Latest Billy Joel Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• When I see an entire community disenfranchised, it disturbs me. Not that I'm a message guy, per se. I write about people. I like to write about human beings, not crap political rhetoric. I've tried to avoid that all my life. When I wrote about soldiers in Vietnam, I wasn't trying to make a political statement. I was trying to write about how screwed things were for soldiers, and how they still are.

  Billy Joel

  Writing, People, Community

• I run into people from the Lehigh Valley and Allentown all over the world, and they're obviously doing pretty well. They say, "Oh, it's pretty nice there now and there's a lot of new businesses that have come into the area." Nobody's telling me, "Yeah, I left." Everybody says, "You know, I'm there. It's great. It's really nice there, and you made our town famous."

  Billy Joel

  Running, Nice, People

• One of the last times that we played in the area before I wrote "Allentown," I remember a guy coming up to us and saying, "You're never coming back here." I said, "Why do you say that?" He said, "Well, you're probably gonna become a big star. Nobody who ever becomes big comes back here." And I felt so sad for this kid, he seemed so bitter about it. I said, "Well, I'm coming back, no matter what."

  Billy Joel

  Kids, Guy, Bitter

• Musicians know all about unemployment. You're unemployed a lot, and I think there's a great deal of empathy between musicians and people who are out of work.

  Billy Joel

  Thinking, People, Empathy

• Usually when I'm writing, I try to write fairly quickly. If a song sits around too long, it starts to take on a stink. Most of my songs are written in one sitting, two sittings maybe. Those are the ones I like the best, anyway.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Writing, Long

• I had a melody and a rhythm and chords, but nothing to talk about. I remember reading about how the decline of the steel industry had been affecting the Lehigh Valley, and I decided that's what I was going to write the song about.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Reading, Writing

• Even though I'm in love, sometimes I get so afraid.

  Billy Joel

  Sometimes

  "As 2016 Winds Down, Remembering The Jazz Giants We Lost". "All Things Considered" with Audie Cornish, www.npr.org. December 2, 2016.

• I was thinking of the Four Seasons, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and when I was thinking "Uptown Girl!" I was trying to sing like Frankie Valli. They had a song called "Ragdoll," which was about a poor girl and a rich guy. So I just flipped it around and made it about a rich girl and a poor guy.

  Billy Joel

  Girl, Song, Thinking

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• The biggest regret? This may be one of those years I have no regrets.

  Billy Joel

  Regret, Years, May

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• Move to California - my first impression of the Wild West.

  Billy Joel

  Moving, California, First Impression

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I actually wrote the song first as "well, it's 9 o'clock on a Saturday." That bit. Then I said, You know what? It needs some kind of an introduction to kind of set the mood and set the flavor. So I just played this kind of cocktail lounge thing, the hustle and bustle of waitresses going by - that kind of thing.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Hustle And Bustle, Needs

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I was listening to stuff and I realized that I've had a lot of different lives. You know the theory [that says] every seven years, you have a different life? I think that's true.

  Billy Joel

  Thinking, Years, Listening

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I would say the songs that have different lyrics. I always write the music first, and there's a couple of songs on this box set that have different lyrics from what ended up on the final recording.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Couple, Writing

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I'm kind of putting my toe back in the water and seeing how it feels. We're going to be doing stuff we haven't done for years and years and years. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this stuff flies.

  Billy Joel

  Years, Water, Done

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I always wrote the music first, and the music gave me the mood and the lyrics were pretty much put in to give you a map, where that mood came from and where it's going. But my first love was really the music itself, and I guess I've gone back to that.

  Billy Joel

  First Love, Giving, Gone

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• Some of the stuff I'm writing is almost like hymns, some of my first singing and choral experiences were in church, the Church of Christ in Hicksville.

  Billy Joel

  Writing, Hymns, Singing

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I never stopped writing music, I just stopped writing songs. I've been writing music continually ever since the last album of original tunes, "River Of Dreams" in '93.

  Billy Joel

  Dream, Song, Writing

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I've written a bunch of stuff that no one's ever heard, and I don't know if they ever will. I'm just doing it for my own edification.

  Billy Joel

  Edification, Stuff, Bunch

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I tell the audience every night, "I hope you didn't pay more than face value on that ticket, because we ain't worth more than that, and you ain't gonna get any more than that."

  Billy Joel

  Night, Pay, Faces

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I've always said about 50% of what happens at a concert has to do with the audience. If you play for a dead audience you're gonna stink. If we play for a great crowd we're much better. You want 'em to make noise. It's kinda like sex, if they don't make noise, you ain't doin' it right.

  Billy Joel

  Sex, Play, Ems

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• People pay a lot of money to go see shows now, they don't wanna know about your technical problems, or if you're not feeling good, they don't wanna know we have a glitch. It's their night, you better do something to earn that money.

  Billy Joel

  Night, People, Feel Good

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I always thought of myself as the piano player in the band. That, I suppose, I'm confident about, and I guess my songwriting developed as I went along and I got a certain amount of confidence in that. The songs are like my kids, I'm proud of all of them for one reason or another.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Kids, Player

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I'm a piano player. I never thought of myself as a singer, at all. I was always trying to sound like somebody else. I don't like my own voice, I like Ray Charles, Robert Plant, I like Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, people that have an edge in their voice.

  Billy Joel

  Player, Voice, Piano

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• I started just concentrating on songwriting when I was abut 20; I'd been in rock bands six or seven years, kinda got that out of my system, I said, "ok, you ain't gonna be a rock star, you don't look like a rock star, it probably ain't gonna happen. So what you should do is write songs and maybe other people will do your songs."

  Billy Joel

  Song, Stars, Writing

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• People always think I was just playing in a piano bar, but I only did that for about six months. The rest of the time I was playing in bands.

  Billy Joel

  Thinking, Piano, People

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.