Elton John Is Like a Nagging Mom for Billy Joel
Andrew Goldman has an extensive interview with Billy Joel in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, which — after you finish admiring the accompanying photo of Joel and his pug posing in a sidecar — covers the piano man's finances, divorces, and drinking. It also tackles the question of why Joel isn't recording new pop music, something about which Elton John, who toured with Joel for many years, has an opinion. Goldman asked Joel: "Are you cool with Elton now? Basically he said that you’re not writing new songs out of fear or laziness." To which Joel responded:
That’s his opinion. I don’t do it because I don’t wanna. He tends to shoot off his mouth — he shoots from the hip. I think his heart is in the right place. Maybe he’s trying to motivate me, to get me mad or something. He’s kind of like a mom.
To keep the mom metaphor going, Joel goes on to describe John as an emotionally distant parent, When Goldman asks him about comments John gave to Rolling Stone about Joel not taking rehab seriously, Joel says they've never been that close:
He doesn’t know anything about my private life. I stayed at his house once in France. He’s a very friendly, charming man, a nice fun guy, but we really never spent much time personally together. He doesn’t really know that much about me, so I let a lot of that slide. I’d work with him again, sure.
Goldman and Joel then both decided that John kind of looks like a mom too. "Yeah, he’s got mom hair." Read the rest of the Q&A (and see the pug picture) here.