Joel makes plenty of money for his live performances, but he loses over $20,000 every show for refusing to sell one type of ticket.
The “Uptown Girl” singer-songwriter is renowned for almost exclusively playing concerts in Manhattan, specifically the 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden. Joel has performed at least one show a month at the venerated arena since 2014. (cheatsheet)
Warming up for tonight! #wecanworkitout@paulmccartney Stevie Nicks Billy Joel @sofistadium
Tonight! pic.twitter.com/qUpfMZamNb— Billy Joel (@billyjoel) March 10, 2023
But when he’s not tickling the ivories at The Garden, Joel plays sold-out stadiums across the nation and the globe. The rock star has performed in cities worldwide, including Dublin, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, and Melbourne. Each show’s total ticket sales can make Joel millions of dollars.
At every show, he never sells front-row tickets. In fact, he leaves the first few rows unsold. But that doesn’t mean those seats remain empty.
“About 25 years ago, I got tired of looking down [at the crowd],” Joel explained during a 2017 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “The first-row tickets are always scalper tickets — always somebody who paid way too much money to be a big shot, sit in the front row.”
So Joel decided, “Screw this. The real fans are in the back.” Since then, he has sent crew members to the seats in the back to find enthusiastic ticketholders. The crew upgrades them to free front-row tickets, and Joel enjoys seeing genuine fans’ reactions while he performs.
According to a TikTok video, this practice loses Joel $20,000 to $50,000 per show. For comparison, Paul McCartney charged $3,000 for front-row tickets at a 2019 show, KWQC reports. But having real, passionate fans in the front rows is priceless to Joel.
Recently Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel pay tribute to Christine McVie in Inglewood.
Nicks' moving moment dedicated to her Fleetwood Mac bandmate and best friend was an emotional highlight of the night, while Joel's catalog of hits had fans dancing and singing throughout.
When the moment finally came, as Stevie Nicks sang “Landslide” while photographs of her best friend Christine McVie filled the screens behind her, it was beautiful, it was heartbreaking, and it surely left many in the packed SoFi Stadium on Friday as teary and emotional as Nicks herself
