Billy Joel no longer into lyrics, but Piano Man still in the mood for a melody

One of the most highly decorated songwriters of all time, Australia-bound Billy Joel says he doesn’t have another song in him.

He’s one of the most highly decorated songwriters of all time, with a Hall Of Fame induction, a Library of Congress prize, and his signature tune Piano Man preserved in the National Recording Registry for its cultural, historic and artistic significance.

But superstar Billy Joel says he doesn’t have another song in him.

“I’m still writing music, I’m just not writing songs,” Joel says in an exclusive interview with SMARTdaily.

“I got tired of the tyranny of the lyric. I always write the music first, and the music is the thing that moved me before there were any words. There is something inherent in a musical passage, in a melody, in a chord progression, in a rhythm, that I don’t even needs words for.

“But I decided, one day, ‘I don’t want to write words any more’. I just want to write music,” Joel says. “And that’s what I’ve been doing.”

However, Joel’s decision to bow out of songwriting doesn’t mean he’s not keeping his ear tuned to modern day practitioners.

“There are some talented musicians out there,” Joel says. “Taylor Swift knows music and she knows how to write. Ed Sheeran is a good songwriter. Adele is great, too.

“There will always be good writers. There will be lousy writers, too. That’s how it works.”

Billy Joel is still a piano man in the mood for a melody. Picture: Rick Kern/Getty Images

Asked why he finds putting words to melody a tyrannical task in 2022, Joel replied: “Number one, it’s got to rhyme; number two, if it doesn’t rhyme, it doesn’t sound right.

“Words can only express so much, depending on your intellect, whereas music is purely emotional. I don’t know,” Joel shrugs, “I just relate to that more than words.

“A guy named Bob Dylan wrote the most amazing stuff, lyrically. You listen to some of his words, (Joel does a faultless Dylan impersonation at this point) ‘Upon four legged forest crowds, the cowboy angel rides.’

“And you go, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ And you know what?” Joel says, laughing, “It doesn’t matter. It sounds great.”

He is rightly proud of Piano Man, but says it’s a weird song to have won so many accolades.

“It’s a story song, but it’s not your typical single. It’s in 6/8 time, so you can waltz to it,” Joel says. “But it’s long. It just goes on and on. It’s the same melody over and over again; I just jump an octave.”

Joel laughs: “Thank God I wrote that little ‘la-di-di-da-di-di-da’ because that breaks it up a little bit.”

Billy Joel, the piano man, is still in the mood for a melody.

He loads up his multi-platinum hits and plays a monthly residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and the occasional stadium show in nearby states.

This summer, Joel will play his only Australian show in a historic one-night-stand at the MCG on December 10.

Billy Joel will play a one-off show at the MCG in December.

His recent set lists have included Just the Way You Are, An Innocent Man, Vienna, Movin’ Out, Allentown, My Life, She’s Always a Woman, Only the Good Die Young, The River of Dreams, Piano Man, We Didn’t Start the Fire, Uptown Girl, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,

Big Shot, You May Be Right, Pressure and The Longest Time.

“Madison Square Garden is built on springs because the subway is underneath. The building actually rocks when the crowd starts stomping. The stage goes up and down and it bounces like a bed. By the end of the show, we’re actually rocking the house,” Joel says.

It wasn’t always this way. Joel was “discovered” 50 years ago, and signed to a record deal in 1972 with Columbia Records. A year later, he released Piano Man.

“We were an opening act for a long time for a lot of different bands,” Joel says. “We opened up for everybody; The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Doobie Brothers, The Beach Boys, you name it.

“It was a struggle sometimes, but we always had fun. We were like a gang that travelled the world. We didn’t know where the hell we were a lot of the time, but all that heavy lifting came in handy later in life.

“I can’t believe I’m still doing the same job. I’m 73 years old. This is a job for a kid. This is a teenager’s job, being a rock and roll star. But here I am, still doing it,” Joel says, then laughs: “And those damn (Rolling) Stones keep pushing the envelope, too.”

Joel said his mission was not rock superstardom.

“All I wanted to do was make a living. I just wanted to pay the rent being a musician. That was my dream,” Joel says. “I wanted to be a musician, and not have to do 15 other jobs, which is what I had to do back in the day.

“But I guess the dream came true for me. It worked out.”

Billy Joel has been married four times. He and former supermodel Christie Brinkley — whom Joel lovingly wrote about in Uptown Girl — are parents to singer-songwriter Alexa Ray, 36.

Joel and his wife Alexis Roderick have two daughters, Della Rose, 6, and Remy Anne, 4.

Asked what he’s learned about love and romance over the journey, Joel says, laughing: “Not enough. It’s an ongoing education.

“I don’t think you ever really have that all wrapped up,” he adds. “It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but it can be the most satisfying thing, if you get it right.”

He’s a doting dad to his girls, and said they’re all hooked on the Aussie-made TV hit, Bluey.

“I tell them, ‘That’s in Australia. Bluey is an Australian show.’ And they’re like, ‘Where’s that?’ And I go over to the map and show them where it is,” Joel says.

“I enjoy Bluey, too. It’s very well written, the dialogue is great and the characters are charming. I like that family. I wish I knew them.”

Billy Joel says he never wanted to be a rock superstar. “I just wanted to pay the rent being a musician.”

Joel is honest and refreshing about the career advice he shares with Alexa Ray.

“Doing the work is all that it really comes down to,” he says. “All that heavy lifting I did back in the day has come in handy nowadays, at this age. I know how to do my job.

“I tell my daughter the same thing I tell other people: I don’t think I’m that good. I think I’m competent. I know how to play the piano, I try to sing in key and I’m OK,” Joel says.

“But in an age of incompetence, being competent makes you look extraordinary.

“Just try to be as good as you can be. It’s not about making the money, it’s not about being the star, it’s not about the glamour of the showbiz life. It’s all about the work.”

Joel says the best advice he ever got was from a high school teacher.

“I wanted to be a musician, but everyone discouraged me from doing it as a career. They’d tell me, ‘You’ll never make it, you won’t have any money, you’ll struggle, you’ll starve, you’ll become a drug addict, or you’ll end up in jail’.

“But one of my teachers, a music teacher, said ‘You know what Billy Joel? You should be a musician. You should consider having that be your career.’

“It was the first time an adult had ever said anything like that to me, and it really stuck. I took it to heart.”

Billy Joel, MCG, December 10.

Tickets: Telstra Plus members, pre-sale tickets from 10am, June 27 at telstra.com; Frontier Touring members, pre-sale tickets from 11am, June 30; general tickets on sale from 10am, July 4 at frontiertouring.com

Originally published as Billy Joel no longer into lyrics, but Piano Man still in the mood for a melody