Paul Simon has opened up about his decision to retire hit song ‘You Can Call Me Al’.

The Simon and Garfunkel singer-songwriter has become distant from some of his most iconic songs over the years. But of all the hits he’s taken a step back from, it’s ‘You Can Call Me Al’ that he’s completely withdrawn from his live shows.

It was released back in 1986 from his groundbreaking album ‘Graceland’ and soon became one of the defining songs of his solo career. But according to a new interview, the singer said the decision to move on from the song came out of necessity rather than desire.

Talking to CBS Morning, Simon said so his battle against hearing loss has left him unable to perform as he used to, and massively disrupted his relationship with music.

“There’s only about six percent (hearing) in my left ear,” he told the channel, also recalling how he’s been forced to use multiple monitors to hear properly during recent shows. “When the balance is right, I can hear well.”

He also added that the condition has forced him to be much more selective when choosing set lists. “I go through my repertoire and reduce a lot of the choices I make to acoustic versions,” he explained. “It’s all a lot quieter. It’s not ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ It’s gone. I can’t do that.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Simon admitted that he found the disability “incredibly frustrating” at first. “I was very angry at first that this had happened… I guess what I’m most worried about would be if I don’t hear well enough to really enjoy making music,” he said.

Having said that, he also added that the hearing loss has not affected his creativity yet: “You know Matisse, when he was suffering at the end of his life, when he was lying in bed, he imagined all these cuts and had a great creative period,” said “So I don’t think creativity ends with disability. And I hope not.”

Earlier this year, Simon too gave a hopeful update on performing with hearing loss during the premiere of the two-part documentary In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon (via People). At the time, he recalled how his hearing had returned “enough that I comfortably sing and play the guitar and play a few other instruments”.

More recently, he told me The Guardian that he was “optimistic” about returning to perform live, and “hoped to eventually do a full-length concert”. Former bandmate Art Garfunkel also reflected on a recent reunion with Simonand said: “I cried at a certain point because I felt I had hurt him”.