Billy Joel inducted his longtime booking agent Dennis Arfa at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook on Saturday, thanking him for a 50-year business partnership and friendship that helped push his career into the stratosphere.
“Weak record sales, ambivalent reviews, no real support from the label,” Joel recalled. “A lot of people looked at us and saw a problem. Dennis looked at us and saw a possibility.”
The induction ceremony honored Arfa, 77, for helping Joel achieve a number of live performance milestones, including a rare tour in Soviet Russia in 1987, the first rock concert at Yankee Stadium in 1990 and a 10-year monthly residency at Madison Square Garden that culminated in a lifetime total of 150 shows at the venue. The induction coincided with the Hall of Fame’s two-day Billy Joel Symposium.
Joel, 77, last year announced his diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder than can cause balance and hearing problems, and canceled all upcoming concerts.
Wearing a black suit and looking somewhat thinner, Joel entered the upstairs room for the ceremony with a cane but did not use it during his 10-minute speech. He appeared to be wearing a hearing aid, but his voice sounded strong and he had not lost his sense of humor.
Noting that President Donald Trump was in his second term, the Knicks were winning and he was speaking at an event sponsored by Catholic Health, Joel — who is Jewish — noted, “I guess anything’s possible.”
Joel’s attendance at the event had not previously been announced. “I didn’t want to announce that Billy was coming, but I’m so proud that he’s here,” Arfa said before the ceremony. “And I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
In his speech, Arfa recalled seeing Joel for the first time with his old band The Hassles and later joining Joel’s team, on Aug. 16, 1976. “For the first time in my life, I represented somebody that I believed in musically as a writer, performer and just a street-savvy and humble guy.”
He added, “My goal was always to do my job as well as he did his.”
Several of Joel’s longtime band members were also on hand to show support for Arfa and for the Piano Man.
“Billy’s an amazing artist and an incredible performer, but Dennis is a big part of that success,” David Rosenthal, Joel’s keyboardist and musical director, said, “and it’s great that we’re all here tonight to honor him.”
Andy Cichon, Joel’s bassist, praised Arfa for his business savvy but also his “deeper understanding” of Joel’s music.
“Dennis absolutely gets Billy’s audience, knows where to place him, knows how to structure touring, knows what fans will work well with us,” Cichon said. He added that he was looking forward to seeing Joel and his bandmates, whose last proper concert together was in February of last year.
“I miss the man,” Cichon said. “I miss playing with my brothers and sister, and especially my piano player.”
Michael DelGuidice, the Miller Place-raised singer and guitarist who joined Joel’s band in 2013, said the singer “looks good and that’s all anybody cares about.”
“It’s nice to reunite here and see everybody,” he added. “This is really sweet.”
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