Mike DelGuidice opened Live On The Porch in New York to help give artists a platform to perform their original music.
Step back out onto the porch.
The career of Mike DelGuidice has gone full circle on more than one occasion, and in more than one way. He most notably went from being the lead singer of a Billy Joel tribute band to being a member of Billy Joel’s actual band in a well-documented story worthy of a Hollywood script.
And he most recently went from one porch to another.
DelGuidice, 55, opened a Long Island music venue in May called Live On The Porch that’s dedicated primarily to providing artists a platform to perform original music in front of a local crowd. It’s a vision, and a name, inspired by his past Facebook Live performances by the same title that he broadcasted weekly from the front porch of his house during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s really just about the art and about giving the singer-songwriters and giving original music a shot again on Long Island,” DelGuidice said from inside his music hall in Smithtown, New York. “I always felt like I just needed to build a safe space.”
A space where, when the regular crowd shuffles in, they expect to hear something they’ve never heard before.
Beyond the lobby bar, which includes DelGuidice’s original porch piano and an alternate stage for more intimate performances, are barn doors that open to an original artist’s paradise. The main stage looks out to seating for roughly 100 attendees, with an overhead wrap-around mezzanine that seats another 25 beneath the room’s 35-foot ceiling.
“So, it kind of suits every artist,” he said. “I don’t want young artists that are coming in here to feel that same apprehension that I did, playing one of my songs in front of an audience and feeling like it wasn’t going to be accepted. And I think that this is a place where many people will be able to come and do their stuff and build their local fan base.”
Much like he did, going from one band, and one porch, to the other.
From tribute band to Billy Joel’s band
Kevin Mazur/WireImageKevin Mazur/WireImage
Billy Joel and band member Mike DelGuidice perform during the final show at Nassau Coliseum on August 4, 2015 in Long Island, New York. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
DelGuidice was asked which Billy Joel lyric best described his career.
“It’s either sadness or euphoria,” he said, selecting a line from Joel’s hit “Summer, Highland Falls.” “That’s the life — the life of an artist, the life of what we do. It’s tremendous lows, tremendous rejection, to all of a sudden, glorious moments.”
One such moment came in 2013 when Joel asked to speak with DelGuidice. Alone.
At the time, Delguidice was the lead singer of Big Shot, a Billy Joel tribute band he had formed more than a decade prior on Long Island – the heart of Piano Man country.
The first show the band played – at Village Club in Port Jefferson – was sold out.
Big Shot grew from a popular local group that played in the backyards of DelGuidice and Joel’s hometown to more of a national act under a white hot spotlight — borrowing a lyric from the song the band is named after.
“We never really suffered through that whole thing of having to build a following on Long Island,” DelGuidice said. “It seemed like right off the bat, people just took to it, and they loved the idea of it.”
That, it seemed, included Joel himself.
Photo courtesy of Mike DelGuidice
Piano Men: Billy Joel and Mike DelGuidice. (Mike DelGuidice)
In 2002, Joel invited the band to stand in for his sound check prior to his concert at Nassau Coliseum for what DelGuidice considers his first time officially meeting the man whose songs he built a career around.
“That was kind of like his endorsement,” DelGuidice said of Joel’s approval of Big Shot. “He was always supportive of the idea right from the beginning.”
As were members of Joel’s band who later began playing with DelGuidice’s band when their touring schedule allowed — including drummer Chuck Burgi and guitarist Tommy Byrnes.
A tribute singer who sounded like, and even somewhat resembled, the real thing was now surrounded by Joel’s bandmates.
“The band had an authenticity,” DelGuidice said.
In 2013, Byrnes, who had been with Big Shot since 2011 while Joel was off the road, asked DelGuidice if he’d want to stand in on piano during the band’s rehearsals for their upcoming four-show run in Europe.
“Tommy would call it a ‘Billy stunt double,’ so to speak, that would come in and just do the Billy part during rehearsals to get the band warmed up,” DelGuidice said. “And I thought that’s what I was being asked to do.”
He spent a few days rehearsing with the band at The Paramount – an intimate Main Street style concert venue in Huntington, New York with capacity of about 1,500 spectators.
“Then a couple of people started asking me some weird questions like, ‘Do you have a passport?’ and all this kind of stuff,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Wow, why would they be asking you that?!’”
Joel walked in on Tuesday of that week, the same day he announced he’d be doing a surprise performance at the venue the following day. The concert, Joel’s first in more than three years, instantaneously sold out.
As the band was having lunch in the dressing room ahead of soundcheck, Joel approached DelGuidice.
“He said, ‘So you want to get up and maybe jam with us and do a few songs, sing some background vocals or something?’” DelGuidice recalled. “I was like, ‘I would love that. Thank you!’”
The rehearsals for the band had also been something of an audition for DelGuidice.
“We got done with the soundcheck, and I was nervous, and then Billy just kind of walked off to the side and he said…‘I want to talk to Mike alone,’” DelGuidice said. “I was like, ‘Oh, boy.’”
Joel and DelGuidice stepped behind the curtain.
“He goes, ‘We’re doing this little run of shows in Europe, how would you feel about coming out and joining us and singing and playing some rhythm guitar?’” DelGuidice said. “And I was just like, ‘Are you f—— kidding me?!’”
Euphoria.
“I thanked him for his music and for the ability to feed my family from playing it,” DelGuidice said. “And then he thanked me for keeping his music alive on Long Island. Not that he needed my help. I almost found that comical, but sweet on his part.”
You had to be a big shot, didn’t you?
Mike DelGuidice/Getty
Mike DelGuidice has been playing the piano since he was a teenager. (Mike DelGuidice and Getty Images)
Situated above stage left at DelGuidice’s new venue is a homage to his past porch.
On it is a rocking chair, artificial grass, dim lighting and a photo of DelGuidice with his beloved dog Max, a boxer who passed away last year.
DelGuidice and Max were the original stars of the Facebook Live series “Live on the Porch” when it began in 2017. Viewership spiked during the pandemic in 2020 — particularly when Joel let DelGuidice host a Facebook Live on his page — as people were confined to their homes and live music was available only through screens. DelGuidice would perform original music outside his front door and host an after-show discussion.
“Max would sit up next to me, and I would feed him meatballs,” DelGuidice said with a laugh. “There’d be a thousand people watching me feed my dog meatballs, and it was kind of like an unscripted two-hour live reality show.”
It gave DelGuidice a new perspective of his audience. He couldn’t see them react to his music as he would while on stage, but he could hear their thoughts.
“To see the comments and to read what they were thinking, that never happened in the history of music for me,” he said. “All of a sudden, now I was able to see what people thought of a song or thought of what I was doing, and it changed everything for me. It gave me all the confidence in the world that I would have 1,500 people watching me play my own songs, and they weren’t signing off.”
It further inspired him to build a venue that would provide promote that comfortability for original songwriters. He did so by gutting a former hot tub store, adding a second level and transforming it into a family-run music venue. His daughter and son-in-law, Samantha and Bryan Valensisi, currently hold managerial positions and his wife Nina, daughter Victoria, and sons Colby and Noah will all be taking on various roles at the porch — from management to video production to performing.
Mike DelGuidice
Mike DelGuidice and his family. (Mike DelGuidice)
“To build a fan base for original music, that’s the hope and the dream of this place,” he said of his new venue. “But it’s really up to the public of how much original music gets played here and how much cover music gets played.”
DelGuidice himself, while performing at the venue, already has covered some Joel songs and other classics.
“It’s part of my DNA,” he said. “It always will be.”
He first recognized that during his sixth-grade talent show, when he stepped on stage and sang “Tom Sawyer” by Rush.
“Once the kids started yelling, I was like, ‘OK, I think I want to do this,’” he said. “So, it was kind of in my blood to want to sing and perform very early. But I was pretty shy and, at least in my mind, it didn’t feel like I fit in in school at all. Music and doing music was a way to feel accepted.”
Mike DelGuidice
Mike DelGuidice (center) with his parents and brothers. (Mike DelGuidice)
DelGuidice was born in Smithtown, about 23 miles from where Joel grew up in Hicksville, and raised in Miller Place, the title of one of his three albums.
He began playing the drums before moving to guitar and bass – with his early musical influences being rock bands like Rush and Black Sabbath before getting more into Joel and Elton John as a teenager. He joined his first band at 13, shifting the following to year to gospel music after enduring what he calls a spiritual experience. Years later he returned to regular music, performing solo gigs and plenty of Joel at local piano bars before going on to play bass in a cover band called Kid Gloves.
There were struggles along the way – those moments of sadness before the euphoria.
He spent four years living in a trailer in his friend’s backyard, then bounced around, living at one point in an office space.
“Definitely a lot of personal and career struggle in those years,” he said. “But those years were also some of the best times I can remember with my kids. Life was simple, and we were closer because of it.”
DelGuidice worked on an album with Joel’s former bass player Doug Stegmeyer shortly before he tragically committed suicide at the age of 43.
“Things kind of went awry from there,” DelGuidice said. “And then I was kind of dormant for a couple of years after that.”
Until he saw a tribute band dedicated entirely to Dave Matthews Band.
“I was like, ‘Wow, you mean like they’re just playing one artist?’” he said. “Because up until then it was all top 40. We were just doing whatever was on the radio.”
It motivated him to start his own tribute band, playing the classic hits of…Paul McCartney? He planned to name it “Wings Over Long Island” until…
“I thought to myself, well, it’s Long Island, it’s Billy Joel,” DelGuidice said. “People kind of really know me for doing the Billy and the piano bar, and people would often say that I sounded like him a bit. So, I kind of went with that, thinking that would probably be the smartest play.”
Big Shot became one of the most popular tribute bands on Long Island and beyond – going from playing at local bars to music festivals in front of thousands. And the band played on with DelGuidice when he wasn’t on the road with Joel, a stipulation the two had agreed to.
“It grew into a really, really great business for me, and I’m grateful for that,” DelGuidice said. “But obviously it’s a testimony to Billy’s music and his popularity across the island that really helped generate it all.”
‘That was the night that I knew I was actually in the band’
Myrna M. Suarez/Getty ImagesMyrna M. Suarez/Getty Images
Andy Cichon, Carl Fischer, Crystal Taliefero, Mark Rivera, Mike DelGuidice and Tommy Byrnes perform with Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden on October 20, 2023 in New York City. (Myrna M. Suarez/Getty Images)
Joel once referred to DelGuidice’s journey as a “quantum leap.”
The first performance where the two shared the stage came during Joel’s surprise concert at The Paramount. DelGuidice performed backup vocals and played rhythm guitar for the man whose songs he had covered for over a decade as lead singer of Big Shot.
Less than two weeks later, DelGuidice was on stage in England for his first arena concert in front of more than 20,000 fans.
“Thank God for Big Shot and thank God for the bands that I played in before that, because they really did prepare me, in a sense, to be ready to play in front of that many people,” DelGuidice said.
Days later, before a concert at the Apollo in London as his dream tour was nearing an end and his status with the band upon returning to the United States unknown, DelGuidice approached Joel as he was arranging his suit on the rack in his dressing room.
“He goes, ‘You’re probably wondering what’s going on. I was gonna talk to you. I’m thinking about keeping you on. You want to keep going with us?’’” DelGuidice said. “And that was it. That was the night that I knew I was actually in the band.”
He toured with Joel for the next 11 years, starting with a New Year’s Eve concert in 2013 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, during which the two sang a duet on “Until the Night.” DelGuidice was also on stage for the 104 concerts in Joel’s historic monthly residency at Madison Square Garden that stretched from 2014 to 2024.
“The monthly residency was the ultimate house band gig I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “Billy owned that place. And all of us on stage were like a bunch of kids. I felt like one of the kids that just got let into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.”
During the final concert at Nassau Coliseum in 2015, it was only fitting to have a fellow Long Islander as Joel’s opening act. His longtime sound engineer Brian Ruggles suggested DelGuidice. Joel loved the idea, lending his newest band member the stage to perform his original music in front of a full arena.
“Opening for Billy was definitely one of the greatest highlights in the time I’ve played with him,” he said. “The most surreal, as well. I was so nervous I’m not sure I truly was able to grasp the enormity of it.”
That was also the night he met actor Kevin James, a Long Island native who made a cameo on stage during the concert. James would later use one of DelGuidice’ originals as the theme song for his CBS sitcom “Kevin Can Wait” — and James also appeared in the music video for DelGuidice’s song “Mona Lisa.”
“We became friends during the Billy era,” DelGuidice said. “Kevin was really a guy who took a liking to my original music.”
Joel again shined the spotlight on DelGuidice in 2016 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., by having him sing the Italian aria “Nessun dorma.” It became a featured performance at each concert from then on, serving as a prelude to Joel’s hit “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.”
“People got to see me as something other than a tribute artist. They got to see me more as an independent vocalist,” DelGuidice said. “And I’m so grateful to Billy for that because it really helped me as far as doing my own stuff, and I’m not so much attached to the tribute moniker anymore.”
It was all part of his quantum leap.
“Being able to play with Billy and saying I was in Billy Joel’s band, it’s complete next level,” he said. “It was just like jumping from a parallel universe — jumping from here and, all of a sudden, I’m up there with him.”
And just as Joel shared his stage with DelGuidice, DelGuidice would gladly share his venue’s stage with Joel.
“Oh, we can hope. We could pray,” DelGuidice said. “He’s such a great guy, I have a feeling we’ll see him here. I hope he does. Get down here, Billy!”
From porch to porch
MIke DelGuidice, a member of Billy Joel’s band, at his new music venue Live On The Porch in Smithtown, New York. (Mike Gavin)
All the full circles of his career, all the travel and touring, all the moments of either sadness or euphoria, led him back to the porch.
Inside his music venue is where all of those circles now intersect.
From performing Billy Joel songs to performing with Billy Joel. From singing other artists’ songs at various venues to performing his own songs at his own venue. From supporting his family to working with his family. From writing original music to amplifying others’ original music.
“I think a lot of [artists] are afraid to do their own stuff because of the response,” he said. “But I think when you build a place and you have this kind of atmosphere where people know what they’re coming for ahead of time, I think it makes a big difference.”
Because, for DelGuidice, success is not about the number of Grammys, or followers, or decimals in a bank account. It’s about the satisfaction that comes from bringing a song to life, no matter how many are listening, or whether it’s performed at Madison Square Garden or Live On The Porch.
“Over the years, I have just become so comfortable with keeping it smaller and keeping it local and keeping it more controlled,” he said. “I can’t stress enough that I really want people and young artists to be OK with the fact that they can just keep their circle small, their fame small, their following small, and be good with that…The success is really just becoming really happy and content with where you’re at and with who you are.”
Like a songwriter on his porch.