garfunkel sang and that’s what attracted people to group; however he wasn’t (frankly still isn’t) much of a businessman and so he ended with less money than he seems to believe that he deserved and the rest his history.
3. Paul Simon is a major league a*shole - If you read about his personal life and things like his swapping the late Shelly Duvall for the late Carrie Fisher even though they were both good friends at the time, you realize that the guy would likely score high on tests of antisocial personality disorders. That he and Garfunkel remained friends for as long as they did was itself a major achievement….for Garfunkel.
4. Paul Simon is a major league a*shole #2 - It was clear by the 1990s that a Garfunkel/Simon reunion tour would have earned both men millions of dollars. They didn’t have to be friends; they simply had to tour together for a year or so and then return to their separate lives. Garfunkel was down for that which given Simon’s unkind comments in the media at the time was quite generous. However Simon, apparently buoyed along by the success of his solo releases and the money he’s been earning as a songwriter for decades basically squashed the idea and the two men have remained largely estranged as result.
5. There seems to have been a great deal of jealousy on Paul Simon’s part about the attention paid to Garfunkel - Despite being the wealthier and more musically talented of the two, Paul Simon’s ego needed to be stroked consistently and so he apparently became quite upset that the female attraction to their group veered toward a taller and more handsome Garfunkel. Instead of being happy that as a short,stocky and rather plain-looking man he was getting ANY attention, especially from famous women, Simon has sulked for DECADES about Garfunkel romantic successes during their partnership.

Basically fame, money and Paul Simon are largely the reasons that while he and Garfunkel were quite close in their teens, by their early thirties their personal relationship was simply the financial one that remains even until today.

No Bridge Over These Troubled Waters