Who Is On Tour With Billy Joel?

Billy Joel Ticket continues to perform monthly concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden indefinitely. He first started his MSG residency in 2014 and it has become an ongoing annual concert for him. At 73 years old, Billy Joel still performs before large audiences who are eager to raise their voices and sing along to these hit songs.

For most of his residency shows, Joel stands center stage alone with just him and his piano, at the MSG. However, he occasionally invites guest performers to feature in specific episodes. For instance, in December 2022, Joel invited Paul McCartney to sing with him, “I Saw Her Standing There. ” Other musicians who have been invited to join Joel on the MSG shows are; Brian Johnson of AC/DC, Miley Cyrus, Kevin James, Amy Schumer, Howard Stern among others.

Although Joel performs most of his monthly MSG residency alone, he often has support bands during his more extensive tours. In early February 2023, Joel shared that he would be undertaking a stadium tour across Europe for the first time in three years. During such massive performances, Joel is accompanied by an essential backing band composed of highly talented musicians.

On the piano and keyboards, we have David Rosenthal who also works with Joel. Rosenthal was also partnered with Joel since 1993 and is also his musical director. On guitars is Tommy Byrnes, who has been the lead guitarist for Joel since 1998. The rhythm guitar responsibilities are performed by Mike DelGuidice who joined Joel in 2006 as a backing vocalist and only gradually became more of a guitarist.

Crystal Taliefero, a violin and mandolin player, is the concert master of Joel’s touring band. She was first introduced to Joel’s group in the year 1994 on his River of Dreams tour. On bass guitar is the band member that has been with Joel since 1982, Andy Cichon whom he has toured and recorded with. The percussion section includes Chuck Burgi on drums since 1992 and John Scarpulla on sax, etc. since 1989.

Completing the backing band are Carl Fischer on trombone and trumpet, Tony Kadleck on the trumpet, and Michael DelGuidice and Adrienne Warren on backing vocals. This entire group of musicians has toured with Joel from Europe to North America to Australia and the likes. In the same way, they perform Joel’s piano and vocal lines to tens of thousands of people.

When he was young, Billy Joel often sang accompanied by his rock formation called Attila which was composed only of him and the drummer Jon Small. However, as his popularity increased in the 1970s and 1980s with records such as The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses and An Innocent Man, so did the size of Joel’s touring bands.

Keyboardist Richie Cannata performed with Joel from 1975 and in the same year Liberty DeVito became the drummer of the Joel’s band and continued until the year 2005. Other members of the Billy Joel band in the past include Russel Javors, David Brown and Jeff Jacobs in guitars, Doug Stegmeyer, Frank Simms and Schuyler Deale in bass. The personnel may have changed as Joel has enjoyed a long career but the talent only goes up and up.

The Billy Joel tour of Europe will begin on April 28th in Italy in 2023. To date, he has concerts planned in Milan, Florence, Barcelona, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham England and then Wembley Stadium, London on June 16. Further cities may still be included for what appears to be a record-breaking return to the European continent.

Of course, Joel will still be doing his monthly residency shows back in NYC at Madison Square Garden between the international tour stops. It has been astonishing that as of 2023, 87 performances have been staged already in the never-ceasing series, with more performances to be expected in the future.

The Garden shows are more centered on Joel playing piano alone while on the European tour, fans expect a backing band to accompany the legend on songs such as “Piano Man,” “Only The Good Die Young,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Uptown Girl” among others. It is more than 50 years since the singer/seven/pianist takes the stage to perform his music/entertainment and no matter how many times he goes for a tour, people are always eager to witness his unique piano skills at the age of 73.