Even after the success of Turn the Lights Back On, Billy Joel still isn’t committing to recording an album of original music—and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be anytime soon, if ever.
Released on February 1, Turn the Lights On—which Joel wrote with producer Freddy Wexler and two of his collaborators—marked the Piano Man’s long-awaited return to recording his own original music 17 years after his last single and more than 30 years after the release of his 1993 hit album River of Dreams.
Joel went on to perform the single at the 66th annual Grammy Awards a few days later.
The release of the single alone got the buzz going about Joel possibly returning to record a new album but in a new interview with Variety, Joel made it pretty clear that he has no intention of doing so.
One of the main reasons Joel appears resistant to recording a new album is because he feels albums are no longer a musical standard.
“Who makes albums anymore anyway?” Joel told Variety. “I think the only person making new albums these days is Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. I don’t know other people who make albums. I don’t know what the marketing of that is like now.