“I don’t like America’s position at all. I’m not aboard, and I’m thinking of leaving the country, frankly. It’s real that the planet is getting warmer, that the water’s rising, that so many people are starving,” he said.
“When Donald Trump took over Venezuela, are those the new rules? Just take over a country and run it? It’s shocking, and you think: how on earth are we gonna change the presidency?”
Garfunkel is not the only celebrity who has threatened to quit the US because of Trump.
Previously, Avatar director James Cameron said he was “sickened” by Trump’s re-election in 2024 and admitted the he was happy his New Zealand citizenship was “imminent”.
“I see a turn away from everything decent,” he said at the time. “America doesn’t stand for anything if it doesn’t stand for what it has historically stood for. It becomes a hollow idea, and I think they’re hollowing it out as fast as they can for their own benefit.”
‘I miss Paul Simon – I’d love to sing with him againArt Garfunkel: ‘I’m in the mood to work with Paul Simon again. We’ll see...’
The great American vocalist on making music with his son, his reading habit, and a possible end to one of rock’s fiercest feuds.
The singer has joined forces with his son to record a new album. He talks to Mark Beaumont about their need to record together and the emotional end to his feud with former singing partner Simon – ‘It’s now a thing of the past’.
“I thought I would stir things up and not be so soft on the image of Simon & Garfunkel,” he says today. “So I was a little spicy, and it was foolish. It hurt his feelings. He said, ‘It’s not so much that you were a victim of the British press, it’s that I thought you wanted to hurt me.’ He said that; I realised, he’s right. I did want to hurt him. The truth is, I was competitive – and I burst into tears. There were hugs and tears; it was an emotional release.”
Now, there is a new duo in town: Garfunkel & Garfunkel. If the name seems oddly familiar, well, it is exactly what it appears to be. At the age of 83, the great American vocalist Art Garfunkel has teamed up with his 34-year-old musician son, Art Garfunkel Jr, to record an album of close harmony duets, prosaically titled Father and Son.
“I was born to do this,” says Garfunkel, talking to me from New York about his first album in seven years. “I sing as a way of life.”
Art calls his son Junior, Darling and Honey. Junior says Father and Daddy or refers to him in the third person by his full name. It is a curious dynamic. The more famous Art Garfunkel comes across as affectionate, indulgent, whimsically philosophical. Junior – the elder of Garfunkel’s two children, born to his (current) wife of 36 years, Kim – is firmer, more direct and energetic, very respectful towards his father while occasionally interrupting when he thinks the conversation might stray into anything potentially controversial. “I’m going to interject and tell my father to make sure that he answers very carefully,” he announces when a question touches on the state of relationships with Paul Simon.
James Garfunkel on changing his name to "Art Jr.," being huge in Germany, and why he's hopeful that Simon and Garfunkel will tour again: "They are in touch. Things are going in a good direction".
Art Garfunkel Jr.’s first memory of singing onstage with his father is pretty hazy, but he knows it took place in Japan sometime before his third birthday. “I believe I was pushed out in a wheelbarrow, wearing a traditional Japanese kimono,” he tells Rolling Stone. “My parents picked me up and I sang a little bit of the high part of [Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 hit] ‘Feelin’ Groovy.'”
When I ask Garfunkel how his son compares as a duet partner to Paul Simon, he demurs. “Oh, I wouldn’t compare it. They’re very different. Whatever I say, it’s going to sound like I’m not being fair to Junior.” His son, however, presses the case, insisting his dad should say what he really thinks. “Paul Simon has a thoughtfulness,” continues Garfunkel.
“Sophisticated and thoughtful. There’s a poet in his style. That’s how I see Paul.”
“And when you sing these songs with me, how do you feel?” asks Junior.
“Like I love you. I’m just coming from a place of love,” responds Garfunkel.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2015, Garfunkel called Simon an “idiot” and a “jerk” and claimed that by befriending Simon at school he “created a monster”. When I asked Paul Simon about those comments in 2016, he said “There’s a guy who’s wrestling with his demons. And I understand it’s a hard battle he’s fighting but if you get close to him, you’ll be in the battle, and you’ll get hit.”
In 2018, Simon announced his retirement from touring, which you might think would put an end to talk of a reunion. Yet Garfunkel is candid about his desire to seek some kind of rapprochement.
Read the full interview on The Telegraph
