Carly Simon reveals Parkinson’s diagnosis, says music has rescued her

Carly Simon said she has Parkinson’s disease and that music has “rescued” her, a disclosure that shifts one of pop music’s most recognizable voices into a public conversation about a progressive neurological illness that often begins quietly.

Simon is 83 and said she was diagnosed at age 60, meaning she has lived with the disease for more than 12 years. She also said the first problems showed up as arthritis in both knees and one hip, a reminder that movement disorders can be mistaken at first for orthopedic pain, aging or the wear and tear of daily life before the larger picture becomes clear.

The singer, best known for “You’re So Vain,” also revealed that she was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, with surgery to remove it. Her account places two serious diagnoses in the same public statement and shows the layered reality of chronic illness in later life, where one condition can sit beside another rather than arrive neatly on its own.

Simon said she spent time deciding whether to speak publicly about Parkinson’s, and her comments carried both vulnerability and resolve. “I have learned to accept that every day will look a little different. But I am still very much here,” she said in a statement to NBC News. She also said, “I have not stopped living.”

That message matters beyond celebrity biography. Parkinson’s affects movement, balance and daily routine, and public disclosure from a figure as widely known as Simon can lower the temperature around a diagnosis that many people still associate with silence, fear or retreat. When artists describe continuing to work, adapt and stay engaged, they can make it easier for others to recognize symptoms, seek care and talk openly about long-term neurological disease without treating it as an ending.

Simon’s family has remained part of the story as well. She has two children, Sally Taylor and Ben Taylor, with her ex-husband James Taylor. In her telling, the disease has altered how she lives, but not whether she lives fully. As she put it, music has been what rescued her, and the disclosure turns a private medical reality into a public portrait of aging, art and persistence.