After ten years, 150 sold-out concerts and more than 1.6 million tickets sold. The fact that he is now turning 75 seems to him to be 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 in Florida, like old Jewish men from New York do.” Joel doesn’t want to retire from music. He just released a new song, “Turn the Lights Back On,” for the first time in decades and performed at the Grammy Gala. Additional individual concerts have also been announced for the rest of the year.
- Video: Billy Joel – “Piano Man” from 1973
The award-winning “Piano Man” singer was born William Joel in 1949 to a German Jewish father and a British Jewish mother in the New York Bronx. He took piano lessons as a child, soon played in bands and recorded his first albums. He made his breakthrough in 1973 with the album and song of the same name “Piano Man”, and in the 20 years following that he released ten more albums with successful songs such as “Uptown Girl”, “She’s Always A Woman To Me”, and “Tell Her About It”. .
Two little daughters
Privately, Joel struggled with depression for a long time, which he later spoke regarding publicly. Three marriages failed. He has been married to Alexis Roderick, who is more than thirty years his junior, since 2015; the couple has two children. Joel brought Roderick and their two young daughters to the press conference at which he announced the end of his concert series at Madison Square Garden. Joel is an “ambassador for everything that is great regarding New York,” said Mayor Eric Adams – and revealed that the first thing he hears every morning following getting into his company car is “New York State of Mind” – Joel’s hymn to the metropolis from 1976.
