Billy Joel Fun Facts, Quotes and Tweets
7th January 2016
Fact: Billy Joel has invited U.S. late night host Jimmy Fallon to join him onstage at his concert in Madison Square Garden on Friday (08Jan16). In a segment for Fallon's talk show on Wednesday (06Jan16), Joel and the 41 year old performed a duet of the Rolling Stones' Beast of Burden and an impromptu doo-wop version of Joel's The Longest Time alongside guest J.K. Simmons - and Joel was so impressed with the host's singing skills he insisted Fallon join him onstage.
21st September 2015
Quote: "I've been a groupie for years, just touring with him, riding in the van, putting out... No, one of my best friends loves Billy Joel, he was a big part of Trainwreck and he said, 'Why don't you come up and sing Uptown Girl?'" Comedienne Amy Schumer on appearing at the veteran singer's Chicago, Illinois gig last month (Aug15) and danced on top of his piano with pal Jennifer Lawrence. The tune Uptown Girl is featured in the final scene of Schumer's hit summer blockbuster, Trainwreck.
14th August 2015
Fact: Billy Joel's wife ALEXIS RODERICK has introduced fans to the couple's new arrival by sharing the first photo of its baby girl on Instagram.com. In the snap, the new mum cradles her daughter, who was born on Wednesday (12Aug15). She captioned the image, "Della Rose Joel. Thank you for all the love! She's absolutely perfect! Busy, busy, here at the Joel home but I wanted to share a pic. Love, Alexis."
8th July 2015
Fact: Guests at Billy Joel's surprise Independence Day (04Jul15) wedding feasted on pearl oysters, prawns, chilled Maine lobster, porterhouse steak, grilled tuna and white truffle mac and cheese. The big day, which was planned by Scott Parrish of Thomas Preti Events, ended with Joel, his new bride Alexis and close friends and family members lighting up the Long Island, New York sky with lanterns and fireworks. The guests thought they were just attending Joel's annual July the Fourth bash.
16th April 2015
Quote: "I'm really happy for them he's a great guy, he deserves all the happiness in the world, and he's a terrific father so I'm really really happy. He will always be in my life and I think he's just the greatest." Chef Katie Lee is thrilled to hear her ex-husband Billy Joel is set to become a dad at 65. The Piano Man singer has confirmed reports his girlfriend Alexis Roderick is pregnant.
14th January 2015
Fact: Billy Joel is set to make his first appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee as a headlining act. The Piano Man, along with Mumford & Sons and Kendrick Lamar, will be the main attractions at the event, which runs from 11 to 14 June (15).
26th October 2014
Quote: "There was an edge of, 'Go away kid, you're bothering me'. I've kicked myself a million times since. I could've discovered Whitney Houston." Singer Billy Joel regrets not listening to Whitney Houston sing when he met her in the 1980s while on vacation in St. Bart's.
4th September 2014
Quote: "It’s a little intimidating to walk into a studio and know that you’re going to sing a duet with Barbra Streisand." Billy Joel was nervous ahead of his duet with Barbra Streisand. The pair teams up for a rendition of his New York State of Mind song for her new duets album Partners.
7th August 2014
Fact: Billy Joel's daughter Alexa Ray appears to have picked up her former stepmother and chef Katie Lee's love for the kitchen and now hosts weekly pasta nights for friends and family members. The singer has posted shots of a get together on Tuesday night (05Aug14), when her dad showed up to cook his "spaghetti aliolio e pepperonicino (con basilico)", on Instagram.
24th June 2014
Fact: Rock icon Billy Joel came to the rescue of an elderly woman on Monday (23Jun14) after she tripped on a pedestrian crossing in East Hampton Village, New York. The singer, who was riding his motorcycle when he witnessed the accident, helped paramedics collect the lady's belongings and take them to the side of the road, and kept her company as she recovered from the fall on a nearby bench, reports the New York Post.
20th June 2014
Fact: Billy Joel's singer daughter Alexa Ray Joel is to make a return to the stage after collapsing during a show in New York in April (14). She will return to the same venue, the Cafe Carlyle, for a run starting on 24 June (14). Joel was diagnosed with vasovagal syncope, which causes fainting spells.
19th May 2014
Fact: Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine was a surprise special guest during Billy Joel's concert at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl on Saturday (17May14), coming on stage to duet with the Piano Man on his hit song You May Be Right. Joel returns to the iconic venue for two more concerts on 22 and 27 May (14).
29th April 2014
Quote: "I was 20. I stayed for about a day and a half. I wanted to see (Jimi) Hendrix, but then I needed to use the bathroom facilities, and the toilets were pretty primitive. I think you had to do acid to stay there for three days. And I didn't get laid." Legendary singer Billy Joel on his less than glamorous experience at the iconic Woodstock music festival in 1969.
23rd March 2014
Fact: Billy Joel is attempting to offload his Hamptons beach house in New York for the second time in five years. The rock legend, who bought the mansion from Jaws star Roy Scheider in 2007 for $16.8 million (£10.5 million), initially decided to place the mansion up for sale in 2009, but the property failed to sell and he removed it from the market. However, the singer is now trying to sell the pad once again and has listed the home for $23.5 million (£14.7 million).
21st March 2014
Fact: Rocker Billy Joel performed a unique take of The Tokens' The Lion Sleeps Tonight with U.S. Tv host Jimmy Fallon on Thursday night (20Mar14) by using a new iPad app called The Looper, which records the user's voice and loops it to create a vocal group harmony. The app allowed the duo to sing multiple parts of the same song and put them together to form a doo-wop version of the track, backed by house band The Roots.
14th March 2014
Quote: "All you gotta do is f**k up one word in that song and it's a train wreck... It's the same thing verse after verse... Just the words change. It's one of the worst melodies I ever wrote." Billy Joel on his We Didn't Start the Fire hit after forgetting the lyrics during a show in Toronto, Canada on 9 March (14)."
24th December 2013
Fact: Rock icon Billy Joel will be ringing in 2014 with a televised U.S. performance live from his New Year's Eve (31Dec13) concert in Brooklyn, New York. The legendary star has been added to the line up for the DICk Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest show, but he won't be heading to Times Square to join the likes of Miley Cyrus, Blondie and MACklemore & Ryan Lewis - he will instead celebrate onstage at the Barclays Center.
4th December 2013
Quote: "Here I am starting a franchise and I'm gonna be 65 years old. I should've started this in 1978... I wrote like 300 songs and I'm gonna have to re-learn some of them!" Billy Joel shares his worries ahead of his hometown shows at New York City's fabled Madison Square Garden next year (14).
1st December 2013
Fact: Billy Joel's 1989 hit We Didn't Start The Fire has been adapted into Hindi to promote an Indian political party's 2014 general election run. The Samajwadi Party's new anthem, Man se hain Mulayam Irade Loha ha, has been reworked by Bollywood singer Javed Ali.
17th September 2013
Fact: Billy Joel's daughter has recorded his classic love song Just The Way You Are for a new jeans commercial. Alexa Ray Joel, who is the singer's 27-year-old daughter from his marriage to Christie Brinkley, appears in Gap's latest denim campaign crooning her dad's tune.
14th June 2013
Fact: Billy Joel performed at the birthday party of a wealthy hedge fund manager in New York City on Wednesday night (12Jun13). The Piano Man played with his band during the bash at the American Museum of Natural History.
10th June 2013
Fact: Billy Joel has off-loaded his Miami mega-mansion for a cool $14 million (£9 million). The new owner of the seven-bedroom La Gorce Island waterfront estate, which Joel first put on the market a year ago (May12), is Tod's shoes owner Diego Della Valle. The rocker purchased the property in 2006 for $13.5 million (£8.7 million), according to Tmz.com.
31st May 2013
Fact: Singer Billy Joel thrilled students at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City on Thursday (30May13) by dropping by unannounced during a class assembly. The Piano Man answered questions from fans and also performed a few songs.
1st April 2013
Quote: "I guess some people in classical music can keep going until they kick (die) and the (Rolling) Stones are definitely pushing the envelope but I wonder if here's a time when you have to face whether you are as good as you used to be." Billy Joel considers whether retirement is an option for ageing rockers.
17th January 2013
Fact: This year's (13) New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will be full of flashbacks for music fans - Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Earth, Wind & Fire, B.B. King and Hall & Oates are among the acts on the bill. John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Willie Nelson are also among the headliners for the two-weekend event, which kicks off at the end of April (13).
13th December 2012
Quote: "It's kinda like the first day at school again - the usual suspects... It's cool, the old gang." Billy Joel had a lot of fun meeting old pals at 12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief in New York on Wednesday night (12Dec12).
13th December 2012
Quote: "I know it cost you a s**tload of money to get in here! But you got the spirit going, I hope everybody has a happy holiday season together with their loved ones!" Rock icon Billy Joel makes light of the sky high prices some fans paid to attend the massive star-studded 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief at New York's Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night (12Dec12). One ticket on the StubHub.com website was being offered at a staggering $60,000 (£37,500) after the gig, which also featured the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Sir Paul MCCartney, sold out.
4th September 2012
Fact: Billy Joel's singer daughter Alexa Ray is set to write a fashion column detailing designer runway shows for stylish website Julib.com.
10th February 2012
Fact: Billy Joel, Elvis Costello and Alice Cooper are among the stars lining up to record tributes to Sir Paul McCartney for a new album. Brian Wilson, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Steve Miller, Jeff Lynne, Heart, Wanda Jackson, Kiss and The Cure will also be revamping MACca's biggest hits for producer and music supervisor Ralph Sall's project.
21st December 2011
Fact: Billy Joel's ex-wife Katie Lee is to make her theatrical debut on 4 January (12) in New York City's Off-Broadway show Love, Loss, and What I Wore. The celebrity chef will take to the stage at the Westside Theatre for a four-week run.
9th November 2011
Fact: Billy Joel's singer daughter Alexa Ray has turned agony aunt for U.S. teen magazine J-14. The young star offers advice about girls dating friends' ex-boyfriends and teens troubled about their height.
12th May 2011
Quote: "I'm single but interviewing." Billy Joel's ex-wife Christie Brinkley is on the hunt for a new man.
16th February 2011
Quote: "Billy and I would be cooking in the kitchen, doing Broadway shows all the time - singing and dancing." Christie Brinkley insists her supportive ex-husband Billy Joel was far from surprised to hear the supermodel was making her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in long-running musical Chicago.
20th December 2010
Fact: Billy Joel's singer daughter Alexa Ray Joel is already proving to be a hit before she steps onstage to kick off her residency at The Plaza Hotel's Oak Room in New York - her first performance on Monday (20Dec10) has sold out, amid rumours her rock icon father will join her at the intimate show.
15th November 2010
Quote: "Even the girl in the song that says, 'And the waitress is practicing politics as the businessmen slowly get stoned' - that was my first wife. She was working there too." Billy Joel admits his PIANO MAN hit is 100 per cent biographical.
4th October 2010
Fact: Billy Joel's ex-wife Katie Lee is swapping cookbooks for novels. The chef has written her first fiction book, Ground Swell, about a young woman who learns to surf.
12th June 2010
Quote: "I don't belong in limos or private jets or on stage with people cheering me but that's what's kept me grounded because I know it's not right." Billy Joel is at odds with his fame.
30th April 2010
Tweet: "The nose-job was a personal and well thought-out decision on my part (and I would NEVER do another thing!)" Billy Joel's singer daughter Alexa Ray insists she won't be following her recent rhinoplasty with more plastic surgery.
7th March 2010
Fact: Billy Joel's estranged wife Katie Lee will be serving up the official champagne cocktail at the Oscars on Sunday (07Mar10). The chef has concocted the Moet Golden Glamour for the post-show Governors Ball. The tipple is a combination of champagne, passion fruit juice and vanilla liqueur.
15th February 2010
Fact: Rocker Billy Joel has offloaded one of the ocean front estates he shared with his estranged wife Katie Lee. Two properties in Sagaponack, New York were put on the market in September (09) and one has now sold for close to its $12.5 million (£7.8 million) price tag. The other house is still up for sale at $22.5 million (£14 million).
23rd June 2009
Quote: "Growing up, I didn’t know my parents were famous. I just thought they knew everybody. Everyone was always saying, ‘Hi, Billy,’ ‘Hi, Christie.’ I thought they were just popular.” Billy Joel's daughter Alexa Ray didn't realise her former supermodel mum Christie Brinkley and rockstar dad were superstars when she was younger.
21st April 2009
Quote: "Madonna fell off a horse? She should stay off of those horses. This isn't the Wild West." Billy Joel on the pop star's recent equestrian accident.
10th March 2009
Quote: "We did I SAW HER STANDING THERE and he sang LET IT BE. I just sat at the piano like a lump on a log watching Paul McCartney play Shea Stadium. It was poetry." Billy Joel can't shake the magical memory of having MCCartney join him for a concert just before the demolition of New York's sports mecca, where the Beatles once famously performed.
5th March 2009
Quote: "You get paid like a really good call girl. Walking offstage is like the walk of shame." Singer Billy Joel admits he's often humiliated after playing private parties.
1st October 2008
Fact: Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen will team up to headline a New York gala for U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama two weeks before the American general election in November (08). The event will mark the first time the two rock legends have performed at the same concert.
19th July 2008
Fact: Billy Joel has a half-brother who is an orchestra conductor in Vienna, Austria.
17th July 2008
Quote: "She wants to feel that she's accomplished something in her life. She doesn't just want to be Billy Joel's wife and sit around and eat bonbons." BILLY JOEL on his wife Katie Lee.
26th June 2008
Quote: "She's my daughter's mother and I wish her good luck." Billy Joel offers his ex-wife Christie Brinkley support as she battles through a messy divorce with her cheating ex Peter Cook.
27th March 2008
Fact: Billy Joel, James Taylor, Brian Wilson and Feist are among the stars who will perform at a benefit concert for Sting and his wife Trudie Styler's Rainforest Foundation Fund at Carnegie Hall in New York City on 8 May (08).
25th March 2008
Quote: "It's kinda like jail. Basically, they should've just thrown me in jail for about a month and let me dry out... You don't have access to anything and you're in the drunk tank with all the other drunks." Billy Joel on his rehab stint for excessive drinking.
25th March 2008
Quote: "There was only really one accident that was kinda bad but it was nothing to do with booze, just bad luck... I was having a hard time a couple of years ago... I'm a good driver, I just had bad luck." Billy Joel on his spate of car accidents in 2003 and 2004.
16th August 2007
Fact: Billy Joel has bought his wife KATIE a new $18 million (GBP9 million) home in The Hamptons, New York.
15th December 2006
Fact: Billy Joel's daughter ALEXA RAY is dating TORTURE SERMON frontman JIMMY RIOT, who is also the bass player in her backing band.
28th November 2006
Fact: Billy Joel has confirmed he'll sing the US NATIONAL ANTHEM at the Superbowl in Miami, Florida on 4 February (07).
19th September 2006
Fact: Salman Rushdie's wife PADMA LAKSHMI is to replace Billy Joel's wife Katie Lee as the host of US cooking show TOP CHEF.
5th June 2006
Quote: "I didn't really know how old she was when I started to date her... I would have married her if she was 30 years older than me... We just made a really strong connection." Billy Joel on the 31 age difference between himself and his young bride KATIE.
2nd June 2006
Quote: "We called it the Lenny Bruce and SNOW WHITE tour." Billy Joel recalls his mid-1970s US tour with Olivia Newton-John.
1st June 2006
Quote: "I look in the mirror and think, 'I don't look like a rock star.' I talked about this with Bono and we looked at each other and decided we look like a pair of bricklayers." Billy Joel is a modest musician.
18th May 2006
Fact: A TV series based on Billy Joel's life is coming to US network Showtime. The drama, titled BIG SHOT, will be co-produced by WILL + GRACE star Sean Hayes.
10th April 2006
Quote: "At least with a dog you can go out to dinner." Billy Joel's young bride, chef Katie Lee, prefers dogs to babies.
11th March 2006
Quote: "He's my little guinea-pig." Top chef Katie Lee JOEL admits she likes trying out new dishes on her husband Billy Joel.
3rd March 2006
Fact: Billy Joel's new wife Katie Lee has signed on to be one of the celebrity cooking experts judging new culinary TV contest TOP CHEF on America's Bravo cable network. The 24-year-old, who wed Joel in 2003, studied cooking at the British Institute in Florence, Italy.
20th January 2006
Fact: <p>Billy Joel will be the keynote speaker at New York's Syracuse University's graduation ceremony in May (06). The rocker, an avid contributor to music education programs, donated $320,000 (GBP178,000) to the university's Setnor School of Music last year (05). </p>
10th January 2006
Fact: <p>Pop star Pink walked barefoot down the beach aisle to the tune of Billy Joel's SHE'S ALWAYS A WOMAN when she wed motocross champion Carey Hart in Costa Rica on Saturday (07JAN06). Lisa Marie Presley was among the guests. </p>
5th December 2005
Quote: <p>"The place reeked of marijuana. I think my daughter got a contact high - she fell asleep on my shoulder." Billy Joel describes attending a recent CREAM show in New York with his daughter. </p>
3rd December 2005
Quote: <p>"Most of us who were there didn't like the song, but nobody would say so. I think Cyndi Lauper leaned over to me and said, `It sounds like a Pepsi commercial.'" Billy Joel on recording USA FOR AFRICA charity record WE ARE THE WORLD 20 years ago. </p>
1st December 2005
Quote: <p>"I compare songwriting to childbirth. How many kids can you have before your uterus explodes?" Singer/songwriter Billy Joel is running out of song ideas. </p>
28th November 2005
Fact: <p>The potato-head portrait on the cover of Billy Joel's new box set, MY LIVES, was a birthday gift from his daughter ALEXA when she was just seven. </p>
22nd November 2005
Fact: <p>Billy Joel's first solo tour in six years is looking like it will be another big seller - tickets for a Madison Square Garden date in New York (23JAN06) sold out in an hour yesterday (21NOV05), prompting the singer/songwriter to add two extra dates at the Big Apple venue. </p>
Billy Joel
