The Story Behind How Freddy Wexler Helped Billy Joel Write Songs Again, and “Turn the Lights Back On”

Freddy Wexler always wanted to meet Billy Joel. The songwriter behind songs with Justin Bieber, P!nk, Kanye West, Jonas Brothers, Celine Dion, and more was a lifelong fan of Joel’s and wondered why the piano man stopped writing. “You can’t be Billy Joel and be done,” said Wexler during the 2024 Grammys. “You just need to find the magic again.”

For Wexler’s 35th birthday, Wexler’s wife made it “her mission” to help him meet Joel. After connecting with a doctor who knew another physician who “once knew Billy Joel,” said Wexler. Joel finally agreed to meet Wexler for lunch.

“I was like ‘Alright I’ll go talk with this kid have lunch and that’ll be that,” said Joel of their first meeting.

“Unlikely Friends”

Wexler said from the moment he met Joel, it was clear the piano man didn’t intend to stay long. “He ordered clams on the half shell and a B.L.T. to go,” said Wexler. “A 10-minute lunch turned into two and a half hours, and we became unlikely friends.”

As time went on, Wexler was getting Joel to think about writing a song and recording it. “It took him a while to talk me into it,” joked Joel. “It took two years,” added Wexler. “I was relentless.”

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When Wexler initially connected with Joel he was also at a crossroads in his career. “When I met Billy, I was actually kind of questioning my own career despite I was sort of in a great place,” shared Wexler. “I had a bunch of big hits and songs, and I was just like, ‘I don’t know, maybe I should be doing something else with my life.”

He continued, “It was a pretty special thing for me because I became a songwriter because of Billy Joel,” said Wexler. “Billy’s bar might be Beethoven. My bar is Billy Joel, both of which are unattainable bars. So, he’s gonna constantly be upset that he doesn’t feel like he’s hitting Beethoven’s level, and I’m constantly upset that I feel like one in 1,000 songs I write, maybe two lines sound as good as Billy Joel.”

When Wexler presented some music he was working on to Joel, he immediately connected to the song and started writing around it. “The melody, the chords, the chord progression, even the time signature was something that struck me immediately, and that’s how I relate to music,” said Joel. “This particular lyric in this song, I’ve had these thoughts, I could have written these lyrics verbatim. I’ve chewed on these words, and I’ve thought of these words, and I’ve said these words before. It was all kind of falling into place, and who am I to fight that?”

“The last time I wrote a song, it has to be 30 years ago,” said Joel during the 2024 Grammys. “A lot of people have asked me ‘Why did you stop writing?’ and I said ‘Because I didn’t want to.’ Some people have a great time with it. I kind of suffer with songwriting.”

Once he recorded the song, Joel said he liked what he heard. “I listened back, and I didn’t hate my voice, which I usually do,” said Joel. “When I go out in the studio and I sing and I come back and listen I’m like ‘Oh, that’s me again.’”

Before releasing “Turn the Lights Back On,” Joel’s last release of original material was his 12th album River of Dreams in 1993. In 2007, Joel wrote “All My Life,” for his then-wife, Katie Lee, along with the 2019 song “Christmas In Fallujah,” which was recorded by Cass Dillon. 

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‘Stuck in the Frame, Unable to Change’

Co-written by Joel, Wexler, Arthur Bacon, and Wayne Hector “Turn the Lights Back On” centers around new beginnings, starting over, and speaks to Joel’s journey back to songwriting, and how he lost the joy of it along the way.

Please open the door
Nothing is different, we’ve been here before
Pacing these halls, trying to talk
Over the silence
And pride sticks out its tongue
Laughs at the portrait that we’ve become
Stuck in a frame, unable to change
I was wrong

I’m late, but I’m here right now
Though I used to be romantic
I forgot somehow
Time can make you blind
But I see you now
As we’re layin’ in the darkness
Did I wait too long
To turn the lights back on?

Joel released “Turn the Light Back On” on February 1, 2024, and performed it on television for the first time at the Grammys three days later.

“The whole point of doing what I do was because it was so much fun to do when I first started,” said Joel. “I kind of lost that after a while. Freddy got me to find the joy in it again.”

Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

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