Billy Joel
The “Piano Man” had lost the fun of music
Billy Joel has made new music again after 17 years.
© Debby Wong/Shutterstock
Billy Joel explains why he took a 17-year break from music. And how he finally found the fun in it again.
Billy Joel (74) is back: the musician published on Thursday his new single “Turn the Lights Back On”. He had already announced on Instagram on January 22nd, to release new music on February 1st. An unexpected blessing for the fans – the “Piano Man”‘s last album is already 31 years old.
In an interview, Billy Joel now explains why he hasn’t heard anything from him for 17 years: He’s lost his enjoyment of music.
Billy Joel: “I was tired of feeling like this”
“I set myself this high bar,” describes the musician in the podcast “Audacy Check-In” the reason for his long break. “If I don’t reach this level, I’ll be hard on myself, beat myself up and hate myself. So I stopped [Musik zu machen], because I was tired of feeling like that.” The real reason he got into music “was for fun,” explains the singer. “Music is fun. Rock ‘n’ Roll is fun.” But he “somehow lost the fun.”
The process of songwriting is usually a lonely one, reports Joel. Not so this time: He wrote the new song together with Freddy Wexler, a young musician and producer whom he met by chance through his family doctor. Wexler had already worked with other great musicians, including Taylor Swift (34) and Celine Dion (55). When he heard his work, his love for songwriting returned, Billy Joel describes. “It all just kind of fell into place – and who am I to fight that?”
Piano ballad about failed love
The resulting song “Turn the Lights Back On” is a piano ballad in which the “Uptown Girl” interpreter sings about missed opportunities and failed love and repeatedly asks the question: “Have I waited too long to see the light again to turn on?”
Billy Joel will perform the new song live for the first time at the Grammy Awards on February 4th.