Billy Joel, 77, says he’s not allowed to drive or perform right now because of his brain condition. He’s also selling more than 70 of his motorcycles.
Billy Joel has shared a heartbreaking health update: the 77-year-old doesn’t know if he’ll be able to perform again. The “Piano Man” singer told The Hollywood Reporter that he isn’t allowed to drive, and that his neurologist has told him he shouldn’t perform right now.
Joel announced in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), a condition in which fluid builds up around the brain and presses on it. He canceled the rest of his planned concerts at the time. Since then he’s had surgery to place a shunt, which helped his memory and balance.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he told fans. “I’m still here. I’m still here.”
If Joel will ever perform again is still unclear, however. “What the neurologist told me, every time you do a show, it’s like you’re getting a concussion,” he said. “They said, ‘Well, you really shouldn’t be doing that right now.’ 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.”
The condition affects his balance, memory, vision and hearing, but he described it as “not that serious.”
Why Joel’s now selling his motorcycles
The iconic singer also shared that the condition makes driving “a little bit iffy,” and that he decided it was time to hand his bikes over to someone else. The collection will be sold without reserve at the Gooding Christie’s Rétromobile New York auction at the Javits Center on November 20 and 21. TMZ reports that proceeds will go to his charity, The Joel Foundation.
“I was actually a rider,” he said, adding that both his age and his condition played a part in the decision.
A celebrated career spanning decades
Joel was born in the Bronx in 1949 and grew up on Long Island, where he started piano lessons at four. By the early 1970s he had signed with Columbia Records, and he broke through with “Piano Man” in 1973. Hits upon hits followed, and he has sold more than 150 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.
In 2014, he began a monthly residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the first musical act to do so. It ran for a decade, and he’s the only non-athlete to have a number retired at the arena.
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