Paul Simon opens up about what caused the rift in his relationship with his former friend and musical partner Art Garfunkel in episode one of the two-part docuseries In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, airing on MGM+.
“We were really best friends up until Bridge Over Troubled Water,” he shares, according to People.
“[Afterward], it didn’t have the harmony of the friendship … that was broken.”
Simon contends that Garfunkel accepting a role in the 1970 film Catch-22 played a major role in the divide between them. Garfunkel expected Simon to write all the music for their next album while he was gone. But Simon was not on board with that, making him realize they had an “uneven partnership.”
When the film shoot lasted longer than the original six-month plan, Simon claims Garfunkel expected him to send him what he wrote so he could give his input. But Simon was unhappy with that arrangement, noting, “It was a recipe for the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel.”
And when they would perform “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Garfunkel got all the praise for his voice, and it upset Simon, whose main thought was, “I wrote that song.”
“This is my oldest friend, and we experienced anonymity, and then great fame and success, and those things have their own pressure,” he said.
He later noted, “That was a good friendship. That was a real first friendship of somebody that got it. For me to turn into a person that I hope I never see again — that’s a long way.”
Episode two of In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon debuts March 24.
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