Billy Joel, Recovering From Brain Disorder, to Auction 70 Vintage Motorcycles

Billy Joel will auction more than 70 vintage motorcycles from his personal collection on November 20 and 21, months after a diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus forced him off the stage and led him to cancel his 2025-2026 tour.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, Joel gave his most concrete health update since the cancellation. "I can't drive right now. I'm not allowed to drive," he said. On the question of returning to performance, he was blunt: "I have to take a series of tests before I know."

The 76-year-old singer stepped away from touring last year after the brain disorder, which his website said had "been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance." He has been undergoing physical therapy under his doctor's instructions.

A neurologist gave Joel a comparison that frames the stakes plainly. "Every time you do a show, it's like you're getting a concussion," Joel recounted.

How serious is the condition?

Joel has pushed back against alarmist readings of his diagnosis. "I know people are worried about me because they read that I have a brain disorder, which sounds a lot worse than it actually is," he told callers on SiriusXM last month. "I'm okay. My balance isn't that good. Lost a little bit of my hearing, but that may have to do with my age, too, and the rock and roll life and the loud volume probably didn't help."

That reassurance carries a caveat he supplied himself: he cannot currently drive, and he does not know when — or whether — he will pass the tests required to perform again. No return date exists. The tour cancellation stands.

Why sell the motorcycles?

Joel has collected and restored vintage bikes for decades. For 15 years he ran 20th Century Cycles on Long Island, a shop that stored and serviced his bikes and doubled as a free museum. The shop closed in 2025.

Asked by The Hollywood Reporter why he is selling, Joel answered with his own mortality in view. "I'm into my 70s now, and I realized I can't ride as much as I used to. I don't want to die like a bug on a windshield. So I thought I'd put a lot of them on auction."

He added that the brain disorder makes riding "iffy" and that it was time "to turn it over to somebody else."

What does this change for fans?

Nothing immediate, and that is the point. No rescheduled tour dates have been announced, and Joel has offered no timetable beyond the neurological testing. The November auction — an estate-scale dispersal of a collection built over decades — is the one fixed date on his calendar, and it points away from the road rather than toward it.