It was a literal victory.
According to Page Six, Madison Square Garden presented Billy Joel with a ’78 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle to commemorate his Thursday night performance. The final show of a 10-year residency1978 was the first year he performed at the venue.
Joel capped off a record-breaking run that saw him perform a total of 150 shows at world-famous venues, with a Jimmy Fallon tribute, a guest appearance by Axl Rose, and an audience that included Bill Clinton.
However, as part of the celebrations, the venue reportedly gifted Joel, an admitted bike enthusiast, a special machine.
The bike was custom painted with piano keys, his signature and the MSG logo on the gas tank, and it also came with a helmet painted with all the dates he’d played there.
During the final show, the motorcycle made a cameo appearance when the camera flashed a motorcycle on the big screen while the piano man was playing “You May Be Right.” (Yes, the song has a line about two-wheelers: “Once I rode a motorcycle in the rain.”)
Joel owns dozens of bikes, some of which are on display at his shop, 20th Century Cycles, in Oyster Bay, New York, and he has a penchant for European bikes, including British Vincents and Royal Enfields, so we’re sure he’ll like the British-made Triumph.
He recorded a demo of a song called “Motorcycle Song” in 1982, but that same year he was riding his bicycle on Long Island when a driver jumped in front of him at a red light, breaking his thumb and dislocating his wrist.
He said of the accident: “The press was making a big fuss about, ‘Will he ever play again?’ I wasn’t worried about that. I play rock ‘n’ roll. [late Russian-American virtuoso] Vladimir Horowitz. He wasn’t that good to begin with. He plays with his elbows if he has to. That’s rock and roll.”
