Billy Joel hopes to perform again, but driving is out

Billy Joel said he’s still hoping to perform live, according to an interview published Thursday in The Hollywood Reporter.

"A series of tests" will decide, the Hicksville-raised music icon told the publication.

Joel gave his interview ahead of a Nov. 20 Gooding Christie’s auction at Manhattan's Javits Center of more than 70 motorcycles from his collection, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The 77-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee chalks up his decision to sell the bikes partly to age and partly to his diagnosis with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder that can affect balance. The Piano Man noted that he’s "not allowed to drive." But his remarks about playing live suggest that he is at least leaving the possibility open.

"I can’t do performances because what the neurologist told me, every time you do a show, it’s like you’re getting a concussion," Joel explained. "So it’s the lighting, the sound, the stress of the show, the audience, the energy of the performance. There’s a lot going on when you’re onstage. And they said, ‘Well, you really shouldn’t be doing that right now.’ So they have to test me further to see if I can go back and do performing again, which I would like to be able to do."

Elsewhere in the interview, the Grammy-winning artist reminisced about his motorcycle-riding days. He said his favorite bike was a Moto Guzzi California Vintage 1100 — describing it as "[m]y crown jewel" — and recalled his 1982 accident on Long Island in which his motorcycle collided with a woman’s car. Having injured both hands and one leg, he said, he asked the police officer who arrived on scene to retrieve his license from his back pocket.

"Hey lady," Joel recalled the officer saying, "you just had an accident with Billy Joel."

Joel also told the The Hollywood Reporter that one of his favorite things about riding was the anonymity.

"You have the helmet on; you’ve got goggles on," he said. "Nobody knows who you are." 

Joel has been a lifelong rider and even sang about it in his rambunctious 1980 single "You May Be Right." The motorcycle shop he owned in Oyster Bay, 20th Century Cycles, closed in September 2025. 

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com