Billy Joel may have some new music up his sleeve. The icon is getting cryptic on social media about releasing some new music. It would be Joel’s first song since 2007.
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Joel actually hasn’t released an album with new music since 1993. His last album Fantasies and Delusions, released in 2001, featured instrumental arrangements of his hits. In 2007, Joel ended up releasing “Christmas in Fallujah,” donating proceeds to the nonprofit Homes for Our Troops.
According to Stereogum, Joel recently replaced his Facebook as well as his Spotify Canvas for his songs with the phrase, “Did I wait too long….”
This comes after the artist launched a TikTok in December. One of his first post teased that he was working on something in the background. The post said, “I have good news, I have bad news, I’ll give you the bad news first. We don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is! Although … we got a little something we’re working on you might hear sometime.”
Billy Joel on New Album
Only time will tell. Joel recently closed out a regency at Madison Square Garden. However, you probably shouldn’t expect a new album. In an interview with The New Yorker, Joel explained why he wouldn’t record a new album.
“Some people think it’s because I’m lazy or I’m just being contrary,” he said. “But, no, I think it’s just — I’ve had my say. If I put out an album now, it would probably sell pretty well, because of who I am, but that’s no reason to do it. I’d want it to be good.”
Joel is fearful of diluting his catalog too much and is fearful he wouldn’t be able to match his previous career heights. “I’ve seen artists on that treadmill, putting out albums year after year, and the albums get worse and worse, less and less interesting, and it’s, like, ‘Maybe you should stop,'” he said.
Joel said he doesn’t have the same drive to prove himself.
“I’m not crazy about going into a recording studio and doing that kind of life again, or taking on another project where there’s other people involved — arrangers and orchestrators and conductors and producers. I don’t want to deal with it. … You have to have a certain amount of ambition to want to do all that,” he said. “And I look back at the guy who was the recording artist, this Billy Joel guy, and I think, Who the f*** was that guy? He was very ambitious, very driven, and I don’t feel like that anymore.”
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[Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for ASCAP]
