We might be forced to consider that Art Garfunkel has officially stopped giving any f*cks. In addition to his appearance on Fallon where he joined Black Simon & Garfunkel to cover The Weeknd, he just gave one of the weirdest interviews we’ve ever seen to Salon.
Garfunkel spends the entire interview talking about himself in third-person, interviews himself for a while and decries reunion questions (while answering why a reunion isn’t happening).
We’ve gathered some highlights below.
On Spelling Choices:
“They’re very different kinds of people. I think that Stephen-with-a-ph is the artist. Steven-with-a-v is more ordinary, but an American ordinary. Like Bob. It doesn’t have that specialness.”
On Bloomington, Indiana:
“You know, I walked across America, so I got a real feel for the geography. Bloomington’s near the middle of the state, near Indianapolis, right? So this is very American. The land is kind of flat with a little bit of curvature—a very sweet curvature to the land, yes? We think of Bloomington as a college town, correct? So fall means back to school in a very rich way. It’s wonderful, that back-to-school feeling of September. It’s a rebirth. The air gets autumn keen and the spirit sharpens up… Campuses are so pretty, if only the kids realized it. The rest of the Earth is something less than that.”
The Bit Where He Talks To Himself:
“Alright, I’ll ask the first question myself. Artie, did you ever meet The Beatles? And then I give them the real answer. Yes, I did. Each of the four guys on different evenings. Great, cherishable memories, and I got into it.
Are you ever going to work with Paul again? And now, Stephen, you’re going to say, “Are you ever going to work with Paul again? Because you’re a writer and this is a field of real, basic curiosity.”
On The Elephant In The Room:
“Paul and Artie can be very squirmy around each other. We’re so damned different, but when the song and the music is happening and Paul is playing guitar—and Paul Simon plays brilliant acoustic guitar—you go to that place comfortably. That’s a good answer, isn’t it?”
The whole thing is deeply strange and well worth a read. Check it out here.
