Billy is the piano man

Ok enough about me stressing out about the apartment and the move. I decided to tell ya all about the time Billy Joel flirted with me in public. Yep, all of this is true and it did happen and to this day I still blush!

When I was in college about 10 years ago (holy shit this happened 10 years ago!) Billy Joel did a speaking tour around the U.S at small colleges. So he came to mine, now I went to college just outside of Albany, NY and a good percentage of students came from Long Island. So when it was announced that he would be coming to speak and play music it was pure excitement. He is, after all, their hometown boy, well that and most of lower NY!

His music was so popular in college, well more of his older stuff was. I mean "Pressure" was the song that you heard a lot around finals time. The first song that I got drunk to was "Good night Saigon". He was popular even among the grunge fans, the same people who owned Nirvana, Pearl Jam and DMB had some Billy in their collection.

So a few friends and I decided that we were going to camp out for tickets. We each had a schedule, I got the 1-4 am shift. Not that bad but the tickets went on sale in January. Yea, I did it. I camped out and got a cold from it but, hey it was Billy.

So when it came time to decide who got what tickets (we got the first three rows). MR was adamant that I get some front row seats because of the camping out I did. So I got front and center tickets!

The concert was off campus and we all took the campus shuttle to Albany for the show. He came out to a standing ovation and started to tell us his tale, answer questions and play a few songs.

He was talking about touring with Elton John and he said that it took him some time to figure out why Elton would get this burst of energy when he would start to play. It turns out that Elton had cute guys strategically placed in his line of vision to give him that extra boost! So Billy then said "It is kind of like having this cute girl (points to me) in the front row of every concert but, I had nothing to do with putting her here". My friend next to me grabs me and says "He is flirting with you!". I went to a relatively small school and I knew a lot of people in the audience and they knew me. I turned pink.

Later, he starts to play some songs and there was the mic stand in my line of vision. It was not huge I could see around it. So he starts to play then stops, he gets up and moves the stand and explains to the audience that my view was blocked! I turned pink again.

The session is over after a sing a long version of "Piano Man" and he gets two standing ovations. On his second time on stage he lingers a bit longer and walks over to me and shakes my hand and winks. Then he shakes a few more hands and leaves the stage but, not before he turns around waves to the crowd and winks at me.

So that my friends is the story of me and Billy.