Hello Simon, my old friend: Art Garfunkel now in ‘a wonderful place’ with long-estranged bandmate

Art Garfunkel says he’s rekindling his bond with estranged Simon & Garfunkel bandmate Paul Simon, after decades of on-and-off tensions.

The 83-year-old singer reflected on his partnership with Simon, saying in a recent interview that he had shed tears upon reconnecting with Simon over lunch. “First time we’d been together in many years. I looked at Paul and said, ‘What happened? Why haven’t we seen each other?,’ ” Garfunkel told the (U.K.) Times in an interview published Sunday.

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, the two musicians rose to fame for their contributions to Simon & Garfunkel. The duo was best known for songs “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Mrs. Robinson.” Despite the group’s growing popularity and seven Grammy wins, Simon and Garfunkel went their separate ways after a bitter split in 1970.

Since then, the musicians have endured a fractious relationship, occasionally coming together for the rare reunion shows over the years. According to Garfunkel, Simon, 83, took issue with an “old interview where I said some stuff.”

“I cried when he told me how much I had hurt him,” Garfunkel said. “Looking back, I guess I wanted to shake up that nice guy image of Simon & Garfunkel.”

In 2015, Garfunkel reflected on the end of Simon & Garfunkel to the Telegraph. He voiced frustration at the duo prematurely giving up its “lucky place on top of the world” and expressed he needed space from Simon, whom he called an “idiot” and “jerk” in the interview.

“What I would have done is take a rest from Paul, because he was getting on my nerves,” he said at the time. “The jokes had run dry.” He revisited that interview for the Telegraph earlier this year, telling the outlet in September, “I miss Paul.”

Though he did not specify to the Times whether Simon’s gripe was with his scathing 2015 comments, Garfunkel admitted to the Times, “I was a fool.”

The singer-poet, promoting a new album with 33-year-old son Art Garfunkel Jr., also revealed that he and Simon will reconnect again and that their lunch meeting “was about wanting to make amends before it’s too late.”

He added: “It felt like we were back in a wonderful place. As I think about it now, tears are rolling down my cheeks. I can still feel his hug.”