Watch: Billy Joel Shares He Can’t Drive or Perform in Heartbreaking Update After Brain Diagnosis
The Piano Man might have played his last refrain.
Billy Joel shared that heâs unsure if heâll ever be able to drive or perform on stage again following his 2025 diagnosis with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder in which fluid builds up inside the skull.
âI have to take a series of tests before I know, but I canât drive right now. Iâm not allowed to drive,â the âCaptain Jackâ singer told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Oct. 15. âAnd I canât do performances because what the neurologist told me, every time you do a show, itâs like youâre getting a concussion.â
The 77-year-oldâwho canceled a string of shows after his diagnosisâadded that the volume of the performances, as well âthe stress of the show, the audience, the energy of the performance,” can all exacerbate the issue.Â
âThereâs a lot going on when youâre onstage,â Joel explained. âAnd they said, âWell, you really shouldnât be doing that right now.â So they have to test me further to see if I can go back and do performing again, which I would like to be able to do.â
And while the stage waits for him, the Grammy winner is also saying goodbye to his motorcycles, auctioning off the bikes that heâs unable to drive for now.
âIâm into my 70s now, and I realized I canât ride as much as I used to. I donât want to die like a bug on a windshield. So I thought Iâd put a lot of them on auction,â Joel said. âI was not a collector. I was actually a rider. So I figured it was just time to let it go.â
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Still, the âPiano Manâ singer did his best to downplay his hydrocephalus diagnosis, noting that while it does affect balance, memory, vision and hearing, he remains calm about it all.Â
âThey call it a brain disorder, but itâs not that serious,â he said. âItâs just something that affects your balance mostly.â
Last month, the âEverybody Loves You Nowâ singer shared that he’d had a shunt implanted in his brain, with the medical tube helping to drain excess fluid from his brain.Â
“I don’t want to lose my marbles. It’s hard to tell what’s age and what’s a condition,” Joel said on SiriusXM in September. “So, I agreed to do the shunt and I had a surgery.”
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He quickly saw an improvement, saying, âMy memory got better, my balance got a little better, my ability to function was better.”Â
And slowly but surely, heâs getting in a better state of mind.Â
“I just want people to know, don’t worry about me,â Joel added. âIâm not going anywhere. I’m here. I’m still here.”
For more stars who have been candid about their own health journeys, keep reading.
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