Billy Joel says despite releasing a new song in February, "Turn the Lights Back On," don't look for him to record a new album.
When asked by Variety if he plans to, he said, "Nope!," adding, "Who makes albums anymore anyway?
“I think the only person making new albums these days is Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. I don’t know other people who make albums. I don’t know what the marketing of that is like now.”
And, add to that the fact that he still has no desire to write pop songs.
“There’s this big black beast with 88 teeth that wants to bite my fingers off while I’m writing. I drive myself nuts. It’s just not as good as I want it to be. It’s a great deal of torment, and I decided I don’t want to put myself through that anymore. I used to have drinking problems and all kinds of self-hate when I was writing, because I set the bar so high. It’s not something I miss. I love making music.”
His last pop studio album was 1993's River of Dreams.
Billy was also asked about CBS ending his special in April, Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden, halfway through the finale of "The Piano Man" in the Eastern and Central time zones.
He says he “wasn’t surprised. I’ve never been really happy with the way music is presented on television. I think for TV people, it’s really all about the visual. If you’re looking at a television set, you’ll see a big screen and a little tiny speaker and that should tell you enough about where their priorities are. They have a hard time getting the audio right, and they also don’t really know how to present new music. I wasn’t surprised that it got cut off short because I’ve always kind of been cut short by TV.”
Joel will be back on stage this Friday at Soldier Field in Chicago with Stevie Nicks opening.
IN OTHER BILLY JOEL NEWS....
Billy Joel was asked for a comment on Justin Timberlake while dining at the American Hotel, the same Sag Harbor, New York establishment where the former ’N Sync singer had been seen partying shortly before his DWI arrest the night before. He told New York’s PIX 11 News, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”