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Health & Fitness

Billy Joel: Always at Home on Long Island

Billy Joel: Always at Home on Long Island You can take the boy out of Long Island, but you can’t take the Long Island out of the boy. I believe this sums up the complicated world of Billy Joel, the internationally renowned musician we see about town on the east end. He has made mistakes very publicly, whether it be wives, money, personal behavior and the like. Yet is he not like most of us out here who have had “life moments.” We move on. When I helped promote his movie “Last Play at Shea,” for a Guild Hall viewing I was surprised on how shy, and how regular a guy Billy Joel is. That night his stories and insights were fun, but what struck me is his real love for Long Island. His story of the hard working struggling mom who insists her son take piano lessons, who then blossoms into the fantasy of every guy or girl who ever wanted to be in the rock business, writing and singing hit song is the stuff of dreams. I sail a lot on the east end waters and I have seen Billy Joel fly by in various powerboats. I know he loves the waters around both forks of the east end. He most likely enjoys the way Sag Harbor’s Main Street curls down to the old wharf as we all do. I walk my dog around at night as does he walk both his pugs. When you do, you feel the breeze, hear the halyards at the boat yards clinging, see the gulls gulling about, see the walking couples holding hands. I recently married a Long Island girl and now know about the love native islanders have for this place. And, Lol, the network of friends all Long Islanders have. Mr. Joel is no different, even though he is a citizen of the world. No doubt he has good friends spread all over the world, yet I think he loves/misses the ability to walk into various gin joints around the Island and be an average Islander kibitzing. Yes he likes who he is, proud of his daughter, and what he has created music wise. He is at peace with his mistakes, but most of all, he loves his toys, his earnings have allowed him to purchase, the boats, the motorcycles, the homes, the cars, the gadgets and the “freedom,” his mom probably never had. When Mr. Joel talks he shakes his head a lot for emphasis, his eyes get wide, his smile intermittently adds color to his words. He is a Long Island boy at 64, enjoying life. He could live anywhere, but he feels what so many of us feel, and lives here.

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