Last week Billy Joel was forced to cancel all upcoming performance commitments following a diagnosis that he is suffering from a rare brain disorder. Now, in a message relayed via The Howard Jones Radio Show, Joel wants his fans to know exactly how he’s doing.
Joel has been diagnosed with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) which is caused by excess fluid building up in the brain’s ventricles. This leads to greater pressure, which compresses brain tissue, leading to issues with hearing, vision and balance that are often mistaken for dementia.
Now, following an evening with his friend Howard Stern, the DJ has been able to inform fans of Joel’s progress via a conversation with his co-host Robin Quivers. You can watch the clip of the pair below.
“I saw Billy Joel two weeks ago, we had dinner together,” Stern informs Quivers. “He’s doing fine. He does have issues, but he said, ‘Yeah, you can tell people: I’m not dying’. You know, he wants people to know that.
“He just… He’s gotta deal with some medical stuff, but it was delightful. We had a great time with the wives, we had a great conversation. I was telling him I’m enjoying playing classical music on the guitar. He lit up, because that’s what he’s into.”
“It was his birthday [on 9 May]. I even brought out the guitar and sang Happy Birthday to him… Then he threw up. He didn’t seem real impressed,” Stern jokes.
As part of Joel’s original statement, the music legend confessed that his condition has been “exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance”.
During a show in February, Joel fell backwards after he threw a microphone to a stage-hand. The following month he postponed a run of dates due to what was then described as an “undisclosed medical condition requiring surgery.”
Most recently Joel cancelled a one-off gig with Rod Stewart, scheduled to take place in Cincinnati in September this year.
His fans (including MusicRadar) continue to hope for a full recovery.
