Billy Joel Shares His Love of The Beatles and Why He Never Met John Lennon
“They were not the greatest musicians. They were not movie star-types. They were just a great cohesive band,” he said on SiriusXM.
Billy Joel recently spoke with SiriusXM about The Beatles, whom he cites as “the best band who ever was.” He was 14 years old when he first heard them, and they made a huge impression.
“They were not the greatest musicians. They were not movie star-types. They were just a great cohesive band,” he said. “Every instrument that they played made sense. Ringo was the perfect drummer for the way they wrote songs. George Harrison was the best guitar player for the way they wrote songs. George Martin was the best producer for the songs they came in with. It was just a great combination of talents that hardly ever happens. It’s like lightning in a bottle. And I don’t know that we’ll ever see their like again.”
Unfortunately, Joel was never able to meet John Lennon before he died, even though the two of them lived across the water from each other on the North Shore of Long Island.
“I had not met John, but I understood from his friend, a guy named Fred Seaman, that he used to row his boat by my house, [which] was right on the water. And he said to Fred, ‘I’d like to go say hi to Billy Joel, but I don’t want to bother him,’” Joel recalled. “And the funny thing is that I used to drive my boat by his house and think about pulling up on the beach, going to his door and knocking on [it], but I didn’t want to bother him either. We both respected each other’s privacy. And due to that, we never got to meet each other. … I wish he would’ve just stopped and knocked on the door. It would’ve been nice. It would’ve been a nice thing.”
