Billy Joel bids farewell to New York after 10 years and 104 shows

On Thursday night, Joel took the stage to reflect on the band’s achievements for the crowd: “We were the first American band to play a full set in the Soviet Union,” he said. “We played in front of the Colosseum in Rome to 500,000 people. The food was great, too,” he quipped. “But of all the shows, this was the best.”

“The band loved it, the crew loved it,” he continued. “We’ll be back.”

Jimmy Fallon was also in attendance at the show, and he paid tribute to a beaming Joel as a banner commemorating the 150th concert hung on the stage. “You guys are giving us great memories,” he said. “We’re actually watching you live out the memories.”

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose strutted on stage in a black sequined blazer and sang the band’s version of Life and death moment and the cover of AC/DC Highway to Hell; he returns for the finale, joining Joel perhaps you’re right.

Joel said he first met Ross at a club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles when the tattooed hard rock fan asked him about his album. “He wanted to talk to me very much,” Joel said, raising his eyebrows to emphasize his surprise. When Ross asked Joel about his unlucky tunes captain Jacka line of women were waiting for Ross’s attention. “They were leaning in front of him, like they were showing off their wares,” Joel recalled. “I was like, ‘Why are you talking to me?'”

Previous guests have included Miley Cyrus (“She belted out New York State of Mind Like Barbra Streisand,” he exclaimed), Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Brian Johnson of AC/DC, and Olivia Rodrigo, all of whom played Uptown Girls And the songs she named herself, Deja vu.

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John Mayer made a cameo appearance in this gripping 2015 film it’s timeJoel’s magic, he says, is in staying on his own course and making decisions that go against conventional pop wisdom. “Most people want to make the big room bigger,” he says. “He turned the Garden into a club,” achieving “the purest direct connection between music and audience. That’s the ultimate goal.”

The idea for the residency came about at a dinner in Turks and Caicos attended by Alpha and Jay Marciano, then president of Madison Square Garden (he now heads touring giant AEG). Joel has a strong local following, and his appearance at the 12-12-12 Hurricane Sandy Relief Benefit was the highlight of the night. Would he be interested in becoming a Madison Square Garden franchise like the New York Knicks?

“I didn’t really know what the whole thing involved,” Joel admits. “I thought, OK, a residency. So we’ll do a couple shows in a row.” (The scale of the arrangement was revealed in a press release announcing the news.)

“I never thought I’d be playing anywhere this late,” he said. “I thought rock and roll was confined to nursing homes.”

Instead, a host of well-known singers over 75—Joel’s recent tour partners include Stevie Nicks, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan—have performed well on the tour. Joel’s unpretentious stage presence has attracted audiences of all ages, who sing along to every word. “It’s proven,” said Mayer, who has been performing with the 70-something members of Dead & Company, “that a good song can last for years.”

Manager Alpha says that from a touring perspective, his client of nearly 50 years is greater than ever: “Billy has really grown as a stadium artist in the last 10 years.” When you accomplish such feats when you’re young, “it’s a feeling,” he says. “When you’re older, it’s a different kind of euphoria.”

The transition from 65 to 75 has brought new challenges. “You hear things differently. You sing differently,” Joel said. He uses his falsetto more often — what he calls “throwing junk balls,” like a knuckleball instead of a fastball. “I’m not crying,” he announced on stage in May, explaining why his eyes watered. “When you’re 75, a lot of weird things happen.”

The residency also led to major changes in Joel’s personal life. He got married for the fourth time. He stopped drinking. He had one daughter when he started the show; now he has three, and the garden is “another place for them to be with their dad,” he said of his two youngest children. “It’s their home. They have a playroom backstage.” They briefly steal the spotlight during the show. my life On Thursday, Remi, 6, sat at the piano and Della, 8, performed the lyrics at the front of the stage. “How are you going to follow?” Joel said, only half-jokingly.

The Gardens are also home base for members of his musical family, many of whom have been with him for decades, including saxophonist Mark Rivera and power percussionist, saxophonist and singer Crystal Taliefero.

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“I feel so lucky that Billy was able to let us be ourselves and express ourselves,” she said in a phone interview from the Four Seasons Hotel, where the band stayed during a recent show in Denver. (“Thanks, Billy!” she laughed.) “There’s a lot of energy in the room, even before people come in,” she added, calling the garden her “comfort zone.” She and Joel have used the same dressing room there for 35 years; Muhammad Ali came to visit me after a show “and told me, ‘You did a great job.’ ”

Joel’s career hasn’t always been smooth sailing. His public battles with alcohol and high-profile breakups have made him a focus of the gossip press. In 1989, he sued his former manager for $90 million for fraud. Critics didn’t always like his pop style, which drew inspiration from early rock, doo-wop, and American song. Joel was also his own harshest critic: “I saw Led Zeppelin there. I saw Elton. I saw Bruce. All the big names,” he said of the Garden. “When I got on that stage, it was still a little confusing. Like, what am I doing here? I know who I am. Why are all these people coming to see me?”

But the songwriter, who worked as a music critic for $25 a piece in the ’60s—”I didn’t have the guts to do it,” in short—has no grudges: “I’m very, very lucky,” he says, likening his nostalgia for the past to a malignant tumor. “Before, when I got a bad review, I would complain and whine, and now I realize, oh, they did me a favor. My career didn’t peak too early.”

During a four-hour soundcheck before the show, a still-relaxed Joel regrouped on a few tracks, chatting with the band and checking if he could hit one of his most famous high notes, innocent. He succeeded, prompting Taliferro to yell “Yeah, baby!”

“The whole point of being a musician is to be happy,” he said a week ago. “I’m still happy. I’m doing the same job I did when I was 15,” he added, “and it’s a great job.”

New York Times