Billy Joel’s battle with normal pressure hydrocephalus caused him to cancel all his concerts through 2026.
The piano man is back.
Billy Joel, 76, surprised fans with a performance for the first time since revealing his battle with the brain disorder, normal pressure hydrocephalus, last year.
On Friday, Wellington, Florida, celebrated their 30th anniversary with a lineup of multiple bands. As The Turnstiles, who named themselves after Joel’s 1976 album, closed out the show, the group teased a special guest.
Joel appeared, sporting a winter coat and a black baseball cap as he walked with a cane.
The “Uptown Girl” artist was accompanied by his wife Alexis Roderick and their two daughters, Della, 10, and Remy, 8.
Joel is also dad to daughter Alexa Ray Joel, 40, with ex-wife Christie Brinkley.
The Grammy winner played his 1989 hit, “We Didn’t Start The Fire” before launching into his 1978 song “Big Shot.”
During the performance, Della and Remy danced around their dad as the crowd cheered.
“I wasn’t planning on working tonight,” Joel teased while seated at the keyboard before the band started to play.
The composer’s performance comes eight months after he first revealed his shocking health diagnosis in May, while promptly canceling all of his tour dates.
The disorder occurs when cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) builds up inside the skull and presses on the brain, disrupting cognitive functioning.
Joel’s condition became worse due to his concert performances at the time, “leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance,” his lengthy Instagram announcement read.
The doctor ordered the hitmaker to “refrain from performing during this recovery period.”
Symptoms are similar to dementia patients and could include difficulty walking, cognitive issues like memory difficulties or emotional changes, and urinary incontinence.
However, in some cases, NPH is reversible.
“I’m sincerely sorry to disappoint our audience, and thank you for understanding,” Joel told fans at the time.
In July, the artist opened up how he was doing amid living with NPH.
“I know a lot of people are worried about me and my health, but I’m okay,” Joel told People. “What I have is something very few people know about, including me, no matter how much you try to research it.”
“I’m doing my best to work with it and to recover from it,” he added.
Despite the “disturbing” diagnosis, Joel is positive about the future.
“It was scary, but I’m okay,” he told the outlet. “I just wanted to let people know, don’t worry about me being deathly ill or anything.”
A month later, Alexa shared her own update on her father.
She told Fox News Digital that Joel had been “incredibly resilient.”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get this characteristic from him because I like to express how I’m feeling always,” Alexa said. “He doesn’t whine, especially in his older age. I don’t know, maybe he did more when he was younger, and he put that angst into his music for sure, but he just doesn’t complain.”
“He’s doing his physical therapy three to five days a week, which is really, really important for him right now,” she added. “He’s adjusted his diet. We had dinner the other night. I said, ‘Dad, what are you doing? You’re not getting the steak? You’re getting chicken instead?’ Like, this is a whole new you here.”
