Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel unveiled plans for their first major concert tour since 1983, due to kick off Oct. 18 at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit. The trek, dubbed Old Friends, will run through mid-December and will visit around 30 markets. Tickets for some shows will go on sale Monday (Sept. 15).
Shows will find the legendary folk/rock duo performing both acoustically and with a full backing band, which will include drummer Jim Keltner and guitarist Mark Stewart, who played on Simon’s 2000 Warner Bros. album “You’re the One.”
“We’d like to stay as true to the spirit of the Simon & Garfunkel period and our work in the ’60s and early ’70s as we can,” Simon said. “If not note-for-note, then certainly we don’t intend to reimagine that work. We’re going to try to capture it as it was and not alter it.”
Although the bulk of the set lists will be drawn from “the body of the five albums we produced,” according to Simon, a handful of songs from the artists’ respective solo careers will be featured. Simon said he had always imagined his 1977 hit “Slip Slidin’ Away” as a Simon & Garfunkel song, while Garfunkel has frequently included Simon’s “American Tune” in his solo performances.
The pair embarked on a short tour in 1994, but remained apart for the rest of the decade amid reports that relations between the two artists were strained. But after being presented earlier this year with a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys — which they opened with a rendition of “The Sounds of Silence” — the seeds were planted for a full-scale reunion.
For a full list of cities vistit Billboard.com.
