Two weeks from now Billy Joel will wrap up one of the most legendary residencies in music history. The Long Island native will play his 150th and final show at Madison Square Garden on July 25 when he plays the last note of a run that officially kicked off in January 2014 and has had the “Piano Man” playing the historic venue once a month on his way to setting the record for the most lifetime MSG performances by any artist.
Joel, 75, sat down with Willie Giest for an interview slated to air on Sunday TODAY (July 14) in which the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer opens up about his feelings on the eve of the anticipated finale. “Well, I’m kind of sad that it’s ending,” Joel says of the series that has sold more than 1.6 million tickets to date. “You know, 10 years in Madison Square Garden is beyond my dreams as a musician. We were the house band for 10 years at the Garden, which I think is the best performance venue in the world.”
And Joel would know, since he’s been pounding the white and blacks on his baby grand all around the world for more than five decades. “I’ve played all kinds of stadiums, arenas, coliseums, theaters, the Garden is the best sound,” he says of the 19,500-capacity arena. “And it’s in New York, which is usually a crazy audience and they make a lot of noise and we have fun.”
Now, to be clear, Joel says that the end of the run doesn’t mean he’ll never play MSG again, just that this seemingly unbeatable record string of shows is reaching its natural end. Plus, Joel says, 150 feels like a “good round number” to bow out on. When he kicked the residency off more than a decade ago, Joel tells Geist he never imagined it would last this long, assuming there would be a peak and then a slow eventual decline.
“But that hasn’t happened, they’re buying more tickets recently than they were at the beginning,” he says of the sold-out shows, noting that he could have easily kept going, but that after a decade he felt like it was “all right already.”
With Geist noting that Stub Hub says the final show is one of the hottest tickets in town this summer, he wondered if Joel is having second thoughts about hanging it up. “Yeah, a lot of second thoughts,” Joel says. “It’s kind of sad because we could have kept going but I didn’t want to outstay my welcome.”
Joel — who released his first new pop song in 17 years, “Turn the Lights Back On” in February — has a stadium gig in Denver on Friday night (July 12) before his final MSG curtain call, followed by stadium shows in the UK, Cleveland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Las Vegas that will keep him busy through November.
Check out a preview of the interview here and watch the full chat on Sunday Today on Sunday.
