The Piano Man, Billy Joel Drops First New Single In Decades Turn The Lights Back On
NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – Columbia Records has released Billy Joel’s first new single since 2007, “Turn the Lights Back On,” now available on all streaming services. The single comes with a lyric video on Joel’s official YouTube channel, which you can watch below. “Turn the Lights Back On” was produced by Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Freddy Wexler and written by Wexler, Arthur Bacon, Wayne Hector, and Joel.
It’s hard to believe Joel hasn’t put out music for over a decade and a half. His last project was the 2001 classical LP Fantasies & Delusions, while his previous singles arrived in 2007, “All My Life” and “Christmas In Fallujah.”
Speaking with Wexler (Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Selena Gomez) on the latest episode of Audacy Check-In on Thursday (February 1), Joel said that he had fallen out of love with writing new music, adding that he did not find it “fun” for the better part of two decades saying,
“It was fun. Music is fun. Rock n’ roll was fun. It was all about having fun — and I kind of lost that, and I turned the lights off because it wasn’t fun anymore.”
Herb Ivy, a DJ with the Portland, ME-based radio station WBLM-FM, interviewed the Piano Man. During the sit-down, Joel said he initially didn’t want to sing the song and wanted to give it to another famous artist.
“I thought, Adele,” Joel shared. “I was hellbent and determined not to [sing it],” he told Ivy. “That was my whole agenda: I don’t care what you do. I’m not doing this.'”
Luckily for us, his relationship with Wexler grew, and the two began collaborating – leading to Joel singing the track himself. “I’m like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to get in that booth,'” Wexler said during the interview, “And he was like, ‘OK, I’ll give it a shot.'”
The six-time Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (R&RHoF) inductee and Kennedy Center honoree is set to take the stage this Sunday (February 4) at the 2024 Grammy Awards, airing at 8 pm ET on CBS and Paramount+.
Joel initially alluded to the song on TikTok following his debut on the platform. Now, he delivers a classic Joel-style tune, embodying the hallmarks of his signature sound and ushering in the next chapter of his story. In the lyrics, he asks, “Did I wait too long… to turn the lights back on?”
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