NEW YORK CITY - JANUARY 17: Musicians James Taylor and Carly Simon attend the "Pumping Iron" New York City Premiere on January 17, 1977 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage) (1977 Ron Galella)
Carly Simon wanted so desperately to save her marriage to James Taylor that she went to a Spanish witchdoctor for help.
Simon and Taylor were enormous stars early in the 1970s – they were the Beyonce and Jay-Z of the time – but the troubles in their marriage started soon after her first album, “No Secrets,” blew up bigger than his release, “One Mad Dog.”
According to the NY Daily News, she wrote in her new memoir “Boys in the Trees” that Taylor became highly unreliable after the birth of their second child, Ben, and was aware that he was probably cheating on her while on the road because it was what rock ‘n’ roll stars did at the time.
Simon said she found out about a backup singer he was having an affair with in 1979 and confronted him about it.
"This isn't about you," he told her.
Simon, now 70, revealed to Taylor that she had her own affair with her sound engineer, before he confessed that there were several other affairs on the books for him.
In an attempt save their marriage and lure him back to happier times, Simon said she approached a Spanish witchdoctor, who said she should smear her body with oils and unguent.
According to the singer, when Taylor walked into the bedroom, the only thing he seemed to be interested in was whether there was anything medicinally interesting in the vapors of red and black candles that were burning.
Sometime afterward, Simon had a breakdown on stage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and checked into a hospital for an extended stay.
When she was released, Taylor was already involved with Kathryn Walker, the woman who would later become his second wife.
In the memoir, Simon also opened up about some of her famous lovers including Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Mick Jagger.
"Warren was such a professional, the pressure points he knew about stirred a tremor in me," she wrote. "Warren seemed to have just created a brand-new manual on how to make love."
The two met in the early 1970s when he came on to her at the Troubadour in Los Angeles where she was opening for Cat Stevens. The singer knew Beatty was a player but it wasn’t until the day after they had sex that she realized how big of a ladies man he really was.
"Under the circumstances, I can't withhold this …You are not my first patient of the day who spent the night with Warren Beatty last night,” Simon recalled in the book.
She also confirmed that the second verse of “You’re So Vain” – “You had me several years ago when I was still quite naïve” – was about Beatty.
The other shocker in the book is that Bianca Jagger, the Nicaraguan-born ex-wife of Mick Jagger, actually called Taylor the night before his wedding to Simon to let him know that Mick and Simon were having an affair.
Apparently, a bad connection and her accent made it difficult for Taylor to understand her.
Simon admitted that she had spun Taylor only a "version of the truth."
"I was holding back with Mick – not giving him exactly what he wanted – but I knew it was still more than James would be all right with,” she wrote in the memoir.
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