Billy Joel Calls Taylor Swift 'This Generation's Beatles'

Taylor Swift is already a legend at just 32. Billy Joel recently gave her the highest praise possible: likening her to a Beatle. Here’s what he had to say.

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‘She Knows Music’

150 million records sold. Grammy Awards galore. A Tony Award. Membership in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and one of those rainbow sashes from the Kennedy Center Honors. Joel’s list of accomplishments is rivaled by a few others. His long career is still going strong, as he continues to sell out stadiums into his seventies.

The “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” singer sat down with USA Today to discuss his legendary career. Joel returned last night to his unique residency at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Joel says “I never dreamed I’d have a residency at Madison Square Garden.”

Some Of His Favorites

Joel was asked who his favorite artists are today, and he highlighted two. The first is Adele. “Adele is a phenomenal singer, kind of a Barbra Streisand throwback,” Joel says. Both Joel and Adele have covered Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” so they’ve got mutual taste.

Olivia Rodrigo recently shouted out Joel on her hit single “Deja Vu.” The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star wrote: “I’ll bet that she knows Billy Joel ‘Cause you played her “Uptown Girl.” Joel was asked about Rodrigo and other young artists crediting him as an influence. “there are a lot of younger people now looking backward and they like their parents’ music, which is a strange phenomenon. I look out (in the crowd) and see so many young people. I’m grateful for it, especially because they make more noise.”

Swift is another artist Joel appreciates. He calls her a “very talented girl and she’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs and she’s huge.” Joel credits her as both a musician and songwriter: “she’s like that generation’s Beatles.”

What Does A Beatle Think?

Calling Swift Beatle-like is very high praise indeed, so what does a Beatle think? Paul McCartney is a Swift fan as well. They shared the cover of Rolling Stone last year where Swift revealed that she and McCartney would have covered “Shake It Off” at the 2020 Glastonbury Festival, but COVID-19 ended that plan.

Both Swift and McCartney share the same philosophy around playing hits at live shows. Swift said, “I think that learning that lesson from you taught me at a really important stage in my career that if people want to hear ‘Love Story’ and ‘Shake It Off,’ and I’ve played them 300 million times, play them the 300-millionth-and-first time.”

McCartney concurred, saying that tickets are expensive so for “a lot of ordinary working folks … it’s a big event in their life, and so I try and deliver.” Both Joel and McCartney appear to be Swifties. What a world.