Andrew McMahon has spent much of his career paying tribute to the artists who shaped his songwriting, but says few moments could top performing Billy Joel’s music while the Piano Man himself watched from the audience.
The Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin frontman was among the artists invited to perform at a special Billy Joel tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York last week. The benefit show gathered a wide range of musicians to celebrate Joel’s legendary catalogue, with the singer seated in the crowd for the entire evening.
McMahon stepped up to tackle Joel’s enduring anthem “Piano Man”, which quickly became one of the night’s most memorable moments. Per Rolling Stone, he said it was a full-circle moment he’d never experienced before.
“Jesus man, what a night,” McMahon told Rolling Stone. “It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, but it was one of the most magical moments I’ve had on a stage in my whole life. Getting to finish and then look up in the seats and see him do a standing ovation is pretty incredible.
“I really didn’t want to play ‘Piano Man’ in front of Billy Joel, to be perfectly honest, I thought about doing ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ or ‘Pressure.’ ‘Captain Jack’ was one that I kicked around for a while,” he continued.
“And then I watched as the list was getting made. There was a live Google doc where all the artists were putting in their first and second choices and in my mind, I was just like, ‘How can we do a Billy Joel tribute and not have somebody play ‘Piano Man’”? Nobody had chosen it. I was just like, ‘Fine, I’ll fall on the sword. I’ll try.’”
Watch his performance below.
Other performances on the night came from Rob Thomas, who sang the equally iconic “Vienna”, Natalie Merchant, Rufus Wainwright, Gavin DeGraw, Train’s Pat Monahan, and Wyclef Jean. Joel’s daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, also took the stage to perform “This Night”.
The show ended with everyone coming back out for a euphoric “You May Be Right”. There were hopes in the air that Joel might make his way onto the stage and join them, as Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M, Patti Smith, and other Music Of Honorees have done in years past. But it wasn’t in the cards.
At this point, it’s quite possible that Joel himself doesn’t even know if he’ll ever return to the road. “Health comes first,” Alexa Ray Joel told the Hollywood Reporter on the afternoon of the show. “I said, ‘If you’re going to perform again, please stay seated at the piano. No throwing the microphone stand around!’”
