Jerry Seinfeld paid tribute to Billy Joel earlier this week (March 28) following Joel’s 100th show at Madison Square Gardens, New York.
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The artist has been performing at the venue for a residency once a month for the last decade, with each of his 100 shows being a sell-out. Joel’s first concert at Madison Square Gardens took place on December 14 1978 – every concert of his theirs has been a sell-out since.
Speaking to the crowd, Seinfeld paid tribute to the artist saying: “I am from Long Island, like Billy is from Long Island, He captured how we all feel living in this particular part of the world. Long Island. New York. He’s like the companion that we’ve gone through our whole lives with. His music is our best friend for our whole life.”
He continued: “100 sellouts in a row. Congratulations, Billy,” Seinfeld said while presenting a banner to commemorate the milestone. “Most lifetime performances by any artist. You can die now,” he joked.
“And I want to thank you for buying my house,” Joel told Seinfeld as he left the stage. “That was a nice thing to do.” Seinfeld currently lives in his former house, having purchased Joel’s house almost 25 years ago.
Check out footage of the moment here:
Two Long Island legends on stage at MSG. Billy Joel brings out Jerry Seinfeld.
Seinfeld: “His music captures how we all feel living in this particular part of the world. Long Island. New York…His music is our best friend.”
Joel to Seinfeld: “Thanks for buying my house.” pic.twitter.com/0EYBRdvTkw
— Mike Gavin (@MikeGavin7) March 29, 2024
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Back in February, Joel opened up about why it took him nearly two decades to release his new single, ‘Turn The Lights Back On’.
Speaking with his co-writer Freddy Wexler (Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, Kanye West, Selena Gomez) on an episode of Audacy Check In on February 1, Joel said that he had fallen out of love with writing new music, adding that he did not find it “fun” for the better part of two decades.
Joel said to Wexler: “It was fun. Music is fun. Rock n’ roll was fun. It was all about having fun — and I kind of lost that and I turned the lights off because it wasn’t fun anymore.”
He explained further that over the course of the last 17 years, other people attempted to get him back into the studio to work on new music, but he “always resisted it”: “I studiously avoided it because songwriting had become painful. I have this high bar. I said to myself, ‘If I don’t reach that bar, I beat myself up and I punched myself and I hate myself.’ So, I stopped doing it because I got tired of feeling like that.”
However, when he heard what Wexler was working on two years ago, he began to feel his love for songwriting return: “The melody, the chords, the chord progression, even the time signature was something that struck me immediately, and that’s how I relate to music.”
Joel continued: “This particular lyric in this song, I’ve had these thoughts, I could have written these lyrics verbatim. I’ve chewed on these words and I’ve thought of these words, and I’ve said these words before. It was all kind of falling into place — and who am I to fight that?”
Billy Joel released ‘Turn The Lights Back On’ on February 1, marking his first new release in 17 years. The track serves as a love letter to fans who have waited for the ‘Piano Man’ singer to release new music, as well as self-reflection for the singer, who asks himself if he had waited this long to return.
‘Turn The Lights Back On’ is now available on all streaming platforms as well as a limited-edition 7” vinyl which you can purchase here.