time to put this book away/Ain’t that the
storyofmy life.”
“I thought it was the best I could do,
someofmybestmaterial,”Joel saysof
River
ofDreams
,which touched the topof thepop
charts briefly, spawned ahit singlewith the
title song, andwas certifiedasafive-million
seller. “The album came out, and therewas
onehit. I just said, ‘Theheckwith that. I’m
not going to do this anymore.’ I worked as
hardon the songs thatwerehits as I didon
the songs that weren’t hits. They didn’t get
radio play. Most people have never heard
the album, and they would define the al-
bum by the one song they’ve heard on the
radio. So thatwas it; Iwasdone.
“I’d beendoing it since Iwas 15.When I
stopped, Iwas 44. That’s quite a long time.
[
I got to the pointwhere
]
Iwanted towrite
— if it was played on the radio or wasn’t
heard by anyone, it didn’t matter tome. It
was for me, my own enjoyment. What do
I
want to hear? I was at the point where I
didn’t want to hear that music anymore. I
wanted tohear adifferent kindofmusic.”
Joel doesn’t even listen to pop these
days, he says, unless his wife, Katie Lee,
or his daughter, Alexa — herself a singer-
songwriter— gets in the car anddials up a
hit favorite. Instead, henow spendsmost of
his time on classical music, both listening
to and writing it. “Orchestral, symphonic,
some for chamber orchestras, some for
largeorchestras,” he says.
But hedoesn’t knowwhen you’ll hearhis
latest compositions — if ever. Your being
able to hear what he’s writing isn’t what’s
important tohimrightnow. “What’s impor-
tant is that I’mwriting,” he says. “If it ever
gets published and orchestrated and per-
formed, then great. Maybe it will happen
after I’mdead. It’snot apriority tome right
Com¬ng to a
town near You
Want to catchBilly Joel in concert?
See himperformwithSir Elton
John at any of their remaining shows
this year.
JulY 11
Washington, D.C.
Nationals Park
JulY 14
Columbus, Ohio
NationwideArena
JulY 16 and 21
Chicago, Illinois
Wrigley Field
JulY 18
Foxborough, Massachusetts
GilletteStadium
JulY 24
Buffalo, NewYork
HSBCArena
JulY 27
Albany, NewYork
TimesUnionCenter
JulY 30 and august 1
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Citizens Bank Park
november 4 and 7
Seattle,Washington
KeyArena
november 10
Portland, Oregon
RoseGarden
november 14
Oakland, California
OracleArena
november 17
San Jose, California
HPPavilion at San Jose
november 20
Salt LakeCity, Utah
EnergySolutionsArena
“¬ don’tgo
homeand
plaYmYown
albums, but
¬f ¬tComes
ontherad¬o,
¬tgoesr¬ght
upto 10.”
