BILLY JOEL RELEASES FIRST NEW SONG IN SEVENTEEN YEARS, "TURN THE LIGHTS BACK ON"

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Billy Joel is back! The Piano Man has released his first new song in seventeen years, "Turn The Lights Back On." While the song sounds like classic Billy Joel, it was actually co-written by Freddy Wexler - and that's what got Joel back into the studio after nearly two decades.

"Other people have tried to talk me into going back in and doing new material, and making the recordings, and I’ve always resisted it. I studiously avoided it because songwriting had become painful,” he recalled. “I have this high bar. I said to myself, ‘If I don’t reach that bar, I beat myself up and I punched myself and I hate myself.’ So, I stopped doing it because I got tired of feeling like that." But Wexler's work on the song resonated with Joel. 

"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,” he explained. “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?"

Fans will get to see Joel in his natural element - on a piano bench - Sunday night; he will perform "Turn The Lights Back On" live on the GRAMMY Awards telecast, which will air on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.

Source: Billboard