Billy Joel Reflects on His Record-Breaking Residency and His Biggest Hits (August 2024)

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

NBC News

News, Celebrity, Society & Culture, Pop Culture, Movies, Technology, Tv, Interview, Broadway, Music, Politics, Tv & Film

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Willie sits down with Billy Joel in his Sag Harbor home as he wraps up his decade-long residency at New York's Madison Square Garden. He talks about a half-century of writing and playing some of the most famous songs in the history of music. (Original broadcast date August 18, 2024.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast.
0:09.7	My thanks as always for clicking and listening along.
0:13.3	My goodness, am I excited to bring you my conversation with one of the most, I don't know, famous people ever to record music, one of the most prolific people ever to record music, one of the best selling artists ever to record music.
0:27.9	He is the icon, Billy Joel. I'm so excited to bring you this conversation because Billy doesn't do a ton of interviews and really doesn't have new music out, doesn't have a new album out.
0:39.3	He just wanted to sit down and talk about his life and his career.
0:43.1	I can't begin to go through it all with you.
0:45.3	You know it anyway.
0:47.1	1972, Captain Jack, 1973 album Piano Man is really where it all started to change for him. That was a song. He had left
0:55.9	New York. Things weren't really working for him musically here. He moved to L.A. was working on
1:01.8	Wilshire Boulevard in just a piano bar and wrote and sang a song about what he saw in there.
1:09.0	And it became Piano Man, and the rest is history.
1:11.6	He has sold 160 million albums, putting him in a class with Elvis, Michael Jackson,
1:17.2	Garth Brooks, among the best-selling individual artists in the history of music.
1:22.2	So he's got a bunch of Grammys.
1:24.5	He's got Kennedy Center honors.
1:26.2	He's got a Tony.
1:27.7	The accolades go on and on.
1:29.1	But you know him.
1:29.9	You know the man.
1:30.6	You know the music.
1:31.4	A little bit of background.
1:32.5	Paint the picture for you.
	...

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