Here’s Billy Joel Playing A Piano That Someone Threw Out On The Sidewalk

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Here’s Billy Joel Playing A Piano That Someone Threw Out On The Sidewalk

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Things aren’t so great right now in the world, and we’ll have to take good news wherever we can find out, however trivial those stories might be. For instance, 71-year-old pop star Billy Joel is out here riding his motorcycle around Long Island, saving discarded pianos by playing jaunty tunes on them, like Piano Man was his superhero alter-ego. This doesn’t matter, but I’m kind of glad to know that it’s happening.

As CNN reports, cell phone footage that was captured a few weeks ago shows Joel banging out a ragtime tune on a sidewalk in Huntington, Long Island. Someone had left a piano out to be trashed, but one man’s trash is Billy Joel’s piano. After he plays for a bit, we hear Joel saying, “Not bad. The action is good. It just needs tuning. And the finish is beat. It’s a perfectly good piano. It’s a shame to throw it out. At least donate it to St. Vincent De Paul or something.”

Joel was reportedly on a motorcycle ride when he noticed the piano sitting out on the curb. He’s wearing a motorcycle helmet in the video, but one of his reps has confirmed that it is, in fact, Billy Joel. Watch the video below.

A note in defense of whoever threw that piano out: We don’t know what’s happening in this person’s life. Maybe this person is stuck at home, with limited space. Maybe this person got sick of staring, every day, at a piano that never gets played. Maybe this person didn’t have the means or the motivation to drag this piano out to be donated. This person doesn’t need Billy Joel judging them. You can’t expect everyone to care about pianos the same way that Billy Joel does. I’m just saying.

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