Billy Joel on "Christmas in Fallujah"

I guess just the cumulative effect of this war. We've been there longer than World War II. I've been getting mail from service people over there, and with the holidays coming on made this thing just popped out.

Was there a certain letter that sparked it and made you sit down and start writing?

It was a couple of letters. There seemed to be a similar theme running through the letters, which was a sense of alienation from the home front. I think that a lot of people are starting to feel like they're forgotten.

How long ago did you write the song, and where were you when you wrote it?

I wrote this back in September. I was at home in Long Island and I knew as soon as I wrote it that I wasn't the person to sing it. Not that I'm trying to distance myself from what I wrote, but I didn't think my voice was the right voice. I thought it should be somebody around the age of the people who were serving over there.

How did you find Cass Dillon, who sings on the track?

Cass has been doing an album project with my guitar player, Tommy Byrnes. Tommy's been producing his recordings, he brought him to my attention about a year ago. When I finished this song, I spoke with Tommy. I said, "What happened to that guy whose stuff you played me a year ago?" And he said, "Well, he's coming out with his own album." I said, "Do you think he might like doing this song?" And ran it by Cass, he loved the song, he said he wanted to do it. We went into the studio on Veteran's Day, of all days. So it was an interesting zeitgeist there.