Billy Joel Revealed the Secret to His Dramatic Weight Loss: See Photos of His Transformation

December 1998

In 1998, Billy opened up about having a severe asthma attack on stage, telling the BBC in a joint interview with Elton John, “In the old days I could scream and punch my way through it, but now it wouldn’t be fair to my fans.” 

August 2001

In 2001, Sony released The Essential Billy Joel, a compilation album of songs from his successful music career.

September 2006

Billy was married to chef Katie Lee from 2004 to 2009. He married his current wife, Alexis Roderick, in 2015. They share daughters Della and Remy. He is also a dad to daughter Alexa Ray Joel from his marriage to Christie Brinkley.

February 2010

The “Piano Man” crooner joined Elton on stage for an epic performance.

January 2015

While Billy previously told The New Yorker magazine in 2014 that he thought there was nothing “more pathetic than a man on a diet,” he told Rolling Stone in 2020 that he saw “pictures of myself at the Garden recently, and I go, ‘That don’t look right.’ I got old, I lost my hair.”

He also added that he felt he had “always been a schlubby-looking guy, and I ain’t about to change.”

October 2021

In an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, the singer-songwriter revealed that the pain he experienced following a surgery left him with a substantially lower appetite.

“I had back surgery early this year, and the pain afterwards was so bad, I lost my appetite,” he told the host. “I embraced that, I said, ‘OK, I won’t eat as much,’ and I ate less and less and less and less, and then, there was just life aggravation and that tends to, you know, impact your appetite too.”

He debuted his weight loss on stage at Madison Square Garden in November 2021.

March 2023

Billy is still thriving with his healthy lifestyle! In June 2023 he announced he was ending his residency at Madison Square Garden.

“I’m kind of flabbergasted that it lasted as long as it did,” he said during a press conference at the time. “My team tells me that we could continue to sell tickets, but 10 years, 150 shows — all right already!”