As a little girl, Alexa Ray Joel would slip into costumes handed over by supermodel mom Christie Brinkley, then prance around performing Disney musicals like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Her co-star in these whimsical home productions? Billy Joel.
“We were three theater music nerds putting on musicals around the house,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I would play the characters, and Dad would accompany me. Ever since I was born, it was music, music, music. He would also sing to me while I sat on the piano.”
Now, as Billy continues taking time off while fighting a brain disorder, Alexa Ray will be the one serenading him at Thursday’s tribute event The Music of Billy Joel. The fundraiser, organized by promoter Michael Dorf, will see her take the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall to perform tracks from Billy’s decades-long discography alongside Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas, Matt Nathanson, Train’s Pat Monahan, Sammy Rae, Rufus Wainwright, O.A.R.’s Mark Roberge, Jon McLaughlin, Wyclef Jean and more.
And thanks to Alexa Ray’s insistence, the 76-year-old “homebody” plans to attend. “I said, ‘Dad, you better be there! This is Carnegie Hall. Everyone’s paying tribute to you, and it’s an amazing group of artists,’” says the 40-year-old singer-songwriter. “He was like, ‘Let me mark that down.’ He’s very organized with his little calendar.
“He was so excited when he first played Carnegie Hall in the ‘70s, so it’s exciting for him to come back decades later and see amazing artists and his daughter pay tribute to him. It’s a full-circle moment.”
It’s also music to the ears of fans who have worried about the legend since his May 2025 announcement that he was canceling tour dates after being diagnosed with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. The neurological condition affects balance, vision and hearing and caused Billy to tumble onstage months earlier.
Talking exclusively with THR, Alexa Ray beams with pride sharing Billy’s impressive efforts to overhaul his health.
“He’s doing physical therapy regularly and he’s doing great. He’s lost weight as he’s on his diet,” she says. “I’m so proud of him. He’s such a trooper, so resilient and committed to being healthy and proactive. He’s a fighter. He’s always been a fighter and talks in his documentary about how life’s like a fight.”
He’s also a dad (Billy has two other daughters with wife Alexis Roderick Joel — Della Rose, 10, and Remy, 8) who doesn’t want his kids worrying, which is why he urged Alexa Ray not to watch videos of the Mohegan Sun show, where he fell after a microphone spin. But she’s also a daughter who doesn’t always listen to her parents, so she watched anyway.
“He played it down,” she says. “He knows I have anxiety and am a neurotic worrier, so he was like, ‘Everything’s fine. It was just a little trip.’ When I saw the footage, I was crying. But then I went with him to the doctors, and we’re on top of everything. I just tell him to stay healthy.”
While Billy wouldn’t be Billy if he didn’t hope to make a touring comeback, Alexa Ray has handed over some rules to the piano man, who briefly returned to the stage to perform with a covers band in January.
“Once a performer, always a performer!” she says. “But health comes first. I said, ‘If you’re going to perform again, please stay seated at the piano. No throwing the microphone stand around!’”
As Billy focuses on his health, Alexa Ray continues orchestrating her own musical path with her latest EP, Tales From a Winding Tower.
Having mastered songwriting, piano and poetry by age 15, she released her first EP at 20 and was soon playing festivals like Bonnaroo, New York residencies and events with Billy. Like many following the footsteps of famous parents, she grappled with the expectations shadowing her surname.
“When I started out, I did feel that pressure, hence my first single — ‘Notice Me.’ There was a desperation and sense of, ‘Look at me. I have something of my own to offer.’ I had a lot to prove and was craving validation. I think of Dad’s song, ‘Pressure,’ and I definitely felt that.
“Now that I’ve dug my heels into the industry and become more comfortable with asserting my own voice, some of that pressure’s died down. Thinking ‘I have to live up to the last name’ is so unhealthy. I struggle with anxiety and depression, so if I lean too much into the pressure, it drives me crazy.”
Still, it’s an “endless process” carving out her own journey. Her biggest lessons have been to experiment, enjoy the journey and embrace her own voice.
“That’s important for all independent artists or any creative that comes from famous lineage. You have to be your biggest supporter and focus on your vision because there’ll always be naysayers, social media and white noise.”
Billy encourages her to “do your own thing.” Describing her father as a “musical thesaurus,” he remains her greatest educator.
She gets a kick out of wowing him — like that time she covered “Just the Way You Are” for a Gap campaign. Billy advised reconsidering her slower, mellow approach. “He’s more tempo-driven, so he’s like, ‘Let’s keep the tempo going. Keep the crowd snapping their fingers.’ I said, ‘No. If I do it the same way as you, it’s not going to stand out. I can’t say I put my stamp on it.’
“He was trepidatious, then I recorded it with this romantic, sweet sound and he was crazy about it. He said, ‘Hey, you proved me wrong.’ That was fun because I love being able to stick it to dad a little!”
Likewise, with Alexa Ray’s rock-fueled 2025 single “Riverside Way,” she unexpectedly stunned Billy, who she thought would be more into her swoony latest song, “Heavy Eyes.”
“He said, ‘How the hell did you come up with that?’ It’s very different from his style and a detour from what I write, but I wanted to be more wild and he loved it,” says Alexa Ray, whose next single, “Only Just a Moment,” is an ethereal ballad. “He’s hard to please. He likes the classics — The Beatles, Elton John, Carole King — so the moments I’m able to surprise him stand out.”
Alexa Ray also plans to surprise Billy at the event, covering a track she’s never performed before. The concert’s proceeds, which exceed $200,000, will benefit organizations providing music education programs to underserved youth, such as Belongó and Midori & Friends. Those snapping up remaining VIP packages can attend soundcheck, rehearsals and dinner at City Winery with the performers.
And while the evening will salute Billy’s monumental mark on music, it’s his role as a dad which is dearest to Alexa Ray. What’s the icon like as a father? “He’s just dad in a baseball cap, whistling around the house and joking around,” she says with a laugh. “He loves his daughters and he’s just … dad.”
Or when his girls need him to be, he’s just Aladdin.