Billy Joel certainly had occasion to celebrate with a bottle of red and a bottle of white Thursday night, as he brought to a close a historic residency run at Madison Square Garden, more than a decade after it started, reports NBC News. The 75-year-old singer-songwriter and renowned "Piano Man" celebrated his final show at the New York City venue, his 150th there, nearly 46 years after his very first MSG appearance in December 1978.
A release notes Joel was named MSG's first musical franchise in December 2013. A month later, he began the residency, vowing to play a show a month "as long as the demand continues." Joel set a record for most consecutive performances at the venue, with 104, with only a temporary hiatus during the worst of COVID. Citing Pollstar, the New York Times notes that the total haul Joel brought in during his run was $260 million, with 2 million people attending. "The demand never stopped," his agent tells the paper.
Nearly 19,000 fans were there to send Joel off on Thursday night, along with comedian and late-night host Jimmy Fallon and Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, who joined Joel in a performance of "You May Be Right." Before the show, Joel posted a slide presentation on Instagram of some of the famous musicians and other celebrities who've joined him onstage at MSG over the years, including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus, Sting, and Elvis Costello. "That's a wrap on 150 shows @thegarden! THANK YOU NEW YORK!" he wrote in a follow-up post. Much more on Joel and his storied career here. (More Billy Joel stories.)
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