Billy Joel ends Madison Square Garden residency with help from his daughters, Axl Rose, Jimmy Fallon
Billy Joel closed his record-breaking 10-year residency at Madison Square Garden Thursday night with an on-stage visit from his youngest daughters, an enthusiastic speech from Jimmy Fallon and a surprise musical guest that few could have foreseen: Axl Rose.
“He’s a great father, he’s a great friend,” Fallon told the crowd, “but he’s always a woman to me.”
Joel didn’t sing that 1977 classic song, but he ran through a version of his dependable, 2½-hour setlist of hit singles and deep cuts, all familiar to the longtime fans who have been attending his consistently sold-out Garden shows. He opened with “Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway”), followed by “Pressure” and “The Entertainer” — the latter a wry commentary on the stresses and demands of pop stardom.
“And I won’t be here in another year,” Joel sang, “if I don’t stay on the charts.”
That hasn’t happened to Joel, of course, whose Garden shows have broken record after record. Thursday’s concert marked his 104th residency show and his 150th lifetime show there. (Fallon presented Joel with a Garden banner for Most Lifetime Performances by Any Artist.) Joel is the arena’s only “musical franchise,” alongside its two famed sports franchises, the Knicks and Rangers.
The Joel-Garden marketing machine pulled out a few special tricks to commemorate this show, notably two “Defining Moments” exhibits on the sixth- and eighth-floor concourses. On display were memorabilia from past shows, Joel’s harmonicas, a pair of his trademark Ray-Ban sunglasses and ticket stubs. The venue also offered food with a “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” theme such as vodka chicken parm and cannoli.
On stage, Joel himself didn’t make too big a deal of his latest milestone. “This is the last night in our residency,” he told the crowd, which let out a collective groan of disappointment. “I know, I know,” he continued. “We don’t want to go, either. But — it’s time.”
Among the concert’s highlights was a rendition of “My Life” featuring daughters Della Rose, 8, and Remy Anne, 6, sitting atop the piano. But Della Rose upstaged her dad by hopping down and — though not miked — leading the crowd through a singalong, complete with frontman-worthy poses.
“Wow,” her father said afterward. “I guess it’s her life now.”
Joel’s shows have become famous for their surprise musical guests, a roster that has included Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Olivia Rodrigo. But few guests have been more surprising than Rose, the singer for the '80s hard-rock icons Guns N' Roses. Sporting his own set of sunglasses, Rose joined Joel for a cover of “Live and Let Die” — a track by Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band, Wings, that has long been a Rose favorite — and a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” with Joel taking a turn as guitarist. A blast of canned fog added to the arena-rock moment.
Joel ended, as always, with “Piano Man,” the song that gave him his long-standing nickname, then returned for a five-song encore of “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Uptown Girl,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” "Big Shot" and “You May Be Right” (joined once again by Rose). And then, with many waves to the crowd — and much beckoning to his daughters to come along — Joel left the stage and ended this historic chapter of his career.
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