Credit: Kevin MazurLast week, Billy Joel made his 100th concert appearance at New York’s Madison Square Garden. While he has no plans to stop performing at the venue, he’s now revealing what would have to happen to make him consider vacating his piano bench for good.
“If I can’t sing as well as I should. I’m already struggling,” he tells Vulture. “I wrote most of the songs that I’m doing when I was in my 20s and 30s and it ain’t easy to hit those notes in my 60s.”
He adds, “If I’m having a tough time hitting notes…I call it throwing junk pitches. Instead of having a fastball you throw off-speed. If I’ve got to throw too much junk, I’m going to consider stopping.”
And, says Billy, he’d have no problem retiring if that was the case. “It would be abhorrent to me to be up there faking it,” he insists, adding, “I know when I’m good or not.”
His vocal issues aside, Billy says there’s a simple reason why he continues to perform.
“I have the greatest job in the world. You get up there, you make a lot of noise, girls scream, and you get s***loads of money,” he tells Vulture.
That being said, he jokingly reveals that he has an idea for a farewell tour.
“The stage is a living-room set: couch, TV, coffee table, food…there’s bulletproof glass between me and the audience,” he explains. “Then I come out and lay down on the couch. I grab the remote and start watching TV. The crowd…goes, ‘F*** this,’ and starts throwing [stuff] at at the glass.”
He cracks, “I’ll have created a bond between me and the audience where I know they will never pay another nickel to see me again.”
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