Billy Joel Has Time to Read Philebrity, Answer Every Insult

Billy Joel has sold more than 150 million albums. He’s won six Grammys. And he was once married to one of the world’s most beautiful women. So what does a 63-year-old super-rich musician with a background in substance abuse and depression do on your average Tuesday night? He sits around reading nasty things that bloggers are saying about him.

On Tuesday, Philebrity published a story about the University City District’s Heart & Soul project, an awesome-sounding piano pop-up in which the public will be invited to play on a series of artist-decorated pianos throughout West Philly. Philebrity’s headline? “For University City’s Heart & Soul Project, We Beg You Not to Play Any Billy Joel.”

For Philebrity, that’s mild.

But Billy Joel didn’t think so. Whether he’s a loyal reader of Philebrity or whether he gets a Google News alert every time his name is used in a headline is unclear. But what is clear is that he saw the story and emailed his agent, Claire Mercuri, who contacted the UCD, which had added the Philebrity story to its “news” page. Yesterday, UCD removed the story.

This morning, Philebrity publisher Joey Sweeney said he has not heard from Joel and wasn’t aware that Joel’s publicist had contacted the UCD. Mercuri wasn’t immediately available for comment. As for the sentiment expressed in the blog post, I agree that the first person to play “Piano Man” should be dealt a severe punishment. But would a little “Captain Jack” be such an awful thing?