Billy Joel has “mixed feelings” about turning 70, reveals if he'd work with Elton again

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Credit: Kevin Mazur Billy Joel turns 70 this Thursday, May 9, and he’ll mark the milestone with a show New York’s Madison Square Garden — but he admits that he’s not really in a celebratory mood.

“I got mixed feelings about it, he tells Rolling Stone. “On the one hand, I’m happy to be alive. On the other hand, I don’t know how much of a party I deserve just for making it to 70.” 

In fact, because he’s a rock star, Billy says he doesn’t think of his age…until he sees pictures of himself.

“I got old, I lost my hair,” he laments. “I was never a matinee idol to begin with, and there I am onstage, still doing the same job I was doing when I was 16.”

But don’t ever expect him to try to make himself look younger. 

“I’ve always been a schlubby-looking guy, and I ain’t about to change,” he admits. “Plastic surgery, wigs…I am 70 years old. I’ve never hidden my age, so why should I start now?”

Asked if he’d consider a biopic of his eventful life, like his pal Elton John is doing, Billy insists, “I don’t know if I’m interesting enough to make a movie out of. I lived my life. I don’t want to be redundant.” 

Speaking of Elton, he tells Rolling Stone that he’d “work with him again, absolutely…if he asked me to.”

As for retiring from the road like Elton, though, Billy says no way.

“I think the way it’ll happen is, there’ll be a night where I feel like I can’t do it well anymore — I can’t hit the notes, I don’t have the physical stamina, I’m not into it,” he suggests. “And that night, I’ll know it’s time to stop.”

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