{"id":764797,"date":"2026-07-15T18:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/764797\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T18:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:12:13","slug":"billy-joel-says-he-quit-songwriting-to-avoid-diluting-his-own-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/764797\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel says he quit songwriting to avoid diluting his own legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mick Jagger’s advice to Hollywood: Don’t lecture<\/a> <\/p>\n

Laura Ingraham analyzes Mick Jagger’s ‘no-lecture’ advice to Hollywood, contrasting his audience-focused entertainment with Bruce Springsteen’s more politically charged performances. Publicist AJ Rice asserts that Jagger understands how to entertain everyone, unlike artists playing to ‘subdivided grievance groups.’<\/p>\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

Billy Joel believes in leaving on a high note.<\/p>\n

The five-time Grammy winner<\/a> said he stopped writing music after his 1993 album “River of Dreams” because he felt like “I was done.”<\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t want to lock myself in a cave and devote myself like a monk to writing anymore. I had done it 12 times,” he told<\/a> music producer Rick Beato in an interview posted to YouTube on Monday.<\/p>\n

The “Uptown Girl” singer added that he also had a wife, ex Christie Brinkley, and a young daughter \u2014 his oldest, Alexa \u2014 at the time. Joel and Brinkley divorced in 1994.<\/p>\n

RINGO STARR REVEALS THE ONE HUMBLE RITUAL THE BEATLES REFUSED TO QUIT EVEN AT THE HEIGHT OF FAME<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Billy <\/p>\n

Billy Joel claimed that aging artists sometimes taint their legacy by writing mediocre music. (Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He said he realized the Beatles<\/a> made 12 albums and “that was just enough for me.”<\/p>\n

“And I decided I was not going to do it anymore because I\u2019ve heard artists who keep putting out records and they really\u2026 they dilute their legacy,” he added. “Maybe they\u2019re not as good as they used to be, or they\u2019re not as motivated as they were, but it ends up trailing off. I didn\u2019t want to go like that.”<\/p>\n

The “Piano Man” singer didn\u2019t name any of the aging artists he had in mind.<\/p>\n

LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Billy <\/p>\n

Billy Joel is seen performing in 2024. (Taylor Hill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He admitted that “it\u2019s not easy to do” after Beato said he respected his decision to let his past music stand for itself.<\/p>\n

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\"Billy <\/p>\n

Billy Joel said he didn’t want to muddle his legacy with subpar music. (Ethan Miller\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“Saying \u2018no\u2019 sometimes is really hard to do,” he said, adding that, however, he did do an album of classical piano pieces<\/a> afterward.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s where I wanted to go. I was ready to do that,” he said. “I didn\u2019t want to just keep beating a dead horse and keep being played because I was Billy Joel. I wanted it to be good, and I recognized that I didn\u2019t have the same motivation I used to have, so I said, \u2018Stop. Don\u2019t kill it.\u2019”<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mick Jagger’s advice to Hollywood: Don’t lecture Laura Ingraham analyzes Mick Jagger’s ‘no-lecture’ advice to Hollywood, contrasting his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,216,1740],"class_list":["post-764797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}