Inspiration Conquered Carly Simon’s Fear Of Stage

Carly Simon suffers from stage fright so severe she once fainted dead away onstage.

Her fear kept her off the stage for 14 years, until this year, when finally she decided to confront it.

“I had to prove to myself I could do it,” the singer/ songwriter said in a phone interview Thursday, her familiar voice husky and raw from the rigors of the road. “The longer you wait, the harder it is to get back on the horse.”

She’ll appear at The Gorge on Sunday with Daryl Hall and John Oates.

Simon ended her decade-and-a-half silence earlier this year with a made-for-TV concert filmed before unsuspecting commuters in New York City’s Grand Central Station. She then embarked on an eight-show mini-tour and when that went well, signed on for a summer-long tour of outdoor amphitheaters.

Fans have turned out in droves and her reviews have been excellent, but fear is a constant constant companion: “I never expect to come out alive,” she said with a laugh that didn’t disguise her feelings.

“I would never say how I could predict how it would be from night to night, but I’ve been willing to let it be whatever it’s going to be. Last night felt especially good. I felt a lot of energy, a lot of flexibility in my body, which is just a long way of saying I was not uptight”

She was motivated to tour, she said, by her new record, “Letters Never Sent.”

“It was really believing in this record, wanting a lot of people to hear about it, wanting to stick their noses in it, or whatever.”

“Letters Never Sent” is a collection of songs based on letters she wrote at various stages in her life but didn’t mail. Two songs were dedicated to women who were important to her and who died as she was putting the record together - her mother and Jackie Onassis.

“Because my mother died and Jackie died during the making of the record, and because they were so much a part of my life and (because) two of the songs are dedicated to them, (I have) a lot of emotional attachment to it.”

She took inspiration for the tour from the song she wrote for Onassis. “‘Touched by the Sun” had a lot of inspiration from different sources and it - the song itself - gave me courage.”

The song is about “how I need to emulate the great people, the ones who take chances, who don’t live their lives safely.”

Though others might not understand, she said, “there is some bravery” in her decision to tour: “I’m a little proud of myself.”

Having taken this risk, she says, she hopes she will gain “some freedom of movement, the ability to make more choices that aren’t fear-based.”

Simon hasn’t been absent from the scene during her long performing hiatus. A steady stream of work has included albums, an original opera, a series of children’s books and film scores. She won an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe for her song “Let The River Run,” written for “Working Girl.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Carly Simon with Daryl Hall and John Oates Location and time: The Gorge, Sunday, 7 p.m. Tickets: $49.90, $39.40, $31 at Ticketmaster only