He earned a Tony nomination starring in the Billy Joel jukebox musical “Movin’ Out” on Broadway.
Next week, Michael Cavanagh brings “The Music of Billy Joel” to Capital One Hall in Tysons, Virginia, on March 8.
“I’ve been playing these songs my whole life,” Cavanaugh said. “There’s a reason he’s going to be 75, and he’s still selling out stadiums. He’s a legend. There’s not a whole lot of people on the same list as Billy Joel, that’s for sure. He’s on Mount Rushmore as far as I’m concerned. He’s right next to Paul McCartney. He’s right there.”
He’ll perform The Piano Man’s biggest hits live on stage with the Fairfax Symphony for an epic sound.
“We’ve done this with over 100 orchestras over the past 16 years,” Cavanaugh said. “We started this in 2008. Right after the Broadway show ended, I was figuring out what I wanted to do next, and I was approached by the Indianapolis Symphony first. They called my agent and said, ‘We saw Michael on Broadway, and we really enjoyed his performance and we would love to help him put together a performance featuring the music of Billy Joel.'”
Born in Cleveland in 1972, Cavanaugh fell in love with Billy Joel’s music at a young age.
“I used to camp out in the snow for tickets in freezing cold Cleveland, and I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore,” Cavanaugh said. “I started when I was 12 playing in bars. … They started calling me ‘Young Billy Joel’ when I was a kid. I don’t know if I was just being a cocky kid, but I always thought that I would get to know him or meet him. I didn’t know that I would actually work for him, but it all kind of worked out, almost like a fairytale.”
He started his official adult playing career at a piano bar in Orlando, Florida.
“It’s pretty tough to top ‘Piano Man,’ if you really want to take the room over,” Cavanaugh said. “If you have people from the Northeast, they would love ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ or ‘New York State of Mind,’ all the girls love ‘Uptown Girl,’ other big songs are ‘Only the Good Die Young’ and ‘You May Be Right,’ if somebody just got married and a bride and groom walked in maybe ‘Just the Way You Are.’ There’s a lot, Billy’s music is very eclectic.”
In 1999, he actually performed in front of “The Piano Man” himself at a piano bar in Las Vegas.
“He was coming into town for a concert, but he was in town a couple of days early,” Cavanaugh said. Joel’s tour manager told him that he would bring the singer to hear Cavanaugh play.
“The first time I met Billy, he got on the piano across from me and we were jamming together. It was pretty incredible,” Cavanaugh said.
Soon after, Cavanaugh moved to New York City to star in the new jukebox musical “Movin’ Out,” and found himself playing songs in front of Joel.
“I was very nervous, but Billy was always so cool about it, very encouraging, always has been. He made me relax right away. I did the show for three and a half years and every time he showed up, I was certainly aware that he was there, but I did learn to relax because he was so nice. Such a cool guy.”
He says Joel’s songwriting style is to start with the melody, then formulate the introspective lyrics.
“He’ll beat himself to a pulp to get it right,” Cavanaugh said. “This is a lot of emotional stuff going on here. When he wrote the song ‘Big Shot,’ he was writing about himself. He puts himself through a lot when he writes these songs. He always says that he loves having written, but he hates the writing process itself. People can relate to that because a lot of people have these same emotions. … ‘You May Be Right’ is still his favorite to play live.”
Indeed, if you want something fun to do next week, it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for.
Or, let’s put it this way: Friday night he’ll crash your party and Saturday he’ll say he’s sorry.
Listen to our full conversation here.
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