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Quotes of the Day for 9 May 2005 - Billy Joel

William Martin Joel was born at Bronx, New York on this day in 1949. His parents were musicians, in fact had met while both singing Gilbert and Sullivan on stage at City College. Billy started piano lessons at age four, but didn't enjoy practicing his assignments and was soon playing his own compositions written in classical style so his mother wouldn't notice. In his teens he was briefly involved with gangs, started a series of rock bands, and ended up in a depression bad enough that he attempted suicide. He did spend some time playing in piano bars, billed as Bill Martin. Starting in 1973 with Piano Man he had a long string of hit singles and gold albums featuring literate lyrics covering a wide range of subjects. Unfortunately, for me at least, he has now turned from writing rock ballads to composing classical piano.

Honesty is the best part of any art form. If you don't have that, you're kidding yourself and your listener.

You're not the only one who's made mistakes, but they're the only things that you can truly call your own.

Videos destroyed the vitality of rock and roll. Before that, music said, "Listen to me." Now it says, "Look at me."

You can't go home with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You don't sleep with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You don't get hugged by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and you don't have children with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I want what everybody else wants: to love and to be loved, and to have a family. Being in love has always been the most important thing in my life.

I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.

Critics have said I write without spontaneity, in cold blood. I don't. I write in hot blood.
     - All from Billy Joel

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