{"id":7830,"date":"2026-01-05T22:40:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T22:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/turnstiles-surprise-billy-joel-performance\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T22:40:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T22:40:03","slug":"turnstiles-surprise-billy-joel-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/turnstiles-surprise-billy-joel-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Turnstiles Frontman Talks Surprise Billy Joel Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Turnstiles-pose-with-Billy-Joel-backstage.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>The members of Turnstiles pose with Billy Joel on Jan. 2, 2026, in Wellington, Fla. (photo: Turnstiles).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Billy Joel has been off the road since last February while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/billy-joel-cancels-tour\/\">recovering<\/a> from the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus, but the 76-year-old ailing music legend stunned fans on Jan. 2 in Wellington, Fla., when, with the help of a cane, he walked onstage to join the longtime Joel tribute band <a href=\"https:\/\/turnstilestributeband.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\">Turnstiles<\/a> and perform his songs \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d and \u201cBig Shot\u201d at the town\u2019s 30th anniversary concert.<\/p>\n<p>Footage of the collaboration quickly went viral, and Turnstiles frontman Tony Monaco admits to SPIN he\u2019s been on the phone talking about it for the better part of the past 72 hours. The 70-year-old musician and retired auto collision expert was born in Pittsburgh and lived in numerous Long Island locales before moving to Florida in the early 1990s to focus on Turnstiles, which already experienced an unexpected boost when Vampire Weekend invited the band to open for them out of the blue at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden in October 2024.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/01\/cyndi-laupers-rock-n-wrestling-adventure\/\">Cyndi Lauper\u2019s Rock \u2018n\u2019 Wrestling Adventure<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/01\/amir-elsaffars-microtonal-mission-to-expand-jazz-one-note-at-a-time\/\">Amir ElSaffar\u2019s Microtonal Mission to Expand Jazz One Note at a Time<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/01\/every-t-rex-album-ranked\/\">Every T. Rex Album, Ranked<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below, Monaco fills SPIN in on how Joel came to join Turnstiles last week, the enduring power of the Piano Man\u2019s catalog and what\u2019s next for the suddenly buzzing band.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SPIN: I guess it has been an exciting couple of days, huh?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tony Monaco<\/strong>: I\u2019ve got to be honest with you. It\u2019s more than I could have ever imagined it\u00a0could be. I had\u00a0no idea Billy was gonna be there. After it all had started happening and I was talking with him and we were talking about him coming up on stage and everything, I still never once\u00a0got past, my God, we\u2019re gonna play with Billy! That was all I could think of.\u00a0We used to fantasize about him finally showing up at a show. When he did, it was all about right now and this minute. The band went to eat when we got done, and we were sitting there in la la land. Then it struck me that it was the first time Billy had been in public since he announced his condition, and sure enough, by Saturday afternoon, I\u2019d gotten 67 phone calls. We\u2019re actually a little overwhelmed! I\u2019m still in disbelief that it happened.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Had you ever met Billy before outside of the context of Turnstiles, or one of his shows?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes. We had a hi, how are you doing? in the \u201980s at a club called Sparks in Long Island, where they filmed the video for his song \u2018Say Goodbye to Hollywood\u2019 in black and white. I was friendly with Billy\u2019s sound engineer Brian Ruggles, who owned the venue. I ran into him again there a couple other times, and he was very gracious. Fast forward\u00a0to 2018 and I\u00a0was up in New York for my godson\u2019s wedding.\u00a0We went by Billy\u2019s motorcycle shop in Oyster Bay on a Friday and the sign said it was closed until the next morning, but the lights were on, and when I looked in, I saw Billy and waved. He came and opened the door and let my ex-wife and I inside, and we spoke for 90 minutes. I asked him if he knew the band, and he did. He thanked me for helping keep his music alive. I looked at him and said, I can die now (<em>laughs<\/em>). I\u2019m good! It was never going to be better than that, and now this happens. <\/p>\n<p><strong>As for this particular performance on Friday, tell us how it all came together.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve been a regular at the amphitheater and were probably one of the first bands to play there. I knew for years that Billy had\u00a0some tie to Wellington but wasn\u2019t down here full time.\u00a0We thought a couple times that he might come by, but this was the 30th anniversary with three bands, and we were the headliner. An hour before we were supposed to go on, they told me somebody was at the door\u00a0that wanted to see me. A blonde woman and two little girls come in, who I recognized as Billy\u2019s daughters from being on stage with him at the Garden, and then I saw Billy. He and his wife Alexis told me they saw that we were playing and they thought, maybe we\u2019ll go? She said, Billy has good days and bad days, so we typically don\u2019t make hard plans in advance, but he was up for it. He goes, I wanted to meet you guys, which was surreal to hear. I asked him, how do I deal with this, Billy? Can I mention that you\u2019re here?\u00a0His wife\u00a0said,\u00a0 I think he might want to play, and I said, Billy, if you want to play, we\u2019ll make it happen. He goes, well, yeah, maybe. Do you have your set list? I handed it to him and he goes, this looks like my set list (<em>laughs<\/em>). I said, it <em>is<\/em> your set list, because you pace it out perfectly. Why would I try to reinvent it?<\/p>\n<p>He goes, why don\u2019t we do \u2018New York State of Mind?\u2019 I asked if he wanted to both play piano and sing, or if he wanted me involved, and he said, I haven\u2019t sang in months and I don\u2019t play piano much lately. So, he went out into the crowd and we started the show, and I told the audience that we may have a special guest at some point. He didn\u2019t come up when we started playing \u2018New York State of Mind,\u2019 so I figured, maybe he left. But then after we did \u2018Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,\u2019 I saw him walking up to the stage. I was excited, but now I didn\u2019t know what we\u2019d play, since we\u2019d already done \u2018New York State of Mind.\u2019 People are going ape shit and chanting his name \u2014 there were about 6,000 people there! We got him seated at the piano and he said, let\u2019s do \u2018We Didn\u2019t Start the Fire.\u2019 Okay, no problem. He says, as long as I don\u2019t screw up the lyrics, to which I replied, don\u2019t you know the guy that wrote this song? He sang the whole first verse as people were screaming and yelling. I helped out on the next verse and after we finished, I asked, do you want to do another one? He goes, yeah, let\u2019s do \u2018Big Shot,\u2019 although he gave the drummer the evil eye because he thought it was being played too fast (<em>laughs<\/em>). By then, he was more relaxed and had confidence in us. I couldn\u2019t have asked for more. It was fun. It was exhilarating. It was something I\u2019ll never forget\u00a0as long as I live.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"zNtX5Fyu4R4\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"Q9_K3Bp99bY\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>To back up, would it be fair to say that opening for Vampire Weekend at MSG and then playing with them again afterwards brought Turnstiles to a greater level of visibility?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No question. The Garden helped propel things, and we\u2019re the only tribute band that has ever played there. It helped open us to a different clientele who might be willing to spend a bit more money. Vampire Weekend\u2019s manager saw what just happened and texted me over the weekend with congratulations and Happy New Year wishes, so I hope we will be doing some more shows with them at some point. They took a liking to us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This would have been a significant event for Turnstiles even if Billy hadn\u2019t been off the stage for so long, but I\u2019m curious why you think people still connect with his music so strongly after all these years?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Especially for people from the Northeast, Billy\u2019s music is a form of home. They grew up with it. They got married to it. For them, it was like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. were for their parents\u2019 generation. No two of Billy\u2019s records sound the same. \u2018Scandinavian Skies\u2019 to \u2018It\u2019s Still Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll to Me\u2019 \u2026 is that the same artist? Billy wasn\u2019t a wild man who painted his face. He\u2019s a regular guy\u00a0who sings about regular guy-and-girl stuff and he\u2019s a wordsmith who is second to none. Billy has always been my favorite, and that\u2019s why I do his tribute. We talk about our audience being from seven to 70, because when we play festivals and there are little kids there, they know all the words from hearing their parents play the music constantly. There are very few artists with that kind of appeal, who could play 150 shows at the Garden and sell every one of them out. He just has extraordinary talent.<\/p>\n<p>Working with him was a joy. I was singing on the other mic and I\u2019m hearing Billy in my in-ear monitors, and as a musician, it\u2019s like, oh my god, he\u2019s right here! This isn\u2019t the record. He\u2019s not 100%, but his voice was strong, and I do think he\u2019s going to come back. He may not do it on such a grand scale or get up from the piano too much, but I know he wants to play again and hasn\u2019t shut the door on doing so. I\u2019m not so sure that this wasn\u2019t a little testing of those waters.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"950\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Tony-Monaco-kisses-Billy-Joel-e1767652000997.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-651495\" style=\"width:426px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Tony-Monaco-kisses-Billy-Joel-e1767652000997.png 880w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Tony-Monaco-kisses-Billy-Joel-e1767652000997-340x367.png 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Tony-Monaco-kisses-Billy-Joel-e1767652000997-768x829.png 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2026\/01\/Tony-Monaco-kisses-Billy-Joel-e1767652000997-498x538.png 498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Turnstiles\u2019 Tony Monaco plants a kiss on Billy Joel on Jan. 2, 2026, in Wellington, Fla. (photo: Turnstiles).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>As for Turnstiles, what\u2019s on the horizon for 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We have two new members who have taken us to another level musically and provided a lot more polish, and we\u2019re getting a lot of show offers, including a potential Fourth of July performance in another country. We play primarily in Florida, but especially in the summer, watch for us up and down the East Coast. I think we\u2019re coming up on a very special year.<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The members of Turnstiles pose with Billy Joel on Jan. 2, 2026, in Wellington, Fla. (photo: Turnstiles). Billy Joel has been off the road since last February while recovering from&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[837,6,24,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-joel","category-news","category-pushly","category-turnstiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}