{"id":485489,"date":"2019-05-06T09:23:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T15:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=831081"},"modified":"2019-05-06T09:23:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T15:23:57","slug":"billy-joel-on-turning-70-donald-trump-and-why-he-writes-music-just-for-himself-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/billy-joel-on-turning-70-donald-trump-and-why-he-writes-music-just-for-himself-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel on Turning 70, Donald Trump and Why He Writes Music Just For Himself Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/billy-joel-q-and-a.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/billy-joel\/\" id=\"auto-tag_billy-joel\" data-tag=\"billy-joel\">Billy Joel<\/a> hasn\u2019t released an album of new pop songs since 1993, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from selling out Madison Square Garden every month for the past five years and packing baseball stadiums across the country each summer. \u201cI\u2019ve gone onstage and said, \u2018I don\u2019t have anything new for you, so we\u2019re just going to play the old shit,\u2019 \u201d Joel says on the phone from his house in Palm Beach, Florida. \u201cAnd the audience goes, \u2018Yeah!\u2019 I\u2019ll be sitting in the stadium looking out at 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 people, thinking, \u2018What the hell are they all doing here? Why now?\u2019 I guess, in a way, I\u2019m an anachronism. There aren\u2019t that many of me left. There\u2019s a rarity to it, which gives it value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Are you looking forward to playing the Garden on your 70th birthday on May 9th?<br \/><\/strong>I got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I\u2019m happy to be alive. On the other hand, I don\u2019t know how much of a party I deserve just for making it to 70. I mean, it\u2019s a work night \u2014 you can\u2019t have birthday cake, you can\u2019t do any of that stuff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Still, 70 is a milestone.<br \/><\/strong>This is a Peter Pan kinda job. You start out, and you\u2019re young, and you\u2019re rockin\u2019 and rollin\u2019, and that\u2019s what you do all your life. You become a little myopic about how old you actually are. I see pictures of myself at the Garden recently, and I go, \u201cThat don\u2019t look right.\u201d I got old, I lost my hair. I was never a matinee idol to begin with, and there I am onstage still doing the same job I was doing when I was 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>So many of your peers dye their hair and do anything they can to look young. Have you ever been tempted to do the same?<br \/><\/strong>For me to try and look like a movie star would be ridiculous. I\u2019ve always been a schlubby-looking guy, and I ain\u2019t about to change. Plastic surgery, wigs, I don\u2019t know. It has nothing to do with music. It\u2019s all about an image and look. I am 70 years old. I\u2019ve never hidden my age, so why should I start now?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LOdGgmnTWpM?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Your two youngest daughters are three and one. Is fatherhood different for you now than it was in the old days?<br \/><\/strong>The difference now is that people think I\u2019m my kid\u2019s grandfather. I take her to school and one of the other parents will go, \u201cOh, your granddaughter\u2019s so cute.\u201d I just say, \u201cOK, thank you.\u201d It\u2019s not that different. I still love being a dad. I didn\u2019t know that I would be a father again at this age, but I\u2019m glad I am. They keep you young.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Do you think you\u2019ve learned a lot about women by having three daughters?<br \/><\/strong>Yeah. All my life\u2019s been women. I was raised by women \u2014 my dad wasn\u2019t around. I\u2019ve been married numerous times, and I\u2019ve got three daughters. So, a lot of estrogen in my life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>How has that molded you?<br \/><\/strong>I think I had a very fortunate upbringing. My mom encouraged me to be a musician. I know a lot of guys who were my age whose fathers intimidated them into not being musicians. So I had a very gentle upbringing. It was very loving, very warm, and I appreciate that about women. I see that in my daughters too. I\u2019m gonna bring up these kids who one day will be mothers themselves, and I hope they\u2019re like my mom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>How do you pick your setlist at Madison Square Garden each month? What\u2019s the formula?<br \/><\/strong>Up until the last show we did at The Garden, we\u2019ve been concentrating on picking the right balance between hits and album tracks. But the last show we did I said, \u201cYou know what? We\u2019ve never done a show where it\u2019s only hits.\u201d There was an article in <em>New York<\/em> magazine called \u201cThe 33 Hit Wonder\u201d about me. And I had never counted up that I had that many hits. I said, \u201cWait a minute. 33 hits? That\u2019s more songs than we do in a show. Why don\u2019t we do a show which is just hits, without album tracks?\u201d And that\u2019s what we did the last time, and it\u2019s the first time I ever did it. It was kinda different for us. But I kinda like just going bang, bang, bang, bang, hit, hit, hit, hit. By the end of the show, \u201cHey, that was a pretty good set list.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>You\u2019ve played dozens of shows in the past five years, but you almost never play \u201cCaptain Jack.\u201d How come?<br \/><\/strong>He didn\u2019t age well. Captain Jack\u2019s been demoted to Private Jack. In the verses, there\u2019s only two chords, and it goes on and on, and it\u2019s kind of a dreary song if you think of the lyrics. The kid is sitting home jerkin\u2019 off. His father\u2019s dead in the swimming pool. He lives this dull suburban existence until he gets high. One of the last times I was singing the song, I said, \u201cThis is really depressing.\u201d The only relief you get is when the chorus kicks in. When I\u2019m doing the song, I feel kinda dreary and I don\u2019t like doing the song anymore, although we\u2019ll probably do it again.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r8fL4U-zaJA?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>You also dropped \u201cAngry Young Man.\u201d That was a concert staple for years and years.<br \/><\/strong>We did it so often for so long as an opening song. You gotta wanna do it. You gotta have some enthusiasm for it, and sometimes I get burned out on doing the same thing and I don\u2019t wanna do it anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>You\u2019ve never done what so many of your peers are doing, which is play one of your classic albums straight through. Why not do a <em>Stranger<\/em> night or a <em>Nylon Curtain<\/em> night?<br \/><\/strong>That was suggested. And I said, \u201cOkay, but there\u2019s, like, 12 albums. So if we feature one album, that\u2019s gonna eat up a lot of the show, and there won\u2019t be much room to balance out other albums.\u201d So we never really did the feature-the -album thing, although we probably do more songs from <em>The Stranger<\/em> album than any other album. There\u2019s so many songs that we like to do, that I just don\u2019t want to limit it to one album.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Can you see yourself ever doing a farewell tour?<br \/><\/strong>No. I think the way it\u2019ll happen is there\u2019ll be a night where I feel like I can\u2019t do it well anymore \u2014 I can\u2019t hit the notes, I don\u2019t have the physical stamina, I\u2019m not into it. And that night, I\u2019ll know it\u2019s time to stop. I might even decide right then and there this is my last show. Although my agent will come up to me afterward: \u201cOh, no! We can make a lot of money if you do more shows now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Rock-star biopics are big right now. Can you imagine a Billy Joel movie?<br \/><\/strong>I don\u2019t have enough objectivity to do that. I was gonna write an autobiography at one time \u2014 and I did. There wasn\u2019t enough sex, drugs and rock &amp; roll in it for the publisher, so I gave the advance money back. I said, \u201cFuck it, that\u2019s me.\u201d I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m interesting enough to make a movie out of. I lived my life. I don\u2019t want to be redundant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>You and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/donald-trump\/\" id=\"auto-tag_donald-trump\" data-tag=\"donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> are about the same age, both born in outer-borough New York. Does that give you any insight into him?<br \/><\/strong>No. I see him as being from an entirely different planet. I know he was born in Queens, but he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father was rich and gave him a lot of money. I don\u2019t know how much empathy he actually has for people who don\u2019t live that kind of life. I\u2019m not a big fan of his, so to be fair I don\u2019t have a lot of insight into him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>What do you think about his presidency so far?<br \/><\/strong>I think maybe this was the shock that we needed to shake people out of lethargy. Maybe this was something that should have happened to wake people up and make people realize, \u201cHey, something like this can actually happen.\u201d Because before he got elected we didn\u2019t think this could happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Are you going to get involved at all in the 2020 election?<br \/><\/strong>I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to be politically involved. I find a lot of people resent celebrities touting their candidate. That can actually turn more people off than it can bring more people in. I admire people like Springsteen, who gets up there and touts a candidate. He\u2019s a citizen and he has a right to do that. My experience has always been that people resent it when they go to see you do a show and you get up on a soapbox and spout politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>In 2017, you did wear a yellow star onstage after Trump talked about the \u201cvery fine people\u201d who marched in Charlottesville. What made you do that?<br \/><\/strong>I was pissed off. It\u2019s bullshit. There\u2019s no fine Nazis. My father\u2019s generation fought a war to put an end to Nazism. When they see these guys with the swastika armband, I\u2019m amazed they don\u2019t run out on the street and smash them over the head with a baseball bat. So this president missed the boat. He had a great chance to say something meaningful and he blew it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Do you hope to sing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/elton-john\/\" id=\"auto-tag_elton-john\" data-tag=\"elton-john\">Elton John<\/a> again before the end of his farewell tour?<br \/><\/strong>I would if he asked me to, sure. We worked together for 16 years, and those were good shows. I thought they were good value. I would work with him again, absolutely.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RH0EKivFRFY?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>What TV shows do you watch?<br \/><\/strong>My taste in TV shows is pretty boring to most people. I watch the History Channel or the Military Channel or documentaries or the news. If I see a black-and-white movie while I\u2019m changing channels, I\u2019ll stop on the black-and-white movie and that always intrigues me. I just watched <em>Casablanca<\/em> with Humphrey Bogart again, great movie. If I come across <em>The Godfather<\/em> while I\u2019m changing channels, I\u2019ll stop on The <em>Godfather<\/em>. If I come across <em>Goodfellas<\/em>, I\u2019ll stop on <em>Goodfellas.<\/em> Whatever grabs me at the moment, I\u2019ll watch that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Are you tired of being asked whether you\u2019re going to make new music again?<br \/><\/strong>No, it\u2019s a fair question, and I still write music. I just don\u2019t record it, and they\u2019re not in song form. It\u2019s another kind of music altogether. It\u2019s purely for my own edification. I don\u2019t feel compelled to record it. I don\u2019t feel compelled to make myself be relevant. Like I said, I lived the rock &amp; roll life, and I\u2019m not writing that anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>But you sit down at the piano and write melodies just for yourself?<br \/><\/strong>Yeah. I have a lot of music that no one\u2019s ever heard and no one may ever hear if I don\u2019t decide to do something with it. It\u2019s really about the creative process that\u2019s important to me, not about having records on the charts or selling a lot of recordings. I\u2019m learning all the time, and you never stop learning. That\u2019s what\u2019s good about the writing process. You always learn something new whenever you create.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Are you willing to make a Shermanesque statement that you\u2019ll never release an album of new material?<br \/><\/strong>I\u2019m never going to say never. I may come up with an idea that could become a song. I may write a movie soundtrack. I may write a symphony. I don\u2019t know. Anything\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/billy-joel-turning-70-donald-trump-new-music-831081\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Billy Joel hasn\u2019t released an album of new pop songs since 1993, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from selling out Madison Square Garden every month for the past five years and packing baseball stadiums across the country each summer. \u201cI\u2019ve gone onstage and said, \u2018I don\u2019t have anything new for you, so we\u2019re just going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-485489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 17:04:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}