Tony Monaco has played more than 700 shows with Turnstiles, his Florida-based Billy Joel tribute band. But nothing could have prepared the Penn Hills native for what happened on Jan. 2.
The Piano Man himself joined Turnstiles onstage in Wellington, Fla., that day to play a pair of songs and make international headlines along the way.
It was Joel’s first performance since February 2025 and about seven months after canceling an extensive stadium tour — including an Acrisure Stadium date — after a diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder.
“It was just surreal. It was a (moment) in my life that I’ll never forget because I’m a raging Billy Joel fan and I have been for probably 40, 45 years,” Monaco said. “To have him acknowledge us and validate us on that level is a gift I could have never bought with any amount of money.”
Monaco comes from a musical background, with his father and uncles performing as The Del Monacos, who once served as the house band at the old Holiday House in Monroeville. In his younger days, Monaco played in Thrills, a rock band that had plenty of Pittsburgh radio play and toured with Foreigner, Juice Newton and Orleans. After relocating to Long Island, Monaco is now based in Florida, where he started Turnstiles with another Pittsburgh native, Dave Fullerton, who retired from the band last year.
“That’s where I got my initial love for music because I was born, they put me in a room and they were rehearsing,” he said. “So I’m kind of following in their footsteps, which I just wish that they were all still here. They know what I’ve done and this band had done. … My dad died in 2013 so he got to see this, and it was kind of heart-wrenching because he kept saying to me, ‘I don’t know why, but I think this is your calling.’ He goes, ‘I think you’re going to go places with this.’ ”
When Monaco moved to New York, he wound up living in a house owned by the mother of Brian Ruggles, who was Joel’s sound engineer. Once he found out the musical connection, he knew he wanted to live there.
“I said, ‘OK, I’ll take it.’ I don’t even know how much it was. I’ll take it,” he said.
Although he never met Joel at that house, Monaco did wind up running into him at Sparks, a Long Island nightclub owned by Ruggles.
“I ended up sitting at the bar with him for like 45 minutes. So that was my first (time). … It was great because I got to talk to him and he was really down to earth,” Monaco said. “I actually forgot I was talking to Billy Joel. You know what I mean? It may sound weird, but it’s the truth. I was so in the conversation, and then I stopped and I go, ‘I’m talking to friggin’ Billy Joel here. This is crazy.’ ”
It wasn’t until 2018 that they ran into each other again, this time at Joel’s motorcycle shop in Long Island.
“I did say to him, I do a tribute to you. He looked at me and he went ‘Really?’ And I didn’t know how to take that. His facial expression and everything, I wasn’t so sure it was positive,” Monaco said. “So I softened it. I went, I’m just curious if you’ve ever heard of us. Our band’s called Turnstiles. His whole demeanor changed. He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, man, I’ve checked you guys out. Thanks for keeping my music alive.’ And I looked at him and I said, I can die now. That’s how much it meant to me. He knew who we were.”
Monaco thought that Joel, a fellow Florida resident, might pop into a show at some point, especially last year when Turnstiles played a show in Boca Raton on Joel’s birthday.
“He lived right up the road. It was all in walking distance,” he said. “I said, ‘If he’s going to come, this is going to be the night.’ He didn’t come.”
That all changed earlier this month when Joel showed up out of the blue with his wife and two daughters a few hours before the show.
“And then Billy walked in. I stood there with three other guys from the band and not one of us could speak,” Monaco said. “It was only about 10 seconds, but I turned to the guys and was like, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
According to Monaco, Joel’s wife, Alexis, hinted that he would want to perform rather than just say hi. After perusing the setlist, Joel picked “New York State of Mind” and then left with his family to enjoy the festivities outside. But when that song arrived in the set, Joel hadn’t returned.
“Now I got all paranoid. Oh my God, did he not like the band?” Monaco said. “Did he decide to go home? Were people bothering him?”
But Joel soon hit the stage, choosing “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for his first performance in almost a year.
“When he got done, the people were going crazy, just insane. He stood up and his wife walked out,” he said. “So I was standing there with his wife and him and a couple of my guys came over. And the people were chanting ‘Billy, Billy, Billy.’ ”
With that response, Joel decided to do another song, “Big Shot.”
And although it’s been several weeks, Monaco, who said Turnstiles has a summer show in the works for the Pittsburgh area, said the band is still riding a high.
“We’re still not down yet,” he said. “I’ve been doing interviews, and we’ve been seeing stuff literally internationally. It’s really crazy.”