Is a Billy Joel Arena Tour on the Way?
After Billy Joel delivered a blistering, surprise club show at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, Long Island last night, tour dates are beginning to surface for 2014. No official announcement has been made but right now, Songkick shows a January 7th date in Sunrise, Florida at the AT&T Center. Live Nation briefly listed a January 22nd date in Jacksonville, Florida at the Veterans Memodial Auditorium, though it has since been removed.
Billy Joel hasn’t toured America since he wrapped a co-headlining run of dates with Elton John in early 2010. After that, he took time off to recover from hip replacement surgery and reappeared last year at the 12/12/12 benefit for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Earlier this year, he played Jazz Fest in New Orleans and the Soundwave Festival in Australia. He heads to England and Ireland for a four-show tour later this month.
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Joel’s Long Island gig featured many deep cuts from his catalog, fittingly; in April, he told Rolling Stone that he was sick of merely playing his hits. “I don’t want to be an oldies hack where I’m just playing songs everybody is familiar with,” he said. “I don’t have any new material, but I realized that if I play older material that has never been heard before, like an album track or an obscure song, that’s almost the same as doing a new song.”
Rolling Stone reached out to Joel’s reps for comment on the tour dates and have yet to receive a reply.