Billy Joel Sits Down With Bill Maher for Post-Brain Disorder Diagnosis Interview

Billy Joel Sits Down With Bill Maher for Post-Brain Disorder Diagnosis Interview

Billy Joel has resurfaced after revealing less than two months ago that he’s been diagnosed with the brain disorder Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH).

When he announced the news, he canceled all of his upcoming concert gigs and was unable to attend the June Tribeca Festival premiere of his HBO documentary And So It Goes, the first part of which premieres on the premium cable channel Friday night. Part Two will air on Friday, July 25.

But Joel found time this past week to sit down with HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher for an interview from Joel’s home in Florida for Maher’s Club Random podcast.

In a clip released Friday, the “Piano Man” musician opens up about the inspirations behind his biggest hit songs.

“I don’t want to tell you a story. I want to tell you my story,” the “My Life” songwriter, sitting at a piano, says in the preview posted to Maher’s X account.

Joel talks about the stories behind other hits like “Just the Way You Are,” an ode to his first love; “Uptown Girl,” about his second wife Christie Brinkley; and “She’s Always a Woman,” a song about a complex and at times cruel woman who apparently served the singer well at one point during his early career.

“She’s always a woman to me. Hello?” Joel insists in a light bulb moment.

The full interview with Maher on Club Random will be released Monday.

“I’m tipping over sacred cows all my life. I like to do that,” Joel declares in the clip as he reflects on his 1977 hit “Only the Good Die Young,” where the lyrics allude to a young Catholic woman and her attitudes to virginity and temptation in the face of a lustful young man.

“There is a code within the music itself that has nothing to do with the words, that takes you to this place, if it’s done right,” Joel adds. On that theme, the legendary songwriter discusses his love of classical music.

“It’s just music. And it can take me away somewhere else, completely. I get stoned from it. I literally get carried away listening to beautiful music,” Joel reveals.