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Carly Simon announced she has Parkinson’s disease in a statement Monday that also revealed she was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
The “You’re So Vain” singer said she received the Parkinson’s diagnosis after experiencing a decline in mobility.
“Eventually, there were periods when I could not walk without considerable help,” she said in the statement obtained by CBS News. “My family and I knew something more was going on.”
Simon, 83, said she has started treatment for the disease, which can cause stiffness, slowed movement, impaired balance, speech changes and tremors. There isn’t a known cure for Parkinson’s, but medications can ease some of the symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Simon said her medication helps with stiffness and other symptoms, but the severity of the neurodegenerative disorder still ebbs and flows.
“There is no tidy or predictable schedule to the illness. It does not consult my calendar before deciding what kind of day I am going to have,” she said. The singer also noted how Parkinson’s “can affect much more than the body,” sometimes causing “anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and apathy” as well.
She said experiencing the apathy that can accompany her disease has been “particularly strange.”
“You can find yourself lying there like a starfish drying in the sun, arms pointing in all directions, while nothing inside is telling you to get up, read, watch, write, sing, call someone, or do much of anything at all,” she said. “That has been one of the hardest things to explain. It is not simply sadness or laziness. It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.”
Amid her Parkinson’s diagnosis and treatment, Simon was also treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face. She said the surgery to remove the cancer further isolated her, as it affected her appearance and made her self-conscious.
“I have always been more critical of my appearance than anyone else could possibly imagine (check out the irony of having written “You’re So Vain.”), and this gave my inner critic quite a lot of new material,” she said.
But, at the same time, Simon was recording a new record — her first in 18 years — called “Comes in Waves.” It’s due for release next month.
“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape,” said Simon. “It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room. It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”
Simon called Parkinson’s “difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening.”
“I am still learning how to live with it and how to accept it without feeling that I have surrendered something essential,” she said. “I am still writing, singing, imagining, laughing, worrying, remembering, and occasionally getting trapped in an overstuffed chair.”
Simon rose to prominence in the 1970s. She went on to win multiple Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
