Even if you don’t get to see Billy Joel perform his ongoing residency at Madison Square Garden before he calls it quits, don’t worry — the Piano Man will still be in a “New York State of Mind.”
In a preview of an interview with Willie Geist that will air on NBC’s Sunday TODAY, Billy says that during the decade that he’s been doing his residency, there was an “exclusivity aspect” of the deal that prevented him from playing other New York-area venues. But now, he says, “We can play stadiums. Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium, Citi Field, where the Mets play, so there’s plenty of that lined up. I’m not going to stop doing shows. That’s what I do.”
“We have a whole schedule laid out into 2025, where we’re going to be playing,” he continues.
And he’s not even considering retiring, he says. “I’m not going to stop doing shows. That’s what I do. What else am I going to do? Stop doing shows and sit around, and watch TV, and turn into a vegetable? No. I don’t want to do that,” he notes.
Billy also says he’s happy that his audiences are filled with younger people, and not just people who’ve been around since he started his career 50 years ago.
“Yeah, and we’re getting all different age demographics. I’m seeing a lot of younger people in our shows. It’s like they’re coming to see the antique,” he laughs. “That’s all that I can do. But it helps having new audiences come in all the time.”
The final show of Billy’s MSG residency will take place on July 25.
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