Turnstiles Frontman Talks Surprise Billy Joel Performance

Billy Joel has been off the road since last February while recovering from the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus, but the 76-year-old ailing music legend stunned fans on Jan. 2 in Wellington, Fla., when, with the help of a cane, he walked onstage to join the longtime Joel tribute band Turnstiles and perform his songs “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “Big Shot” at the town’s 30th anniversary concert.

Footage of the collaboration quickly went viral, and Turnstiles frontman Tony Monaco admits to SPIN he’s been on the phone talking about it for the better part of the past 72 hours. The 70-year-old musician and retired auto collision expert was born in Pittsburgh and lived in numerous Long Island locales before moving to Florida in the early 1990s to focus on Turnstiles, which already experienced an unexpected boost when Vampire Weekend invited the band to open for them out of the blue at New York’s Madison Square Garden in October 2024.

Below, Monaco fills SPIN in on how Joel came to join Turnstiles last week, the enduring power of the Piano Man’s catalog and what’s next for the suddenly buzzing band.

SPIN: I guess it has been an exciting couple of days, huh?

Tony Monaco: I’ve got to be honest with you. It’s more than I could have ever imagined it could be. I had no idea Billy was gonna be there. After it all had started happening and I was talking with him and we were talking about him coming up on stage and everything, I still never once got past, my God, we’re gonna play with Billy! That was all I could think of. We used to fantasize about him finally showing up at a show. When he did, it was all about right now and this minute. The band went to eat when we got done, and we were sitting there in la la land. Then it struck me that it was the first time Billy had been in public since he announced his condition, and sure enough, by Saturday afternoon, I’d gotten 67 phone calls. We’re actually a little overwhelmed! I’m still in disbelief that it happened.

Had you ever met Billy before outside of the context of Turnstiles, or one of his shows?

Yes. We had a hi, how are you doing? in the ’80s at a club called Sparks in Long Island, where they filmed the video for his song ‘Say Goodbye to Hollywood’ in black and white. I was friendly with Billy’s sound engineer Brian Ruggles, who owned the venue. I ran into him again there a couple other times, and he was very gracious. Fast forward to 2018 and I was up in New York for my godson’s wedding. We went by Billy’s motorcycle shop in Oyster Bay on a Friday and the sign said it was closed until the next morning, but the lights were on, and when I looked in, I saw Billy and waved. He came and opened the door and let my ex-wife and I inside, and we spoke for 90 minutes. I asked him if he knew the band, and he did. He thanked me for helping keep his music alive. I looked at him and said, I can die now (laughs). I’m good! It was never going to be better than that, and now this happens.

As for this particular performance on Friday, tell us how it all came together.

We’ve been a regular at the amphitheater and were probably one of the first bands to play there. I knew for years that Billy had some tie to Wellington but wasn’t down here full time. We thought a couple times that he might come by, but this was the 30th anniversary with three bands, and we were the headliner. An hour before we were supposed to go on, they told me somebody was at the door that wanted to see me. A blonde woman and two little girls come in, who I recognized as Billy’s daughters from being on stage with him at the Garden, and then I saw Billy. He and his wife Alexis told me they saw that we were playing and they thought, maybe we’ll go? She said, Billy has good days and bad days, so we typically don’t make hard plans in advance, but he was up for it. He goes, I wanted to meet you guys, which was surreal to hear. I asked him, how do I deal with this, Billy? Can I mention that you’re here? His wife said,  I think he might want to play, and I said, Billy, if you want to play, we’ll make it happen. He goes, well, yeah, maybe. Do you have your set list? I handed it to him and he goes, this looks like my set list (laughs). I said, it is your set list, because you pace it out perfectly. Why would I try to reinvent it?

He goes, why don’t we do ‘New York State of Mind?’ I asked if he wanted to both play piano and sing, or if he wanted me involved, and he said, I haven’t sang in months and I don’t play piano much lately. So, he went out into the crowd and we started the show, and I told the audience that we may have a special guest at some point. He didn’t come up when we started playing ‘New York State of Mind,’ so I figured, maybe he left. But then after we did ‘Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,’ I saw him walking up to the stage. I was excited, but now I didn’t know what we’d play, since we’d already done ‘New York State of Mind.’ People are going ape shit and chanting his name — there were about 6,000 people there! We got him seated at the piano and he said, let’s do ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ Okay, no problem. He says, as long as I don’t screw up the lyrics, to which I replied, don’t you know the guy that wrote this song? He sang the whole first verse as people were screaming and yelling. I helped out on the next verse and after we finished, I asked, do you want to do another one? He goes, yeah, let’s do ‘Big Shot,’ although he gave the drummer the evil eye because he thought it was being played too fast (laughs). By then, he was more relaxed and had confidence in us. I couldn’t have asked for more. It was fun. It was exhilarating. It was something I’ll never forget as long as I live.