Billy Joel recently chatted with BBC Radio about his song ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’. The conversation, which initially started with the mention of Fall Out Boy’s version of the song, turned into Joel admitting he once forgot the words of the song in one of his shows.
The singer was asked if he had heard the new verses Fall Out Boy wrote for his song, to which he replied with:
“I heard about this, yeah. Everybody’s been wanting to know when there’s gonna be an updated version of it because my song started in ’49 and ended in ’89 — it was a 40-year span. And everybody said, ‘Well, aren’t you going to do a part two?’ I said, ‘Nah, I’ve already done part one.’ So, Fall Out Boy, go ahead. Great, take it away.”
When asked about the time he mentioned the song’s difficulty to sing live due to its lyrics and the little room left between singing them, Joel approved and explained:
“Well, sometimes I’m watching people sing along, hoping they will guide me. Because you get one word wrong, and it’s a train wreck.”
The singer continued with the story of him forgetting the words:
“Which happened to me, I was in Toronto, and I forgot the words. And then I just stopped the song. ‘Stop the music! Stop the…’ And the crowd made this noise like, ‘Ahhhh…’ So it’s walking on a tightrope with that thing.”
In the mentioned concert, which took place nine years ago, Joel jokingly referred to the song’s lyrics as ‘the worst he has ever written’. The crowd helped him remember the lyrics and he continued to perform. Watch the concert clip below and listen to Fall Out Boy’s cover of the song here.
