EDUCATION | Driving tomorrow’s achievements
08 December 2008
My Job Became My Friend
Billy Joel spoke at Southhampton College, Long Island University, in 2000. A classically trained musician with decades of hit recordings, he is enrolled in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Excerpt used with permission.)
I congratulate you all for staying with your academic pursuits. I couldn’t do it. And now I wish I had studied more myself. It would help me in my own musical efforts these days. I’m asked often why am I changing, why am I doing different kinds of music. To quote from Bob Dylan in a song called “It’s Alright Ma”: “He who is not busy being born, is busy dying.” And that’s why I’m doing it.
I am only certain of one thing in my life. I knew what I loved to do, and I did what I loved to do. And at this point in my life I’m still loving what I do. I never did it to make a lot of money. I did it to make a living. And in doing so, I made a life. I guess what I’m saying here is that my job became my friend, my fortune, and my great love. And that no matter what lofty personal goals I set for myself, life came along and whacked me upside the head and sent me in directions I never intended to go. But I learned to adjust. I used the survival lessons as substance for future material. To borrow another great line from Bernie Taupin and my good friend Elton John: “I’m still standing.” And I’m still standing here on Long Island where I came from in the first place.
