Carly Simon reveals Parkinson’s and cancer diagnoses

Carly Simon revealed in a statement this morning that she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The 83-year-old musician also revealed that she underwent surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer, from her face. “So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing,” Simon wrote in a statement first obtained by PEOPLE. “The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.” 

Simon explained that she has been learning how to adapt and live with her new diagnosis. “Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all,” she said. “On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.” The musician received her diagnosis after three hip and knee surgeries failed to improve her mobility. “Once seated, I could feel as though I had been swallowed by the chair and might remain there permanently, like a guest who had badly overstayed her welcome,” she joked. Parkinson’s disease causes tremors, slowness, stiffness, and balance issues. It’s a degenerative condition that worsens over time, and it can also cause depression, anxiety, and extreme exhaustion. 

Around the same time she received her Parkinson’s diagnosis, Simon also had a basal cell carcinoma removed from her face. “The surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public,” she said. “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.” Simon also noted that recording her new album Comes in Waves (her first in 18 years) during this part of her life felt “mysterious.” 

“Music has always known when to arrive. It has rescued me more times than I can count. It is like a cat or dog that quietly appears beside you when it senses you are not quite yourself.” The songs and fragments on the album, Simon says, “had been waiting for me, some for years. There were melodies, verses, and ideas written down and tucked away for some unknown future when I would have the time and attention to finish them. Apparently, that future is now.” 

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