Billy Joel: The Piano Man at 75, New Music Release and Retirement Plans

No musical retirement is planned
Billy Joel: The “Piano Man” is 75

May 9, 2024, 9:07 am

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Everyone knows his hits like “Piano Man” and “She’s Always A Woman To Me”. Good news for Billy Joel fans: Even at 75, the musician is not thinking about retirement and has just released new music. Only the New Yorkers have to do without it.

For Billy Joel it is the end of an era: a few months after his 75th birthday this Thursday, the American musician wants to give his last concert in Madison Square Garden in New York in July – after ten years, 150 concerts were sold out and more. over 1 .6 million tickets were sold. For ten years, the superstar climbed into the helicopter once a month in front of his town on Long Island near New York, and then sang his hits for almost three hours in the famous arena there the Manhattan and flew back again. According to his own statements, recently he has been taking the suburban train.

The long-running series of concerts in the “Garden” is a success story for the organizers and for Joel – but it should end now, the musician said at a press conference this summer -last year “I’m surprised it’s lasted this long. My team tells me we could still sell more tickets, but ten years, 150 shows – that’s enough.” It now seems to be turning 75 as a “good number” for this step. He wants to sell his property on Long Island. “But I’m not leaving New York. I’m just spending more time down in Florida, like old Jewish men from New York do.”

Critics scoff, fans are delighted

But Joel does not want to retire from music – quite the opposite. The musician just released a new song, “Turn the Lights Back On,” for the first time in decades and also performed at the Grammy Gala. Additional individual performances, for example with musical collaborator Sting, have already been announced for the rest of the year.

Acclaimed singer “Piano Man” William Joel was born in 1949 to a German Jewish father and a British Jewish mother in the New York Bronx. Joel took piano lessons as a child, soon played in bands and recorded his first album. He made his breakthrough in 1973 with the album and song of the same name “Piano Man”, and in the following 20 years he released 10 more albums with hits such as “Uptown Girl”, “River Of Dreams”, “She’s Always My Woman”, “It’s Still Rock ‘n Roll To Me”, “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and “Tell Her About It”. Critics would often ridiculed his pop Americana, but the music sold well with the audience.

Ambassador for New York

Happy ending after three divorces: Joel and wife Alexis Roderick.

(Photo: photo alliance/empics)

Privately, Joel struggled with depression for a long time, which he spoke about publicly. Three marriages failed. He has been married to Alexis Roderick, who is more than thirty years his junior, since 2015; the couple have two children. Joel took Ruairidh and the two young girls to the press conference where he announced the end of his concert series at Madison Square Garden. He played in the “Garden” for the first time in 1978 and to this day he refers to the concert as “the highlight of my career.” The musician has now broken the record for most concerts since then.

Joel is an “ambassador for all that is good about New York,” said Mayor Eric Adams at the press conference – and revealed that the first thing he does every morning after receiving his – into his company car listening to “New York State of Mind” with headphones – Joel’s anthem to the capital from 1976. “New York is the most important city on the planet, which leaving Madison Square Garden as the most important hall and Billy Joel as the most important artist.”