Billy Joel shows off 50-pound weight loss onstage
This “Big Shot” is a little smaller these days.
Billy Joel showed up to his first post-pandemic performance Nov. 5 at Madison Square Garden — where he’s been in residence since 2014 — about 50 pounds lighter.
Last month, the 72-year-old slimmed-down singer told Howard Stern that his shrinking frame was the unintended result of back surgery.
“I had back surgery early this year and the pain afterward was so bad I lost my appetite,” he told Stern.
“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.”
The married father of three added, “I had gotten kind of chunky. I was happy to lose the weight.”
And ditching the pounds seemed to have a positive impact on his stage presence.
As The Post’s music critic Chuck Arnold reported of his Friday show, Joel “displayed more energy and endurance, bouncing around the stage to ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire,’ ‘Uptown Girl’ and ‘It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me’ in the encore.”
But if you’re looking for Joel’s weight loss tips, you’ll probably strike out. Counting calories seems to be counter to the once-portly Piano Man’s personality.
“A guy on a diet is not a guy as far as I’m concerned,” he told the Daily Mail back in 2016. “I can even judge a woman I’m dating by how she eats. If she picks at her food, she’s not going to be good in bed.”
He added: “Jack Nicholson once said the trouble with this country is all the guys with flat bellies and he’s right — there’s nothing more icky to me than a woman going out with a man and he’s picking at his food.”
The “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” singer also revealed that he’s a whiz at Italian cuisine.
“On a Sunday, I make a big Sunday sauce, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic,” he said. “Pasta is my downfall. I love to eat. My metabolism isn’t what it used to be.”
Joel has battled the bulge before. In 2012, he was photographed boarding a helicopter to the Hamptons with Alexis Roderick, an equestrian and former finance exec, whom he married in 2015. The snaps — which featured the rocker looking much more rotund — sparked speculation about the singer’s health.
It’s unclear why Joel had the recent back surgery, but in 2010, he underwent a double hip replacement. Joel said the joint damage was most likely due to being born with hip dysplasia and crazy acrobatic musical performances early in his career. Both took a toll on his ability to walk.
“Over the years, jumping off the piano, landing on a hard stage certainly didn’t help,” he told the New York Times. “Way back in the early ’70s, I used to do somersaults, flips off the piano. I would climb up the cables and hang upside down, anything to get attention … But over the years it got excruciating. I couldn’t walk at one point; I had one of those little scooter chairs, banging into furniture.”
Surely, his newly svelte physique helps him keep up with his two young daughters Della Rose, 6, and Remy Anne, 4.
“People think I’m my kid’s grandfather. I take [Della] to school and one of the other parents will go, ‘Oh, your granddaughter’s so cute.’ I just say, ‘OK, thank you,'” he told the Rolling Stone in 2019. “I didn’t know that I would be a father again at this age, but I’m glad I am. They keep you young.”
