Billy Joel: 'I stopped songwriting to avoid diluting my legacy'

Billy Joel penned the tune River of Dreams in 1993, but then hung up his songwriting cap.

Billy Joel has admitted he stopped songwriting because he didn’t want to “dilute” his legacy. The 77-year-old penned the tune River of Dreams in 1993, but then hung up his songwriting cap.

In a new YouTube interview, Billy reflected on his career, and explained why he decided he wasn’t going to write any more tunes.

He said: “When I got to the end of writing River of Dreams, I felt like I was done. I was married [to Christie Brinkley], I had a child.

“I didn’t want to lock myself in a cave and devote myself like a monk to writing anymore. I had done it 12 times and I thought, ‘You know what? The Beatles had 12 albums.’ And that was just enough for me.”

While he said other musicians had continue putting out album after album, Billy didn’t want to do so because he felt it “diluted their legacy”.

He added: “Maybe they’re not as good as they used to be or they’re not as motivated as they were, but it ends up trailing off. I didn’t want to go like that.”

However, he noted: “It’s not easy to do. Saying no sometimes is really hard to do.”

River of Dreams marked the end of Billy’s rock songwriting, but he did go on to release classical record Fantasies Delusions in 2001.

He said: “I did a whole album of classical piano pieces after that. That’s where I wanted to go. I was ready to do that.

“[It was] something I had to get out of my system. I didn’t want to just keep beating a dead horse and being played because I was Billy Joel.

“I wanted it to be good, and I recognised that I didn’t have the same motivation that I used to have so I said, ‘Stop. Don’t kill it.’”

And while other musicians turn to Billy to ask for songwriting advice, he has some sage words of wisdom for them - namely that it will drive them “crazy”.

Before telling them: “You better learn how to stop songwriting because it’s gonna drive you crazy. You’ll go insane. You get to a point you can’t do it anymore. You’ve tapped it out, you reached such a high level that you can’t stand not reaching that level anymore and you hate yourself.”

He concluded: “You beat yourself up, and I didn’t want to put myself through that anymore.”

This article was first published by Bang Showbiz and is republished here with permission.