Billy Joel Revealed The Baffling Reason He Quit Songwriting Despite Massive Success

October 01, 2024

Highlights

Billy Joel stopped releasing albums in 1993 and swore he wouldn't write more songs.
Billy finally revealed he wasn't happy with the response to River of Dreams , though the single was a hit and the album sold millions of copies.
Despite claiming he'd stop writing music, Billy works on personal projects and released a song with another writer in 2024.

Billy Joel is still in high demand more than three decades after his "final" album, despite a snafu with his 100th Live at Madison Square Garden event. An accidental snub by CBS (due to a "network programming timing error") upset fans, but it might not have been surprising to Billy Joel.

Though fans still clamor for every concert ticket that goes up for sale, Billy Joel doesn't seem that confident in himself. To this day, Joel is sure that he'll never be as good as he used to, and that's the distinct reason why he stopped putting out albums. Here's what we know about Joel's final album back in 1993, the real reason he stopped songwriting, and the one thing that got him back into releasing new music — even if he's not plotting another album.

Billy Joel Released His Final Studio Album In 1993

After River of Dreams, Billy Joel was adamant he was done with songwriting

Even if Billy Joel hadn't repeatedly stated he was done with pop music after River of Dreams, the music itself said so. The final track on the album, aptly named "Famous Last Words," was very clear about Joel's intent.

"These are the last words I have to say

Before another age goes by

With all those other songs I'll have to play

Ain't that the story of my life?"

Yet Billy didn't explain why he didn't have any more to say, or why he so abruptly decided to drop out of the game at a stage when he was massively successful.

Despite calling River of Dreams has last album, Billy did release Fantasies & Delusions , twelve tracks of classical compositions composed by Joel himself, in 2001.

Why Billy Joel Stopped Writing Songs After His 12th Album

Billy often dodged questions about why he stopped writing music

Fortunately for Billy Joel, his music didn't decline in popularity when he stopped putting out new albums. Because he remained so popular and in demand, that meant the musician was often asked uncomfortable questions about his career decisions.

Joel's go-to response when asked about why he stopped releasing albums was generally something along the lines of it being hard, or it being 'time.' On occasion, he would say he didn't meet his own expectations, essentially that he couldn't top himself after so many hits.

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With the mind-boggling amount of money Billy Joel made, it's hard to see why he's retiring this early from performing at the iconic venue.

But in a 2018 interview with Vulture, Billy finally admitted there was a specific scenario that made him decide to stop putting out albums, and that was the fan response to "River of Dreams." The single was good, but as Joel noted, "Yeah, that one song was a hit, but nothing else on the album did anything."

When the incredulous journalist pressed further, "Didn’t that album sell millions of copies?" Billy could only elaborate that he felt "as if the business had left [him] behind."

There are substantial songs on that album that never went anywhere... You work so hard on your stuff and you want people to hear it. If it doesn’t get exposure — the nature of the album format is for that album to get disseminated and River of Dreams didn’t.

Clearly stunned, David Marchese said, "You're crazy," before asking, "How many more copies would River of Dreams have had to sell or singles would’ve needed to hit for you to keep going?"

Billy replied that he didn't really know, just that he had "higher expectations" for the album.

River of Dreams Sales

Country	Certification	Sales
US	5x Platinum	5 million
UK	Platinum	300K
Germany	Platinum	500K
Canada	3x Platinum	300K

When his record company asked what his next album would be, Billy retorted that that was it. He also seemed disgruntled with his record company, elaborating that he still didn't own his recordings as of 2018.

And look, it’s one thing if you own your recordings. I don’t. There was supposed to be a reversal of copyright back to me in 2013. Well, the record company dug in and got their battery of lawyers and we never got the stuff back. So I still don’t own my recordings. People wonder why there’ve been so many Billy Joel live albums and compilations. They’re not my idea. The record company owns all these recordings and can package them any way they want. As far as I’m concerned, I did 12 studio albums. The live crap and all these compilations — they don’t mean anything.

As for the classical composition he released, Billy said he was taken "apart with a scalpel," but that it didn't really bother him.

The critics didn’t scare me off from releasing new material. I just don’t feel compelled to share what I’m doing with the world. It’s for me.

Billy Joel Released A New Song In 2024 Despite "Retiring"

He may not plan on a full album, but Billy Joel released a song in 2024

During a February 2024 interview with San Diego Tribune, Billy Joel had some tough questions to answer. That's because decades after he said he was done creating new music, the artist released a new pop song titled "Turn the Lights Back On." In the interview, Joel reiterated his typical excuses as to why he stopped songwriting in the first place.

I have this fear of writing something that’s not good. I have a very high bar for myself. And the work to get there is intimidating. I don’t want to go through it anymore.

What changed for the pop star was meeting Freddy Wexler, a family friend's "kid," who was persistent to the point of being rude during their brief lunch. Wexler prompted Joel to share his "unfinished" ideas from the '70s or '80s, and the unlikely pair struck up a friendship that involved sharing music.

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Joel finally agreed to work on a song idea Freddy had, and when he recorded it in the studio, Wexler was thrilled. Joel, however, only noted, "I don't hate it." That's a far cry from the one song (and cringe concert) that Billy Joel regrets, though Billy has said many times that he doesn't like the sound of his own voice.

I don’t like my own voice. So I usually come back and listen to a recording with my voice on it and I’m always disappointed that I’m singing it. I’m always trying to sound like somebody else.

With all of his worries over his identity as a musician and how fans will perceive him, Billy — despite being a supremely famous artist — struggled with feeling confident enough in himself to try new things. After all, his last album came out before iTunes even existed.

I remember stressing when I would release a recording. Is this going to be a hit?” he said. “What are the critics going to say? Are people going to like it? I don’t have any of that now. I just sang a song. That’s it. If they like it, great. If they don’t, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t good.

Fortunately for fans, Billy Joel might not be retired, despite his protests. But will fans get a whole new album sometime in the 2020s? Unlikely, unless Freddy Wexler can drag some more songs out of him.

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