Billy Joel has opened up about his health, after cancelling his scheduled concerts mid-tour in May. At the time, the 76-year-old singer announced that he’d been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).
Speaking to Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast this week, Joel said he felt “good”.
“They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I’m feeling,” he said. “I feel fine. My balance sucks. It’s like being on a boat.”
Normal pressure hydrocephalus is a condition in which excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain’s ventricles, typically affecting balance and gait, cognitive function and bladder control. It primarily affects people over the age of 60, according to the Hydrocephalus Support Association.
In a statement to his Instagram account in May, Joel said his condition had been “exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance”. He said he had cancelled the rest of his tour on medical advice, and was undergoing physical therapy.
Speaking to Maher, the singer said: “It’s not fixed. It’s still being worked on.”
Joel said he doesn’t know what led to him developing NPH. “I thought it must be from drinking,” the Piano Man singer said, adding he doesn’t drink any more. “I used to – like a fish.”
Joel hasn’t rescheduled his concert dates.
His interview with Maher focused on Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part documentary premiering this week on HBO. Coming in at five hours, the documentary unpacks the Grammy award-winner’s extraordinary five-decade career and catalogue of music, which includes the hits Piano Man, Uptown Girl, We Didn’t Start the Fire and New York State of Mind.
