Billy's on the boil

IN a career spanning almost 40 years, Billy Joel has sold more than 100 million albums, circled the globe countless times, achieved wealth and fame beyond his wildest dreams and survived just about every rock'n'roll cliche in the book.

So why, well into his 50s and with a young wife at home – is the Piano Man still working his guts out for more than two hours a night for his global legion of fans?

"Because I still can," says Joel, relaxing in his dressing room before a packed-out show in Britain a few days ago ahead of his first Australian tour in eight years.

"I'm 57 years old now and I don't know when the hand of time is going to say: No more, Stop.

"And my voice is holding up OK."

A couple of hours later, the pianist extraordinaire will charge around the stage in front of a six-piece band, tossing microphone stands, pounding the keys with his behind and tearing through an impressive back catalogue of tracks from his 1971 debut Cold Spring Harbor through to his 1993 River of Dreams.

With no new material to promote these days, Joel hits the road only when the mood takes him. Most artists tour when they put an album out. In Joel's case, the new album – recorded over his record-breaking 12-night stand at New York's Madison Square Garden – was born out of the tour.

"The tail wags the dog now," Joel says, "but that's kind of where it all started – none of us were recording stars when we started out, we were just playing for an audience in clubs, schools, dances and parties, so it's all come back to that."

Joel is somewhat ambivalent about the procession of repackaged releases from his record company.

"I haven't had a new album out since 1993," Joel says.

"They keep putting out these compilations The Best Of and The Greatest Hits and The Ultimate Collection, The Essential, The Really, Truly Best Of – there is nothing I can do about it. They own the recordings so they can do what they want, but I hope people don't think I'm putting this shit out."

Joel's self-assessment is a little harsh – the live CD is a good one as far as live CDs go, a sprawling mix of hits, album tracks and Joel's personal favourites.

"It's kind of an oxymoron, isn't it: a live recording? But let's face it, I haven't given them anything new in 13 years, so that's all they got and I suppose there are some people interested in that."

While his fans and his record company might be lamenting his decision to retire from writing pop music, Joel says it was time. "The danger for people who want to be musicians or people who want success in the entertainment industry is that sometimes you want it so much that you sell little pieces of yourself without even realising it," he says.

"You give away too much of yourself and then at the end of the day, what do you have? I got to a point at the end of the River of Dreams album with Famous Last Words, which is basically the last song I ever wrote, and I wanted to close this book. I didn't want it so bad that I was willing to give up all of me.

"Joni Mitchell said the same thing when she walked away from recording albums. You are really cutting off pieces of yourself and throwing it out there and you have to leave something or else you are gone."

No doubt contributing to the decision to give it away were the frequent dramas that saw Joel in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. From his marriage and subsequent divorce with supermodel Christie Brinkley (the two remain friends), to financial disputes with managers, car crashes and battles with the booze, Joel has done it the hard way. But he remains level-headed, saying that he was homeless as a young man and suicidal at 21, so anything since then has been water off a duck's back.

He had a stint in rehab last year to treat alcohol abuse, and says he has given up drinking. He knew he had a problem at the time when he realised he was chugging wine rather than drinking it.

Joel still writes, but these days he prefers classical music. He released a collection of piano pieces, Fantasies and Delusions, in 2001, which topped the classical charts in the US.

Occasionally he records basic versions, but for the most part his compositions are fragments in his head, which might one day turn up on a movie soundtrack or in a symphonic score.

"It's really not important to me that they are published or recorded or even heard by anybody," he says.

"It's just important to me that I am able to write this stuff for my own gratification and productivity."

Yet there's a glimmer of hope for diehard fans. Joel has written his first pop song in 13 years, which he hopes Tony Bennett will record and release. Joel played him the tune when the two teamed up to record The Good Life for Bennett's coming album of duets.

Billy Joel plays the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on November 21. Tickets on sale 9am, Monday, July 31. Ticketek 132 849 or http://www.ticketek.com.au/