Paul Simon and Edie Brickell pose at the opening night after party for her musical ‘Bright Star’ in March 2016 in New York City.Photo:Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Paul Simonand Edie Brickell are both Grammy-winning musicians in their own right, and they’ve found the perfect chord when it comes to love, too.
Having wed on May 30, 1992, the couple — who share children Adrian, Lulu and Gabriel — have a union that has stood the test of time.
“This is a good marriage,” Simon, who was married twice before, toldRolling Stonein 2011. “I didn’t know anything about relationships. … I didn’t put time into relationships. I thought, ‘It’s all gonna work out.’ Then it didn’t.”
But Simon and Brickell have made their family a priority. Simon, wholost most of the hearingin his left ear, announced his retirement from touringon X(formerly known as Twitter) in 2018, citing time away from his wife as one of his main motivations.
They’ve both continued to make music — together and separately. Simon released his latest album,Seven Psalms, in 2023, while Brickell collaborated withWillie Nelsonon the 2020 track “Sing to Me, Willie” and formed the band Heavy MakeUp.
Paul wrote a song for his wife called “Dazzling Blue” from his 2011 albumSo Blue or So What. “That’s Edie’s favorite color, blue. That’s really our story, Edie and I,” he toldRolling Stone.
So, who is Paul Simon’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Edie Brickell and her relationship with the artist.
She’s from Texas
Edie Brickell attends a K-ROQ Radio party in New York City in 1988.Vinnie Zuffante/Getty
Vinnie Zuffante/Getty
According toThe Washington Post, Brickell was born to Larry Linden and Eddie Brickell on March 10, 1966, in Oak Cliff, Texas.
The Dallas Morning Newsreported in 2003 that the singer’s parents split up when she was 3. Though she was reportedly raised with an older sister, Laura, two of her siblings were placed for adoption. “My mom just couldn’t take care of them,” Brickell told the outlet.
Of her father, Brickell toldThe Herald, “I saw my dad and I loved my dad, we had big dreams of seeing the world so it meant a lot to be an artist and express creativity for a living."
Her circumstances changed at 18 in 1985 when she took a shot of whiskey in a Texas club called B.B. Sundays, after which she joined a band called New Bohemians onstage for a song. “We had a magical connection and boom, that was it,” she toldThe Dallas Morning Newsof the group.
In 2021, Brickell returned to Texas with Simon. “I wanted to have a closer proximity to the band,” the singer explained to theAustin American-Statesman. “We got a place down in Wimberley that has a big jam barn. … We’re having so much fun playing there.”
She met Simon onSaturday Night Live
Edie Brickell and Paul Simon hold hands while walking together.KMazur/WireImage
KMazur/WireImage
Simon and Brickell had a meet-cute during a November 1988 episode ofSaturday Night Live, for which she and her New Bohemians band were the musical guests.
“(Fame) was good because I did meet my husband because of our sudden success,” she toldTom’s Write Turnsin 2006. “He took notice of me based on [ourShooting Rubberbands at the Stars] record.”
As for Simon, the “Sound of Silence” singer toldThe Howard Stern Showin 2023 that he wasn’t expecting to fall in love. “I was thinking, ‘I like the way she sings, I love the way she looks [and] I’m happy enough to be here.’ I’m not thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll marry this girl.’ ”
The pair connected at the afterparty forSNL, where they made plans for Simon to come to Brickell’s next show at The Bottom Line in New York City. When he arrived, however, he met a lively crowd. “I went backstage to her dressing room, but it was packed,” he explained to hostHoward Stern. “And I left, and I was driving away and I thought, ‘Why am I driving away? I came down here to see her.’ ”
However, their “first big date” took place when Simon visited Brickell in her hometown of Dallas after the pair hit it off in N.Y.C.
“I got off the plane, and there she was in this yellow 1972 pickup truck,” Simon recalled in his documentaryIn Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.
She and Simon have been married since 1992
Edie Brickell and Paul Simon at the the Film Society Gala Tribute to Mike Nichols in May 1999.Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Online USA, Inc./Getty
Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Online USA, Inc./Getty
Simon and Brickell tied the knot on May 30, 1992, on Long Island, New York, in a small intimate ceremony. According to Brickell’s mom, who reportedly spoke to theDallas Morning News, the newlyweds exchanged “simple gold bands — no big diamonds.”
“Basically, all they wanted to do was to be married very quietly without a lot of hoopla,” she said per theOrlando Sentinel.
The “You Can Call Me Al” artist shared a sweetInstagram photowith his wife in 2022 while celebrating 30 years of marriage. “A happy anniversary,” he captioned a snap of them embracing.
Simon was previously married twice before, to Peggy Harper from 1969 to 1975 and to actressCarrie Fisher, whom he referred to as a “special, wonderful girl” following her2016 death, from 1983 To 1984.
Her and Simon’s children are musicians
Paul Simon and Edie Brickell’s children: Adrian Simon, Lulu Simon and Gabriel Simon.Lulu Simon Instagram
Lulu Simon Instagram
Simon and Brickell have welcomed three children together throughout their marriage: Adrian Edward, born in December 1992,Lulu, born in April 1995, and Gabriel Elijah, born in May 1998.
The couple’s kids inherited an ear for music, with Adrian singing on Paul’s Oscar-nominated song “Father and Daughter."
Lulu opened up to PEOPLE in 2019 about her experience growing up in a musical family. “We used to make up songs as we were walking through Central Park, or in the bath,” she said. “We would always just write music.”
Simon shares his oldest child, Harper Simon, with his ex-wife Harper, whom they welcomed in September 1972. He is also a musician: Together with Edie, Harper formed a band called The Heavy Circles in 2008, perNPR.
“He produced a record I always wanted to be a part of," Brickell told the outlet of her stepson. “I wanted to sing on a record that had great grooves and beautiful sounds, and I never knew how to get them.”
She and Simon make music together
Edie Brickel and Paul Simon perform during the 2015 Gershwin Prize Honoree’s Tribute Concert Honoring Willie Nelson in November 2015 in Washington, D.C.Kris Connor/Getty
Kris Connor/Getty
Still, they occasionally come together for a collaboration — even if it’s just in private. Their first joint project was shelved to appease their son.
“When our oldest son was 5 we used to sing him this song I made up,” he toldThe Heraldin 2021. “[Adrian] said ‘I thought it was my song; if you guys put it out it will be everyone’s song,’ so we abandoned the project.”
The pair also scrapped a duets record they had planned circa 2016.
“We … had recorded about three or four songs. I was on fire and in a writing mood when Paul said: ‘Slow down, stop writing and let me write some of the songs,' ” Brickell said. “Around that time Steve Martin started sending me his banjo tunes and that just took off.”
With her attention occupied, Simon recorded his 2016 solo albumStranger to Stranger.
According toEntertainment Weekly, the lovebirds did release a duet called “Like to Get to Know You” in 2014. Six years later, Simon debuted a cover of the Everly Brothers’ 1958 track “All I Have to Do Is Dream” with daughter Lulu and neighborWoody Harrelson, perRolling Stone.
The husband and wife duo also share singing duties in the car. “If I start singing something then he’ll jump in and harmonize. Man, it’s so beautiful,” Brickell toldTom’s Write Turnsin 2006. “He sounds great with anybody.”
She’s private about her songwriting
Edie Brickell performing at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 2003.Ebet Roberts/Redferns
Ebet Roberts/Redferns
Despite being married to Simon for more than 30 years and sharing many musical moments with him, Brickell toldVanity Fairin 2011 she keeps her songs close to her chest when it comes to her husband.
“I’m very private about showing [Paul] anything because, to me, songwriting is a very spiritual kind of practice,” she said. “It’s that evolving into your own, and that’s extremely important to me, to have that and to try to get into that sense of self-discovery. So he can’t be a part of that process.”
Sometimes, however, Brickell said Simon will get a first listen to her tunes unbeknownst to him. “When I first write a song, I’ll catch myself singing it all the time,” she explained toTom’s Write Turnsin 2006. “If he walks in and says, ‘Oh, that’s a cool song. Who does that?’ That’s a thrill.”
She has several albums with Steve Martin and a Grammy
Edie Brickell and Steve Martin pose at the opening night arrivals for “Bright Star” on Broadway in March 2016.Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Simon and Nelson aren’t the only ones Brickell has collaborated with: The songstress also has two albums with actorSteve Martin, as well as a live recording. Their 2013 effort,Love Has Come for You, even won aGrammy.
According to Brickell, who first met Martin at a dinner when she was 23, theFather of the Brideactor “was the only person to hand over this basket of crackers that was on his side of the table.” She toldThe Guardian, “I was touched because I’m used to being a wallflower."
More than 20 years later, the pair crossed paths again at a party, where Brickell complimented theOnly Murders in the Buildingstar on a song he had written and suggested a collaboration.
“It started as ‘Let’s try writing some songs,’ and the next thing you know, we’ve got a musical,” Martin toldRounder Records. “Everything about this feels so unexpected, yet at the same time it feels like it was meant to be. … The whole thing has been a very nice surprise.”
She and Simon are 25 years apart
Edie Brickell and Paul Simon perform in concert during the “Texas Strong: Hurricane Harvey Can’t Mess With Texas” benefit in September 2017 in Austin, Texas.Gary Miller/Getty
Gary Miller/Getty
Brickell was 22 when she met Simon, then 47, making for a 25-year age gap between the pair.
“I write about how people feel, react and respond,” she told theLos Angeles Timesin 1998 about the song. “I don’t want to make people think or give them a message or even impress them. I only want to touch them where they live — in their feelings.”
When the couple realized how far apart they were in age, Simon told Stern, “There was kind of a silence between the two of us.”
She wrote a musical about the Hawaii false missile alert
Edie Brickell attends the 49th annual CMA Awards in November 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee.Michael Loccisano/Getty
Michael Loccisano/Getty
In 2022,Varietyreported that Brickell wrote a musical titled38 Minutesabout the false nuclear missile alert sent out to Hawaii citizens in 2018.
She talked about her and Simon’s relationship in her husband’s latest documentary
When the first part of Simon’s documentaryIn Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simonpremiered in March 2024, Brickell said that she’d been warned not to date him because of how he’d been portrayed in the media after he andArt Garfunkelwent their separate ways.
“In terms of Art Garfunkel, they made it seem likePaul victimized him,” she said. “As opposed to the truth being that the guy walked away to pursue a different kind of career. Everybody looked at it as, ‘Oh, Paul went off to do Paul,’ but that’s not what happened.”
Brickell also defended Simon’s character, saying, “Paul has a way of looking at everyday life and making it poetic, and he doesn’t put on a caricature in order to express himself. But that also makes him vulnerable. I think it sometimes has made him misunderstood.”
source: people.com
