It's still rock'n'roll as Piano Man heads our way

Reuters

COMING TO NZ: Billy Joel says he almost became a boxer rather than a musician.

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After a 10-year absence, the Sunday Star-Times reveals the Piano Man is returning to New Zealand. Billy Joel talks exclusively to Grant Smithies.

Billy Joel has a confession to make: he always hated his most famous song, Just The Way You Are, from his 1977 breakthrough album, The Stranger.

"Initially it had this crappy little cha- cha beat to it," he says from his New York home. "It sounded like a cocktail lounge record, a chick's song, and we were a bunch of tough guys. We hated it!"

Fortunately, the album's producer suggested a different beat. "We tried it, and it no longer sounded so much like a terrible wedding gig song, but we still didn't like it and almost left it off the album. Then Phoebe Snow and Linda Ronstadt came by the studio. They said 'You're crazy! That's a hit right there. You gotta put that on the record'."

That song made Billy Joel a star. Just The Way You Are won him two Grammy Awards in 1978, for record of the year and song of the year. He's won four more since then, had top-10 hits through the 70s, 80s and 90s; and sold over 150 million albums worldwide. Now 59, Joel hasn't released a studio album since 1993's River Of Dreams, but still tours extensively, and will play Auckland's Vector Arena in December, his first performance here since he played two gigs with Elton John at Ericsson Stadium in March 1998.

"I couldn't think of a better job. Being able to play in faraway places like Asia, Australia and New Zealand still feels amazing to me. I never thought my music would ever reach people that far away from home."

Joel says he almost became a boxer instead of a pop star. Born in the Bronx, the son of Jewish immigrants, he was picked on by street gangs on his way to piano lessons and eventually took up boxing lessons to protect himself.

"I immediately kinda liked it, 'cos I was a crazy kid with a lot of hostility to get rid of. I did it for about three years, and I was also in bands at the same time. I wasn't sure if I should be a boxer or a piano player, then the last fight I had, I fought some guy with no footwork, no technique, no science to his boxing, but a crushing right hand. He caught me on the nose and I went down. I thought, you know what? No matter how bad you think you are, there's always gonna be someone who's badder. I decided at that point to pay a little more attention to my music."

* Billy Joel plays Auckland's Vector Arena on Sunday, December 14. Tickets on sale July 25, via Ticketmaster (09) 970-9700, www.ticketmaster.co.nz.