Billy Joel revealed a piece of music he’d been carrying with him for years but had never turned into a song – even though he believes in its potential.
He was the guest on a recent episode of John Mayer’s new SiriusXM radio show How’s Life, when the host put him on the spot with an unusual question.
“Do you have a favorite spare part?” Mayer asked. “Would you ever consider playing that piece that’s yet to go into a song, might not ever go into a song, but that goes with you through life as… something you’ve always considered?”
READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Billy Joel Album
Joel moved to a keyboard in the studio and explained: “I’ve had this for years and years and years and years, and I always told myself, ‘Gonna do something with this; something’s gonna happen with this – this is a really nice piece of music.”
“And no one’s ever heard this?” Mayer asked.
“I don’t think so,” Joel replied before playing the piece, which can be heard in the video clip below.
Speaking on the same show – as previously reported – Joel told Mayer that he’d never been a fan of his own voice. “I always wanted to sing like somebody else,” he said.
“I would go in the studio and I’d do a recording and I’d come back in the control room and listen, and go, ‘Oh God, it’s that guy.’ And I’d always be disappointed. No matter how good I thought the writing was, I never liked my own voice.”
Why Billy Joel’s Song Will Probably Remain Unfinished
His unfinished song might well remain incomplete – in June he revealed how much he disliked the challenge of writing, saying of his piano: “There’s this big black beast with 88 teeth that wants to bite my fingers off… I drive myself nuts. It’s just not as good as I want it to be. It’s a great deal of torment, and I decided I don’t want to put myself through that anymore.”
He also reflected on the changes in the music industry, asking, “Who makes albums anymore anyway?… I don’t know other people who make albums. I don’t know what the marketing of that is like now.”
Billy Joel Albums Ranked
From ‘Cold Spring Harbor’ to ‘River of Dreams,’ we run through the Piano Man’s LPs from worst to best.
Gallery Credit: Matt Springer
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