Welcome to the Deep Dive. So today, our mission,
if you will, is to take this lifetime of music,
of drama, and just all these unexpected turns,
and really boil it down to the essence of a true
cultural titan. We are going deep on the life
and career of William Martin Joel, the one and
only piano man. He's so much more than just a
songwriter, though. I mean, Billy Joel is...
an American institution. We're talking about
one of the most successful musicians in history.
The numbers are just staggering. They are. Fourth
best -selling solo artist in the U .S. with,
what, over 160 million records sold worldwide.
And everyone knows the big hits, you know, Cano
Man, Uptown Girl. But the real story, the one
we're digging into, is the tension between his
inner life and that massive public persona. And
we have some amazing sources today. We've got
comprehensive biographical data covering his
12 main pop and rock studio albums. That's from
71 all the way to 93. Plus that classical album,
2001, which was such a left turn. And we're getting
into the really dramatic details of his early
life, including accounts that were just revealed
in that 2025 documentary. And of course, the
recent health updates. And the central conflict
of his entire artistic life, which our sources
really bring to light, is this constant push
and pull. It's between the identity he was born
with and the one he was kind of forced to adopt.
What do you mean by that? Well, he was this Long
Island working class kid, you know, steeped in
classical piano. But he violently rejected that
formal training to become this rebellious rocker.
Only to then, you know, once he's a global superstar,
he retires completely from pop music and goes
right back to classical composition. It's the
ultimate artistic full circle. It's incredible.
And the details scattered through this story
are just... They're wild. Wait, are you telling
me this global superstar, this classically trained
genius, was an amateur boxer, he fought in the
Golden Globes before he even decided on rock
music? Absolutely. Yeah. The path to becoming
the Piano Man was, well, it was turbulent. It
was not a straight line. The early struggles,
the financial trauma, the constant fight with
critics, it all explains why his songs connect
so deeply with people who feel like outsiders,
even if they're sitting in a sold -out stadium.
Okay, let's unpack this. From teenage boxer who
rejected his high school diploma to the classical
composer who sold 160 million records, this man's
career is a fascinating deep dive. So to really
get the intensity and, you know, the authenticity
of Joel's lyrics, his whole identification with
the working class, with suburbia, with that sort
of common struggle, you have to start not just
with Long Island, but with the really dramatic
history of his German Jewish family. Right. He
was born in the Bronx, May 9, 1949. But the place
that really defined his identity was Hicksville,
Long Island. His family moved there when he was
just a year old. Yeah. And he grew up in a very
standard kind of post -war nondescript house.
Architecturally, it was a lot like the houses
in Levittown, that famous planned community nearby.
And he captures that suburban monotony so perfectly
in songs like Moving Out. That whole environment,
for better or worse, that's where all his inspiration
comes from. And that suburban life was such a
stark contrast to his family's European history.
His father, Howard Joel, original helmet, was
a really accomplished amateur classical pianist.
He was born in Nuremberg, Germany. And the family
story is one of just profound trauma. They were
forced to flee the Nazi regime. That history
is absolutely key, isn't it? Joel's grandfather,
Karl Anson Joel, he didn't just move. I mean,
he was forced out under incredible duress. He
ran this hugely successful mail order textile
company, Joel Macht Fabric. It was the second
largest of its kind in all of Germany. But because
of Nazi laws that prevented Jews from owning
property. Carl was forced to sell that thriving
business to a man named Joseph Neckerman for,
what, just a tiny fraction of its real value?
It was basically state -sanctioned theft. The
family emigrated in 1939, and they had to come
to the U .S. through Cuba because of the strict
American immigration quotas back then. And even
though Joel said his parents rarely ever spoke
about the war, that deep historical economic
trauma, it must have shaped the whole family
dynamic. Of course, that sense of loss and striving,
you can feel it. He carried his own baggage.
He divorced Billy's mother, Rosalind, in 1957
and went back to Europe. He ended up in Vienna.
Yeah. He apparently felt that the United States
was just, you know, an uneducated, materialistic
country. Which is so fascinating because it creates
this huge generational split. Right. Billy Joel
has a half brother, Alexander Joel, from his
father's later marriage in England. And Alexander
fully embraced that European path. He became
a chief classical conductor. And at the same
time, you've got young Billy back in Long Island
fighting to get out of the piano lessons his
mom insisted on. It is the definition of irony.
Yeah. While his dad and his half brother are
embracing this rigorous European classical tradition,
Billy is being like dragged into it. He started
lessons when he was four. Can you imagine? He
kept up the formal lessons until he was about
16. And our sources say he would often just improvise
during lessons to get out of reading the sheet
music. So even then, you see that resistance
to structure. He was already trusting his ear
over everything else. And that rebellious streak,
it all culminates in that famous dropout story.
He was at Hicksville High School, but by 1967,
he was already playing late night gigs in piano
bars to help support his mom and sister. After
the divorce. Exactly. He misses this crucial
English exam one day. And when the school administration
gives him a hard time, he delivers that legendary
line. To hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia
University, I'm going to Columbia Records and
you don't need a high school diploma over there.
That is just classic American defiance, isn't
it? Rejecting the system to chase your dream.
But before he went all in on music, he had this
totally different outlet for that defiance. Amateur
boxing. This is the detail that always shocks
people. The ones who only know him as the just
the way you are guy. He competed as an amateur
welterweight on the Golden Glove circuit and
he was good. He won 22 of 26 fights before he
finally quit. Wait hang on. So he was actively
boxing competing while he was also reluctantly
taking piano lessons. I mean how did that physical
aggression did it show up in his early lyrics.
It just suggests this profound inner conflict
you know. The composer's hand versus the fighter's
fist. It really speaks to that working class
identity he was building. He was not afraid of
a fight, whether it was in a ring or later with
a music critic. The sources all point to one
moment that cemented the shift from boxing to
music, though. the beatles on the ed sullivan
show in 1964. oh of course yeah he saw john lennon
who didn't look like some polished hollywood
star and he just felt this connection a sense
that you know you could be a rebel and still
make your own music so he starts moving through
the local band scene the echoes the lost souls
then the hassles which had a couple of albums
that went absolutely nowhere but the next stage
that duo attila in 1969 That led directly to
his first huge personal catastrophe. Oh, Attila
was a it was a brief, bizarre venture, a sort
of heavy organ and drum rock duo with a guy named
John Small. It fell apart very quickly in October
1970 because Joel started an affair with John
Small's wife, Elizabeth Weber, and she would
later become his first wife and crucially his
manager. And that event just triggered a devastating
downward spiral. The 2025 documentary. and so
it goes, really brought the details of this severe
depressive period into focus. It revealed he
attempted suicide twice in 1970. It really just
underscores the high personal and emotional stakes
of that early struggle. It was right after his
band collapsed, his relationship with Small was
destroyed, Joel was evicted, he felt like he
had nowhere to go, and he described his depression
as almost being psychotic. The first attempt
was with sleeping pills, right? It led to a coma
for several days. Yes. And when he woke up, he
was actually disappointed that it hadn't worked.
The sources described the second attempt as even
more visceral. He drank furniture polish. He
later said it looked tastier than bleach. And
it was John Small, the man whose wife he'd pursued,
who rushed him to the hospital. Yes, to Meadowbrook
Hospital. He was admitted for depression treatment,
put on suicide watch. The song Tomorrow Is Today
from his first album. He later said that was
basically his suicide note. That history is just
incredibly raw. It shows that the Piano Man's
early career wasn't just fueled by ambition.
It was fueled by some profound emotional turmoil.
So if he rejected high school that forcefully
to chase rock fame, how badly did he take the
shame of that first commercial flop Cold Spring
Harbor, which came right after that emotional
crisis? Cold Spring Harbor from 1971 was supposed
to be his big launch. It has early versions of
classics like She's Got A Way. But the release
was completely sabotaged by this colossal technical
error. The album was mastered at too high a speed.
And we're not talking about a minor issue here,
are we? It changed the pitch of the entire record.
It made his voice sound tinny and sped up. Yeah,
critics called it chipmunk -like. It was a commercial
disaster and a huge source of humiliation for
him. And on top of that, he had signed this absolutely
brutal contract with Artie Ripp's family productions.
Oh, it was crippling. Ripp didn't just own the
master tapes. He owned all the publishing rights
and future royalties. It basically left Joel
financially powerless. So to escape all this...
This legal and commercial disaster. He just vanishes.
He moves across the country to Los Angeles and
works incognito for six months as Bill Martin
at the Executive Room Piano Bar on Wilshire Boulevard.
And that period, being this anonymous working
musician dealing with drunk businessmen and lonely
barflies, it's the stuff of legend because it
directly inspired Piano Man. He drew the characters,
John at the bar, the real estate novelist from
the people he saw every night. And that song
is the perfect distillation of his skill. It's
narrative storytelling over musical complexity.
It became his signature. He ends almost every
single concert with it. The ultimate break didn't
even come through the label system. It came from
Radio Rebellion, a live performance of Captain
Jack, recorded in Philly, got broadcast on WMMR
-FM in 1972. And that track just exploded. It
became the station's most requested song, an
underground hit all up and down the East Coast.
That's what finally got him noticed by Columbia
Records, right? Exactly. An executive named Herb
Gordon heard it. They managed to renegotiate
his horrible contract with Artie Ripp, though
Ripp still got a piece of his sales until 19...
And they signed him to Columbia in 1972. It's
just a classic arc, massive failure, a secret
identity, and then a radio -driven breakout that
forced the establishment to finally pay attention.
So once that awful contract was at least partly
fixed and he was at Columbia, everything changed.
We're moving from those struggling, anonymous
years to the breakthrough moment of 1977's The
Stranger. And the key to that whole transformation
was a new partner, Phil Ramone. Ramone was a
legendary producer. He went on to produce seven
straight studio albums with Joel, starting with
The Stranger. How did that collaboration even
happen? It was born out of necessity, really.
Joel's first wife, Elizabeth, she personally
called Ramone. He was impressed by a Carnegie
Hall show Joel did in 77 and agreed to take the
job. So what did Ramone bring that was so different?
I mean, up to that point, Joel was still kind
of finding his sound. Ramone brought discipline
and clarity. He streamlined everything. Previous
albums were sometimes over -orchestrated. Ramone
put Joel's piano front and center, giving it
this almost crystalline precision. It really
showcased Joel's classical training. He created
this sonic signature that was polished, but it
still had that New York edge. And this Georgia
wasn't just a hit. It was a cultural phenomenon.
It became Columbia Records' best -selling album
at the time. It even beat Simon & Garfunkel's
Bridge Over Troubled Water. Yeah, that album
launched him from being this respected cult artist
into a true household name. It was a massive
critical success, too. He won Record of the Year
and Song of the Year for Just the Way You Are.
Which is such a great detail because that song
was famously written for his first wife and manager,
Elizabeth Weber, the same person who is so instrumental
in getting him to Ramone in the first place.
And then you have the songs that really made
him an album artist. Scenes from an Italian restaurant.
It's a seven and a half minute epic. It shifts
through different movements, a ballad, a doo
-wop part, a frantic middle section. It's the
kind of complex narrative work that AOR stations,
the ones that play. album tracks just lived for.
And what about Vienna? A deep cut from that album
that has had this incredible resurgence. It's
amazing. In the streaming era, it's become one
of his most streamed songs. It proves that its
message, slow down, you're doing fine, is just
completely timeless. Rolling Stone later ranked
The Stranger as the 70th greatest album of all
time. The acclaim was just immediate and it has
lasted. And that momentum just carried straight
into 52nd Street in 1978. It became his first
album to hit number one on the Billboard 200.
Yeah, and it was named right after the street
where the CBS Columbia headquarters was. This
one repeated the award success, too. Grammys
for Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance.
But here's where this little technological footnote
becomes, like, historic. 52nd Street was the
first album ever to be commercially released
on the compact disc format back in 1982. That's
a huge insight. He wasn't just on the new format.
He was the launchpad for it. Why his music? His
sound was perfect for it. The CD promised this
pristine audio, you know, no pops and scratches
like vinyl. And because Ramone's production was
so clean and precise, focusing on the piano and
layered horns, 52nd Street was the ideal way
to show off the CD's fidelity. He literally pioneered
the way the world consumed music for the next
20 years. And at the same time, his international
presence was growing. In 1979, he goes to Havana,
Cuba. The Havana Jam Festival. A huge moment
of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. It
was an attempt by CBS Records to showcase American
artists in Cuba. And while there were all these
logistical nightmares, they couldn't even properly
record or film his performance. Joel's set was,
according to a lot of reports, the absolute highlight
of the whole weekend. It showed his music could
transcend political borders. Which sets the stage
for a big creative pivot in 1980 with Glass Houses.
By this point, he's rich, he's famous, he's critically
acclaimed. But the media keeps labeling him a
mellow balladeer or soft rocker. And he wanted
to fight back. Glass Houses was a literal rebuttal
to that. It was a conscious effort to prove he
could rock harder. He was trying to compete with
the energy of new wave acts like The Cars or
Blondie, and his lyrics shifted from character
studies to this very defensive, confrontational
style. The album cover says it all, doesn't it?
It shows him in a leather jacket about to throw
a rock through the window of his own Long Island
home. Exactly. It's a direct visual message.
If you're going to criticize me in my glass house,
I'll smash it myself. And commercially, it worked.
The album spent six weeks at number one, and
it finally gave him his first single to top the
Billboard Hot 100. It's still rock and roll to
me. And the lyric, I don't care what you say
about my clothes, it's still rock and roll to
me. That's the ultimate expression of that defiance.
And in New York, he just becomes a legend. His
five sold -out shows at Madison Square Garden
in 1980 earn him their gold ticket award. He
was already starting to build that foundation
for his reign as the ultimate New York artist.
After that heavy rock phase, 1982 brings the
Nylon Curtain. Which felt like his most ambitious
album yet, both lyrically and musically. Right.
If Last Houses was reactive, The Nylon Curtain
was reflective. Joel wanted to create a sonic
masterpiece. He was heavily influenced by later
Beatles stuff. And he wanted to tackle the state
of the American dream under the Reagan administration.
You hear that ambition in tracks like Allentown.
which is about the decline of American manufacturing,
and Goodnight Saigon, about the trauma of Vietnam
veterans. A topic most people were ignoring back
then. This was him trying to solidify his legacy
as a serious, topical songwriter, not just a
pop star. The making of that album was physically
difficult for him, too. Yeah, in 1982, he was
in a really serious motorcycle accident on Long
Island. A car ran a red light. He was flipped
over it. He crushed the bone in his left thumb,
dislocated his other wrist. The album was delayed
for months. That must have been terrifying for
a musician whose entire career depends on his
hands. But the album still went to number seven,
partly because of heavy airplay on MTV, right?
Yeah. The videos for Allentown and Pressure were
cinematic and they were on constant rotation
on the new MTV network. That whole seven year
period, 77 to 83, you just see him consolidating
his position. He proved he could do pop, rock
and deep political songwriting. He had established
himself as a composer of immense range. The intensity
of the nylon curtain and that motorcycle accident.
It must have been draining because right after
that, in 1983, he swings completely the other
way with an innocent man. It feels like a deliberate
retreat into nostalgia. It was a pure, joyful
homage. The album was a tribute to the R &B and
doo -wop of the 50s and 60s. It was a conscious
move to a lighter, less political tone. It really
felt like he was looking for refuge in the sounds
of his youth. And it was massively successful
because it was so accessible. It had six top
30 singles. Including that... instantly recognizable
a capella track the longest time and tell her
about it and of course the song that became a
defining hit of the era uptown girl uptown girl
has such a great backstory it perfectly shows
how his personal life and his art were intersecting
it was originally called uptown girls plural
it was inspired by a trip he took to the caribbean
where he found himself hanging out with christy
brinkley whitney houston and l mcpherson and
the video With Christie Brinkley as the high
society girl in the Rolls Royce and Joel as the
grease monkey at the gas station. Yeah. It just
cemented that image in the public mind and led
directly to their marriage in 1985. It's a perfect
snapshot of 80s celebrity culture. And this string
of hits led directly to that commercial monster,
his greatest hits, Volume 1 and Volume 2 in 1985.
A monster is right. That compilation went double
diamond. That's 11 .5 million copies sold, which
equals 23 million units. It is still one of the
best -selling albums in U .S. history. So that's
the absolute peak of his commercial power. But
then in 1987, he does something truly unusual,
the Soviet experiment. This wasn't just a concert
tour. It was a Cold War cultural moment. It was
huge. Joel became one of the first Western artists
to do a full -on pop rock tour in the Soviet
Union. Six shows in Moscow and Leningrad. The
concerts were the first live rock radio broadcast
in Soviet history. It was a genuine attempt at
cultural diplomacy under Gorbachev's policy of
glasnost. But the sources say it did not go smoothly.
Mostly because of the cultural clash. Joel was
used to American crowds singing and dancing.
The Soviet audiences were much more reserved.
And that reservation was enforced. Jill later
explained that whenever fans got too excited,
Soviet security guards who had no idea how to
handle a rock concert would literally remove
them. Plus, the house lights were always shining
brightly on the crowd, which Joel found incredibly
distracting. And this led to that famous... just
explosive meltdown on stage. Yes, he was so enraged
by the lights and the disconnect with the audience,
he felt he couldn't reach them. He just flipped
his electric piano over and snapped a microphone
stand mid -song. All while still singing. All
while still singing. Wow. It was just this moment
of raw, unedited frustration, and it was all
caught on camera. He later said he was profoundly
embarrassed and apologized, but... The damage
was done. It really highlights how hard it was
to be an American cultural ambassador in such
a rigid environment. And financially, it was
a disaster for him. A total disaster. Joel estimated
he lost over a million dollars of his own money
on that trip. The live album that came from it,
Co -Opt, which is Russian for concert, it didn't
even go gold. It was his worst selling release
since Cold Spring Harbor. A huge financial loss
for a brief bit of cultural goodwill. So as we
move into the late 80s, his problems become less
about international diplomacy and more about
corporate betrayal. The recording of Stormfront
in 88 happened at the same time his business
affairs were just completely collapsing. It was
a critical point. We're talking about massive
financial fraud at the highest level. of his
inner circle he fired and sued his manager who
was also his former brother -in -law frank weber
for an incredible 90 million dollars 90 million
90 million the allegations were that weber had
systematically defrauded him through shady tax
shelters mismanaged funds and just siphoned off
millions in royalties it was a profound betrayal
the audacity of it is just shocking it wasn't
just losing the money it was realizing someone
who was family had been stealing from him for
years. Oh, it definitely influenced his creative
mood. The song The Great Wall of China on Stormfront
is specifically about Frank Webber. It's just
a musical expression of his anger. And that turmoil
also led him to sue his longtime lawyer, Alan
Grubman, also for $90 million. Given that backdrop
of anger and betrayal, it makes sense that Stormfront
had a different sound. He worked with Mick Jones
from Foreigner, and the result was a harder -edged
album and a new band. And it gave him his third
and final U .S. number one hit. We Didn't Start
the Fire, a frenetic history lesson that just
became an instant cultural touchstone. But just
as important, the album had the Downeaster Alexa,
which highlighted the economic struggles of Long
Island fishermen. And this is where his working
class loyalty becomes real political activism.
This wasn't just a theme for a song. He actually
took action. He did. In 1992, he donated proceeds
from the song to defend East Hampton fishermen.
He even joined a protest himself and got charged
with fishing violations, though the charges were
later dismissed. You see the complexity there.
A millionaire rock star who still genuinely connects
with and fights for the working class he came
from. And the end of his pop songwriting era
came in 1993 with River of Dreams. After all
the financial chaos and the pressure, he decided
this album would be his retirement from making
new pop records. The last track, Famous Last
Words, literally symbolizes that farewell. The
album cover was famously painted by his wife
at the time, Christy Brinkley. and it gave him
his last top 10 hit that he wrote himself the
title track the river of dreams and it had lullaby
good night my angel which was for his daughter
alexa it was a successful heartfelt goodbye it
drew a line under his 22 -year career as a pop
artist and the big question then became What
does the Piano Man do when he decides to stop
writing pop songs? Well, he didn't retire from
performing, that's for sure. He just retired
from the pressure of the album cycle. He became
this unprecedented touring machine, especially
with his face -to -face tours with Elton John.
Which started in 1994. That concert tandem was
just massively successful. It ran all the way
to 2010. It's considered the longest -running
and most successful concert duo in pop music
history. They played stadiums across the globe.
But his ultimate legacy became tied to one single
iconic venue. Madison Square Garden. In 2013,
he got a status no other musician has ever had.
He was named MSG's first ever music franchise,
putting him on the same level as the Knicks and
the Rangers. And that led directly to his indefinite
monthly residency at the Garden starting in 2014.
That unprecedented run has made him the undisputed
king of that arena. He just keeps breaking his
own records. The number of performances is insane.
New York State even declared July 18th, 2018
as Billy Joel Day to mark his 100th show there.
And this incredible residency is finally set
to end in July 2024 with his 150th lifetime performance
at the Garden. Just staggering. And it really
cements his identity as the ultimate New York
artist. Our sources confirm he's the only artist
to have played Yankee, Shea, and Giant Stadiums,
plus MSG and Nassau Coliseum. He's conquered
every major New York venue. And after he walked
away from pop writing in 93, he finally fulfilled
the promise of his classical training. In 2001,
he returned to the music he'd spent his teenage
years resisting. He released a classical album,
Fantasies and Delusions. And this wasn't just
some vanity project. This was a serious, successful
album in a totally different genre. It was performed
by the pianist Yung Ki Joo, and it went to number
one on the classical charts. It really showed
the depth of his formal musical knowledge. These
are serious compositions. He often uses them
as instrumental breaks in his live shows, and
they form the musical backbone of the hit Broadway
musical, Moving Out. It's the ultimate paradox.
The high school dropout, who got famous for pop
tunes, retires to pursue the classical discipline
he was forced to learn as a kid. He still had
a few notable one -off singles during this retirement
period. In 2007, he wrote Christmas in Fallujah
after reading letters from soldiers in Iraq.
But he felt it should be sung by someone closer
to a soldier's age, so Cass Dillon performed
the studio version. The humanitarian side again,
connecting with the working people and soldiers.
Exactly. And then... After decades of saying
he was done with pop, he surprises everyone in
2024. He releases Turn the Lights Back On, his
first new pop single in years. And it charted
immediately. It just proves that even after three
decades, the piano man can still command the
public's attention with new material. Outside
of music, he also diversified his interests,
often coming back to his Long Island roots. He's
always loved boats, so in 1996 he formed the
Long Island Boat Company. And in 2010, he opened
20th Century Cycles, a vintage motorcycle customization
shop and museum, indulging that passion for mechanics
you hear in his songs. His personal life continued
to evolve, too. He's still good friends with
his former wives, including Christie Brinkley.
Right. She attended his third wedding. He's godfather
to her two youngest kids. He's had four wives,
Elizabeth Weber, Christie Brinkley, Katie Lee,
and his current wife, Alexis Roderick, whom he
married in 2015. Governor Andrew Cuomo. officiated
that wedding. And with Alexis, he has two young
daughters, Della Rose and Remy Ann. So it's a
calmer domestic picture now. He lives mostly
in Florida, but still has that strong tie to
Long Island. We should also touch on the serious
health news from our sources. In May 2025, Joel
had to cancel several shows after being diagnosed
with normal pressure hydrocephalus. Which is
a condition that can affect your balance, vision
and hearing. And the public reaction was immediately
one of concern given his age and history. But
by July 2025, he gave a reassuring update, right?
He did. He said he was improving and that the
condition was treatable. It's just another example
of the resilience we've seen from him his whole
life. And this later period has been marked by
huge formal recognition. Beyond the sales numbers,
he got the Grammy Legend Award in 91. The Kennedy
Center Honors in 2013. And the prestigious Gershwin
Prize for Popular Song in 2014. And this is where
it all comes full circle, in the most ironic
way. He has multiple honorary doctorates. A huge
turnaround for the guy who famously dropped out
of high school, telling them he was going straight
to Columbia Records. The system he rejected eventually
came back to crown him. And of course, the album
that started it all, The Stranger. was ranked
the 70th greatest album of all time by Rolling
Stone. So when you connect it all, you see the
full arc. Escaping his father's trauma, rebelling
against formal education, finding his voice in
LA, suffering massive fraud, and then retiring
from pop to become the ultimate New York touring
institution. So what does this all mean? The
central paradox of his career is just so striking.
He became a global star by fighting against critics
who tried to box him in. He released Glass Houses
just to prove he could rock harder than the Soft
Balladier label. And yet, his most commercially
successful work, that Greatest Hits album that
sold 23 million units, is mostly made up of the
very pop and soft ballad songs he spent years
trying to run away from. His legacy is defined
by the material he almost rejected. It's the
ultimate struggle between the artist's ambition
and the audience's desire. He wanted to be the
serious commentator of the nylon curtain, but
the world fell in love with a nostalgic storyteller
of the longest time and just the way you are.
Here's where it gets really interesting. is the
ultimate paradox of Billy Joel, that his greatest
legacy came from the pop material he wrote before
he even got the high school diploma he rejected.
Yet he later retired from that same pop music
to pursue the classical composition that he rejected
as a child. He ran away from discipline and then
returned to it decades later. after he had already
redefined what popular music could be. He rejected
the serious, formal path of his father for this
rebellious, working -class rock scene. And then,
after dominating the charts for two decades,
he returns to classical composition. The very
formality he tried to leave behind in Hicksville,
it's for his own artistic closure. The circle
is complete. So if you want to explore the tension
between these two completely different sides
of the piano man, take a deep dive into the experimental
1982 album The Nylon Curtain for his serious
lyrical ambition. Or check out Fantasies and
Delusions from 2001 to hear the lesser -known,
formally trained musical mind of the classical
composer he ultimately became. We hope this deep
dive helps you appreciate the full, turbulent,
and triumphant journey of Billy Joel.