Billy Joel Reveals Why He Walked Away From Pop Songwriting

Billy Joel has revealed he stopped writing songs more than 30 years ago because he wanted to protect the legacy he had already built.

During a new interview with Rick Beato on YouTube, the 77 year old music icon said he realised he had reached the end of his songwriting journey after finishing River of Dreams in 1993.

He explained: “When I got to the end of writing River of Dreams, I felt like I was done.

“I was married, 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.”

The "Piano Man" hitmaker said he never wanted his career to fade away with albums that failed to live up to his earlier work.

He continued: “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… Saying no sometimes is really hard to do.”

Even though he stepped away from making pop albums, Billy stressed that he never gave up on music altogether. He released the classical collection Fantasies and Delusions in 2001 before making a return with the standalone single Turn the Lights Back On in 2024.

He said: “I did a whole album of classical piano pieces after that. That’s where I wanted to go… I didn’t want to just keep beating a dead horse and being played because I was Billy Joel.”

Billy admitted the expectations of matching his own previous success eventually became too much to handle.

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

The "Uptown Girl" singer said he has even encouraged others to recognise when it is time to stop pursuing perfection through songwriting.

He said: “You better learn how to stop songwriting because it’s gonna drive you crazy. You’ll go insane.”