Billy Joel chats with Nestor about sports and life and perils of rock and roll in Spring 1998
In a conversation from the spring of 1998, Nestor Aparicio interviews Billy Joel, who had to postpone a show at the MCI Center due to a severe neck injury. Joel discusses his love for sports, his discomfort with canceling shows, and his dedication to performing despite injuries. He recounts a rainforest benefit where he met famous artists and aggravated his condition. Despite the pain, Joel emphasizes his commitment to his fans and his dislike for phoning in performances. He also touches on the strategy behind seating at his concerts and his plans to return to the stage soon. The conversation ends with Joel expressing his regret for the postponement and his eagerness to perform again.
Billy Joel chats with Nestor a… rock and roll in Spring 1998
Sat, Nov 16, 2024 8:48AM • 14:02
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Billy Joel, sports radio, MCI Center, rainforest benefit, pinched nerve, muscle spasm, Joe Cocker, WrestleMania, Yankees fan, road crew, concert tickets, audience interaction, tour schedule, injury recovery, performance freshness
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Billy Joel
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome back wnst Towson, Baltimore and wnst.net we are in the midst of wnst rock week and presenting many, many conversations 25 years on the radio. But much of the stuff that I have here is presented before I was on the radio, when I was a music critic at the evening sun back in the 1980s and early 1990s as well as a news American. This is an actual conversation that stems one from the other sort of the bridge, as it were, Billy Joel sat with me at length. If you’ve heard that interview, one of the more extensive ones, I think you’ll find anywhere from 1990 on the storm front tour. You’ll hear that as part of our rotator. This is a conversation later. Billy Joel, I’ve had two or three conversations in my life with Billy Joel. This is one of them. This was a time when he called into my sports radio show in 1998 was a spring of 1998 i i was just about to buy W N, S T at that point, but I was still broadcasting at Wlg on broker time, and Billy Joel canceled a show at the MCI Center in Washington and postponed it. And the shows actually took place in April and in May, did three sold out shows at the MCI center in 1998 so you get an idea what kind of star Billy Joel was, even then, couple decades ago, and amazing. He’s still selling out stadiums today. But, you know, he kind of felt bad about it, and I knew him, and I reached to his management company, and he called in on the show. So, you know, one afternoon there’s Billy Joel calling in on the program, and we talked about, I don’t know, sports, life, music, rock and roll, and getting back on the road. So here’s Billy Joel from the spring of 1998 as heard on the then Budweiser sports forum. All right, so I’m in the bathroom during the break, right? And we’re drinking a lot of Pepsi in here with Mama lado. Is pizza night. We’re eating pizza. We’re talking sports like anybody should be doing in the middle of Stanley Cup playoffs, NBA Playoffs, Orioles in Chicago tonight. Yes, sir, Steve sends my son running into the bathroom, and my son screaming at the top of his lungs, Billy Joel’s on the phone. Get out of the bathroom. You gotta come back. And you’re thinking, it’s not April Fool’s and I’m thinking, What would Billy Joel be doing calling me, and Steve’s been working on this all day. But ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Budweiser sports born for the first time, not the first rock star to do the show, but perhaps, certainly one of the coolest, but, but definitely one of the coolest, despite being a Yankee fan, we got Billy. Joel, Billy, how are you?
Billy Joel 02:29
Well, I’ve been I’ve been better. I’m not 100% but I’m okay. But wait, wait,
Nestor Aparicio 02:37
wait, wait, wait, wait. Because, like, you’re ahead of us right now.
Billy Joel 02:43
So you know what? I’m a, I’m just a good game fan. I like the Yanks, I like the Mets. I like, I like the Dodgers. Sometimes, you know, I just like a good game anymore.
Nestor Aparicio 02:55
Well, I tell you what, maybe you come back here on May 11. Now, after that post moment last
Billy Joel 02:58
year, I just heard the air you had on before this about wrestling, right? Dude, we’re doing actually still go to see that.
Nestor Aparicio 03:05
Oh my god, it’s like, bigger than it ever was, because there’s, like, there used to just be, like, one big Wrestling Federation now there too. So
Billy Joel 03:12
now you go see wrestling. Go see me, you know, like, hey. So people with brains will go see me, and people with our brains go shoot. Well, thing is to bill you already got the tickets sold.
Nestor Aparicio 03:23
There’s no competition. They’re coming. They’re coming either way. Tell us what happened last night, because I want to give you the whole story. First off, happened
Billy Joel 03:29
last night at all? Actually. What happened was, I had to do this rainforest benefit, right? I woke up in the morning, and I had, ever wake up like, like, in that car the king, like,
Nestor Aparicio 03:40
you got that King thing? Have you slept right? A thing? And you go, so, like, I
Billy Joel 03:45
got a thing? So what? And then it gets worse during the day. Now, what happens is, I met Carnegie Hall doing these rehearsals for the rainforest. I got sting. You got Elton John. You got your Madonna. She got your James tales and everybody you’re not even liking
Nestor Aparicio 04:01
the top five of the most famous people in the room at this point, right? Whatever,
Billy Joel 04:05
famous massage technique. Okay, now, when you got a pinch nerve, that’s not necessarily the best thing to have done. He was a massage you know, I’m saying because he may pinch it more like, yeah, you may, you may make it worse. So everybody’s giving me, no, let me. Let me do it this way. Let me do it that way. They’re rubbing me to massaging me. By the time it’s time for me to go on stage, I look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, right? So I got a sore neck. Now it’s down into my shoulder, so I kind of slide on the stage looking like Charles Wharton.
Nestor Aparicio 04:35
Did we consider chiropractic help at any point yesterday?
Billy Joel 04:40
We considered it, but it’s like, you know, like I said, like a look, I played injured many times. I play sick all the time. I don’t cancel. I’m not a careful guy. I don’t care. So you gotta understand yesterday, when I had to, when I had to postpone the Washington gig, I was injured. I mean, I couldn’t get out of bed. I. Woke up, I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed, and they called it a spasm. You know what? You know what this is. Athletes probably get this all the time.
Nestor Aparicio 05:11
Well, I don’t know. We got half our baseball team on the DL right now. We gotta. We got our star pitcher out with a wart on his pitching finger, because he can’t throw that way. So much more
Billy Joel 05:22
bone in my left thumb. I still play the freaking pan. You
05:25
can’t move.
Billy Joel 05:28
I’m talking. I can’t move. I cannot move. I’m laying a bit. I said, hello. I can’t get out of bed. I go to the doctor. He goes, You gotta you’re in spasm. I said, All right. So that was mean, like, what
Nestor Aparicio 05:42
I get a shot. What do I do? Go home, wait, take a pill, right?
Billy Joel 05:45
Exactly. So it meant, essentially, I could move my neck, I couldn’t move my shoulder and part of my back was, I don’t know, paralyzed. Are
Nestor Aparicio 05:57
you better today? Or is this? Is this something that’s gonna take a week to get over? Because I know you got some shows in order, because
Billy Joel 06:01
I got a gig tomorrow night too, and I don’t cancel i I felt terrible about blowing us up, because we’ve had such great audiences at that MCI.
Nestor Aparicio 06:10
We were there Saturday night. I was the guy on the left hand side. You screwed. Play Vienna. Play Vienna, and you did it was that was me. That was me to get rid of you.
06:21
It didn’t work, because he’s still here. I
Nestor Aparicio 06:23
stayed. And if you we would have waited about 10 more minutes, I’d have been at the top of my seat saying, play, Captain Jack. Play, Captain Jack.
Billy Joel 06:31
Was that a great crowd of what? Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 06:33
you know, and I want to say it’s something to I was it was very frustrating for me. And I I was saying to my date after the show, I said, you know, if I ever get to talk to Billy, I’m gonna tell him one thing, the crowds are getting, like, younger, but they’re also getting older. And like, in the good seats, a lot of the guys that can afford the good seats, they don’t get up and dance. I mean, you’re up there doing a little I go to extremes. I’m up there doing the Bebop, the she bop. I’m all over the place, dancing all and these people, excuse me, sir, could you please sit down? You’re you’re wrecking my entertainment for the evening. And I said, Man, this is a dance show. This is, I mean, I remember the Billy Joel shows in 8283 84 where you do about an hour that end segment where you do, sometimes a fantasy, you throw a little still rock and roll. The place never sat down for a piano show, which is amazing to me. I don’t
Billy Joel 07:17
know if people know, you know, we never put the first two rows on sale. You know why that is
Nestor Aparicio 07:22
you bring you bring them all up. You bring up beautiful
Billy Joel 07:25
women. Always get them, and they sell them these rich fat cats, right? And they’re no fun with their big head girlfriends, and they don’t move, and they make for a crappy show. And all the real fans are in the back screaming their heads off, and they can never get the good seats. So we never put the front rows on sale. You know, we do? We hold the tickets. Oh, wow. We hold the tickets to the front rows. And the road crew fans out to the worst seats in a room and gives the tickets to the people with the worst seats. You know, I’m
Nestor Aparicio 07:52
gonna do. I’m gonna come to Philly on, like, may 13, I’m gonna buy two of the worst seats, and I’m gonna paint my hair up like you. But bring a cute girl.
Billy Joel 08:01
The road crew is all guys. And what do they do? They pick the cutest girls they can find. See, I thought you had
Nestor Aparicio 08:05
a part of that because I saw a girl in the subway the other night that was down in the front row, and she said, the damn this thing happened. I was in the back and Billy came up, and next thing you know, I got a drumstick from Liberty, and I’m down in the front row. And I said, Hmm, maybe Billy’s single. These are
Billy Joel 08:20
not my instruction. All I tell the road crew is, give the best seats to the worst seats. We know what that work, but the road crew sky, so naturally, well, what do guys do? They’re going to give them to the cucumbers. Now, let me tell you something. I look down the front row, I see a lot of cute girls. That doesn’t hurt the show. All right, you understand I’m saying
Nestor Aparicio 08:37
Absolutely. It did not hurt from my angle being that I was behind them, so I got a I got a good view. I cannot lie to you, but let’s talk, let’s talk about getting well and all that stuff. Just a little bit about the tour, because I am such a big fan. I mean, as far as the songs you were doing the other and, I mean, you’re bringing out some, you know, some really old stuff and way back when, and some stuff that I’ve never heard you, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you do, just the way you are, for instance. And I think there was a time in your career where you said you just weren’t going to do it anymore, right? To do it anymore, right?
Billy Joel 09:03
Well, I never said I would never do it again. I just said I got to put this away because I was bored with it. I don’t, I don’t really think that I should do a song that I don’t like to do because it’s a false reading. And I don’t know people pay so much money, they go to so much trouble to get tickets that such a pain the neck to go to a show anymore. Why should I, you know? Why should I pull something you know out of the hat that I really don’t even like to do and and be phony below I mean, I should have a good time to know absolutely and I think an audience knows, and a performance having a good time. So we’ve had such good alliances on this. We’re having such a terrific time, which is probably, you know, look, I like I said, I never postpone. I hardly ever cancel. I had, I could have actually gone on stage, and I would have looked like Charles Lawton from the Hunchback of Notre
Nestor Aparicio 09:56
Dame, right? And it just would have been a piano show. You wouldn’t have moved that. And
Billy Joel 10:00
I would have said, I wouldn’t have laid down on my back. It would have been like, like a Perry Como show.
10:04
You wouldn’t have been able to twirl the mic stand. No,
Billy Joel 10:06
forget it. You know, I
Nestor Aparicio 10:08
think you may have pulled your neck out, throwing that mic stand around the way you were the other night. Well, no,
Billy Joel 10:13
I think it came down to the rainforest benefit, which I did on Monday, all day long. Like I said, I got a I got a neck ache, and everybody backstage going, Oh, let me give you my Yogi massage, or my herbal, organic homeopathic massage. You know, that’s a Bucha. You get too many of those people rub on your neck. They’re gonna, like, twist you into a nut. And then I go on stage, and what’s the highlight of the show? Joe Cocker doing? I get by with little help from my friends.
Nestor Aparicio 10:41
And you’re looking for a little help from your chiropractor, somebody. So do you are you still like tonight, looking like
Billy Joel 10:48
beetles? Oh, really, yeah. So, like, I’ve already taken a Vicodin, a Motrin. Hey, watch the Viking
Nestor Aparicio 10:54
man, two glasses of sky. I got some athletes I know to taking the Vicodin, and that’s you need that tomorrow and the next day and the next day, next thing you know, you’re, you’re in Betty Ford on Viking and, you know, that’s not a good extra. Brett Fauci
Billy Joel 11:06
whatever, all I knew was, when I went on stage, I was in a beatly mood. You know what I mean, right? But then I do my Joe Cocker impression when I when it’s time for me to sing my verse of a little help from my friends, by the time I finish my verse, I’ve, I’ve been imitating Joe Cocker with the spastic arm move. This did not help my neck. So I said to myself, Oh, brilliant. You know, dummy, that really helped your neck. So what
Nestor Aparicio 11:32
has the homeopathic method been here the last 48 hours and getting you better? Because, like you said, You got another one tomorrow. Hartford, correct tomorrow. I believe that is right. Hartford, Connecticut. Well, I
Billy Joel 11:41
went, I look, I went to a regular doctor, and he said, you’ve got an inflammation. It’s like a pinched nerve and a muscle spasm in your neck and shoulder and back and and I had to take a pain pill, and then they gave me a muscle relaxer, which is, like, it really feels good, but I wouldn’t be very good on stage right now. Let’s put it that way. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 12:03
tell you what, we wish you well in getting back and getting
Billy Joel 12:06
back in this, matter of fact, the day I’m going to be back as may 11. May 11, big WrestleMania bit
Nestor Aparicio 12:10
is going, Yeah, we’re doing Raw is War here then, and I’m just going to have to come to Philly on the 13th, or a couple days later, because I know you’re coming in and you know I’m going to have to see the show again, especially if you’re going to do Vienna again. Have you been doing that every night or no? Every
Billy Joel 12:22
night or? No, we don’t do necessarily everything every night. We change the show all the time now, not only for the audience, but also for us too, because we want to keep it fresh
Nestor Aparicio 12:32
for us. Well, that’s that’s great, and it certainly was fresh for us the other night here in some of the old tunes and jog in the old memory you watch any baseball these days. We do do sports talk here, so I got to sneak just a little bit in. You weren’t in Yankee Stadium when it fell down, right? It wasn’t that concert you did a few years back that broke that beam,
Billy Joel 12:48
right? Well, I hope it was
Nestor Aparicio 12:50
turning up a little bit louder. Well, yeah, I’d like to take credit for that. Basically, she had a small part in that,
Billy Joel 12:56
as long as there’s not a lawyer representing anybody sitting in that seat, yeah? Yeah, I did that. That’s right, that was me. That was
Nestor Aparicio 13:02
you. Yeah. Well, I tell you what, we hope that you can carry Yankee Stadium on your back in your neck sometime real soon, but I really appreciate you taking a couple minutes, and I knew how badly you felt about having to miss the show last night. But the good news is you’re coming back, and everybody
Billy Joel 13:15
feel bad about postponing. I never can. I played injured. I’ve played sick, many, many, many times. I’m not a wimp. I, you know, when I got it, when, when it’s fine. For work, I gotta go to work, but I don’t want people who paid good money and went to a lot of trouble hearing me moan and groans. Oh, I got a cold. I don’t feel good. I got a bit back. Hey, Bob, you know, I’m fine with that, right? Look, when I’m complain, I’m back on the 11th. I’ll be 100% and I, you know, I just wanted people to know. I you know, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, but I’ll be back.
Nestor Aparicio 13:44
Well, Billy, we really appreciate you taking a couple minutes for the sports forum tonight, and hang on one second. We’re gonna send you a gift off in the mail, but we’ll see you in May. Okay, okay, and get well soon. Man, we the show was so good on Saturday night, I’d hate to think that you’re in any kind of pain on Monday or Tuesday. Hang on for me. There, Billy, you.
