Billy Joel Undergoes Surgery, Postpones Four Months of Concerts
- Billy Joel is postponing all concerts for the next four months due to recent surgery for a medical condition, with plans to resume performances in July.
Billy Joel is postponing all of his concerts over the next four months because of a recent surgery for a "medical condition" that will require physical therapy and the supervision of a doctor.
"While I regret postponing any shows, my health must come first," Joel says in a statement, which notes that he's "expected to make a full recovery. "I look forward to getting back onstage and sharing the joy of live music with our amazing fans. Thank you for your understanding."
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He'll resume playing concerts July 5 at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh. The postponed shows in Toronto, Detroit, Syracuse, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and Charlotte will take place either later this year or in 2026. New dates have been announced for nearly all of them.
Joel's most recent show took place Feb. 22 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. It was a standard gig that mixed big hits like "Only the Good Die Young," "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," and "Big Shot" with deeper cuts like "Zanzibar," "Sometimes a Fantasy," and "Vienna." He did briefly trip after tossing his mic stand to a roadie near the end of "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," but he recovered quickly and finished the show.
Early last year, Joel released "Turn the Lights Back On," his first original song since 2007's "Christmas in Fallujah." It was co-written and produced by Freddy Wexler, a longtime Joel fan who has worked with everyone from Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande to Celine Dion, Kanye West, and Selena Gomez.
"It's such an honor," Wexler told Rolling Stone . "I know he's been approached by a lot of people over the years to work and he didn't want to. I think he partly did it for me. I think he was like, 'I really like this song. I can help finish it.' He said to me, 'I've said these words before. This feels like a song I would've written on my own.'"
"Turn the Lights Back On" was first performed live at the 2024 Grammys, and Joel played it at his own shows over the next few months before dropping it out of rotation last June. Despite the lack of new material, Joel continues to headline stadiums across North America and Europe.
"I've gone onstage and said, 'I don't have anything new for you, so we're just going to play the old shit,'" Joel told R olling Stone in 2019. "And the audience goes, 'Yeah!' I'll be sitting in the stadium looking out at 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 people, thinking, 'What the hell are they all doing here? Why now?' I guess, in a way, I'm an anachronism. There aren't that many of me left. There's a rarity to it, which gives it value."
Billy Joel Rescheduled Dates
Nov. 15, 2025 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
March 14, 2026 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
April 10, 2026 – Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome
May 22, 2026 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rice Eccles Stadium
June 6, 2026 Edinburgh, SC @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
June 20 2026 – Liverpool, UK @ Anfield Stadium
July 3, 2026 – Charlotte, NC @ Charlotte Bank of America Stadium
Date TBD – Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Field
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