Billy Joel has said he is recovering after brain surgery following his 2025 diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. I’m still here,” the 77-year-old rocker shared on today’s segment of SiriusXM’s The Billy Joel Channel.
Joel said he first became concerned when he began struggling with his balance. “I noticed that my balance was not good,” Joel recalled. “I had this sense of being on a boat, like this rocking motion. I wasn’t steady on my feet.”
He said he then saw a neurologist, who advised surgery. “I said, ‘Well, what does that entail?’” he recalled, explaining that he was not immediately open to the idea. “I didn’t want to do that,” Joel stated.
After learning more, he changed his mind. “But then I read up on it, and I realised it can help improve your balance and can help your memory.”
“You know, I don’t want to lose my marbles. It’s hard to tell what’s age and what’s a condition, so I agreed to do the shunt, and I had surgery, and they implanted a shunt in my brain, and it actually improved things.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, normal pressure hydrocephalus is a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid builds up inside the skull and presses on the brain. The clinic says it is often treatable with surgery to implant a shunt that drains excess fluid from inside the skull.
Joel said the procedure helped improve his memory, balance and overall “ability to function”.
He also revealed that doctors told him to stop performing after determining he was experiencing a “concussion” every time he played a show following the surgery.
“The doctors told me this, because of my job, which is playing rock and roll music very loud, that it was giving me something like a concussion every time I did a show,” the singer said.
“It was causing damage to my brain nerves, and I could be losing more brain cells the more shows I did,” he continued. “I realised that means I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I got to improve.”
Joel said he is now attending physical therapy and strictly following medical advice. “I’m doing whatever it is they tell me to do because I don’t want to lose it, you know?” he said.
He announced his diagnosis in May 2025 when he cancelled his tour performances. At that time, he ended the rest of the concerts after first postponing several dates following a fall during his Mohegan Sun Casino performance in Montville, Connecticut, in March.
When he addressed fans then, the “New York State of Mind” singer said he needed to put his health first and was “expected to make a full recovery.”
