PLAY US A SONG...
Billy Joel brings ‘Piano Man’ and more to Comerica Park after two-year wait
Billy Joel thinks it’s “absurd” that at 73 years old and more than 50 years since his first album he’s still filling stadiums — as he will this week at Detroit’s Comerica Park — and, once a month, New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden.
But why shouldn’t he?
The singer, songwriter and, of course, Piano Man is a bona fide, as his own song says, “Big Shot.” He’s sold more than 150 million records worldwide, with 18 platinum or (mostly) better albums to his credit. He’s the fourth topselling solo artist of all time in the U.S. according to Recording Industry Association of America and is ranked by Billboard as the ninth greatest male solo artist of all-time. Joel has logged nearly two dozen Top 40 singles, and his 1985 compilation “Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II” is the second best-selling album by a solo artist, behind only Michael Jack- son’s “Thriller.”
A Rock and Roll and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Joel has five Grammy Awards to his credit, received the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and a Kennedy Center Honor 12 years later.
Joel’s enduring popularity is even more remarkable since he hasn’t released any new songs since “All My Life,” a one-off, in 2007 — and that was his first in nearly 14 years. He hasn’t released a new album since “Fantasies & Delusions,” a set of classical piano compositions, in 2001. But Joel’s body of work allows him to still go on stage, and the fans still turn out, in droves.
His Comerica Park show on July 9 — twice-delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic — will be his first metro area appearance since 2014, his first in Detroit proper since 1986 and his first stadium concert here as a solo artist, after playing the Pontiac Silverdome with Elton John in 1994. Joel is well aware that he’s “a lucky guy,” and he ponders the many reasons why during a wide-ranging phone chat from the Long
Island home he shares with his wife, Alexis, and their two daughters, ages 6 and 3.
Q: We’ve been waiting for this show to happen for a couple of years now. Hopefully you too?
Billy Joel: It was kind of frustrating ’cause I don’t like to have to reschedule or cancel. It was a two-year period where we weren’t working at all, so it was very frustrating. Musicians have to perform live. That’s what we do. And when you can’t do that, what are you doing? You’re not doing anything. You’re just sitting around twiddling your thumbs.
Q: And since the mid-’90s you’ve been almost entirely a live performer rather than a recording artist.
Joel: Yeah, I don’t even record anything anymore. The only kind of music I write now is instrumental music for my own gratification, and there’s not a whole lot of other interaction with other musicians going on. I have two cute little girls and it’s a lot of fun, but once in awhile I feel like I have to justify my existence.
Q: How have the shows felt any different since coming back
from the pause?
Joel: When we went to do the first gig after the COVID layoff (Aug. 4, 2021 at Fenway Park in Boston), yeah, I had a little bit of nerves. Two years is a long time for a musician to be off. You wonder, “Do I still have muscle memory? Am I gonna screw up the lyrics? Are we any good anymore?” So it was a little nerve-wracking. But after you get that first show over with you’re like, “Oh, I can do this. Right. I’m THAT guy.” You forget you’re THAT guy. So it comes back.
Q: “That” guy has a pretty formidable legacy after all these years. What’s your own view of who “that” guy is?
Joel: I kinda have a split opinion about it. Part of me thinks it’s absurd; I’m 73 years old and I’m doing the same gig I was doing when I was 16! This is a job for a young person. I am now considered elderly, and I’m still doing the same crazy-ass job, so that part of it is kind of absurd. The other part it means to me is it’s wonderful. I picked a great job to have. They’re paying me all kinds of money. The audiences are bigger than they ever were. People are still coming to see me, and there’s a lot of young people out in the crowd who still know my stuff. That’s wonderful. I’m a lucky guy.