Carly Simon finds the new book Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — And the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller difficult to read. Although she was interviewed
by the author and says the facts are true, revisiting that time period is hard for her.

“I think Sheila did a terrific job and the book is extremely interesting, but it brought back things that I didn’t want to recollect and from other people’s voices,” Simon said in a recent interview. “I saw things in a way that to me seemed just too harsh, even if they were true.”



The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at Simon’s 1972-83 life-in-a-fishbowl marriage to James Taylor, when they were pop music’s reigning royal couple, as she struggled to get him to break his drug habit while raising their two children, Sally and Ben.
“I know he had a really tough time with drugs and I had a tough time with his drugs, and I had a tough time with Ben who was very, very sick,” recalled

Simon. “But I was terribly in love and I got a awesome discount out of that relationship and . . . I don’t think I would have changed anything except that I wish that James would have been happier with himself obviously. The breakup of that marriage was incredibly unhappy and difficult for me.”


*****


Taylor does not keep in contact with his former wife and made no mention of their years together in his autobiographical “One Man Band” show, released as a CD-DVD last year.
“I’m so erased, so erased,” said Simon. “I don’t think James has forgotten in any way. If he had forgotten, he wouldn’t be behaving in the way he is.”

How sad! Carly was the only one of the three women profiled to speak with the author, who interviewed scores of family members and friends for the book.



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