Billy Joel details not so 'fun' elements of music

Billy Joel is redefining the reasons behind his 17-year hiatus from writing new music.

The 74-year-old vocalist of Piano Man said that he is frequently quite critical of himself when writing songs and gave thanks to his songwriting partner Freddy Wexler for starting the process of reintroducing him to the music industry with Turn the Lights Back On.

“I have this high bar that I set for myself. If I don't reach that bar, I beat myself up and I punch myself and I hate myself. So I stopped doing [music] because I got tired of feeling like that,” Joel admitted on the Audacy Check-In podcast.

Additionally, he pointed out that writing songs frequently seems "lonely" when you "do it on your own," which is the exact opposite of how he intended the process to be.

“The whole point of why I got into music in the first place — same reason [Wexler] did — it was fun,” the singer explained. “Music is fun. Rock N’ Roll was fun.”

“It was all about having fun — and I kind of lost that,” he added. “And I turned the lights off because it wasn't fun anymore."

Joel claimed that everything changed, though, when he met Wexler by coincidence, arranged by his family physician. The title of their new song was inspired by the singer's statement that listening to Wexler's work "turn(ed) the lights back on" and brought back his love of composing.

“The melody, the chords, the chord progression, even the time signature was something that struck me immediately, and that’s how I relate to music,” Joel said of the tune for his new single “Turn the Lights Back On.

He added that the lyrics also came naturally to him once he heard the melody. “This particular lyric in this song, I’ve had these thoughts, I could have written these lyrics verbatim. I’ve chewed on these words and I’ve thought of these words, and I’ve said these words before. It was all kind of falling into place — and who am I to fight that?”