BILLY JOEL Piano man finds inner harmony

The singer, who is promoting his boxed set, has had successful ticket sales.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- Billy Joel's rewritten his own theme song.
The piano will still sound like a carnival, but the microphone won't smell like a beer. New York's beloved balladeer, who spent a month at the Betty Ford Center for alcohol abuse last year, was bone dry when he kicked off the first of a record-breaking 11 shows at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
"I'm just not drinking," says the Piano Man -- who had struggled with a love of bottles of red and bottles of white. "I don't know if I will never have a glass of wine again for the rest of my life, but right now I am not taking any chances.
"There was a time in my life when I was drinking too much, and so I have stopped," adds Joel. "It's an interesting concept. 'Just don't drink.' Hmm! I never thought of that!"
Though he's suffered hard knocks in the past few years (including three car crashes that he says were booze-free), the affable Joel isn't too hard on himself. "I was homeless when I was younger and I was suicidal when I was 21," notes Joel, who also spent two weeks in rehab in 2002. "Anything that has happened after that is like water off a duck's back."
Adding some wit
In fact, he's mixing up strong confessional cocktails with a twist of wit.
"Now, [people] ask me about sobriety," the 56-year old continues, "and I am like, God! Don't make me the poster boy for AA. I don't really know about total sobriety -- I know a hell of a lot about drinking!
"Ultimately, I am surprised that people made just a big deal about it. I mean I'm in rock 'n' roll. Going to rehab for people like me is like getting your teeth cleaned."
Joel -- who's touring to promote his four-CD retrospective boxed set "My Lives" -- has cleaned up in ticket sales. He added an 11th Garden performance (and broke Bruce Springsteen's 10-show MSG record) after the first 10 quickly sold out. He's glad his tour is concentrated in New York and the Northeast, allowing him to stay close to his 24-year-old wife, Katie Lee, whom he wed in 2004.
"I don't like to be away from home a lot," admits Joel, who owns an estate on Centre Island, Long Island, and a townhouse near Greenwich Village (he just sold his six-room Tribeca loft for around $4.5 million). "I really get homesick a lot at this time in my life."
Though Katie Lee accompanies him to many of his shows, Joel prefers his own digs. There, his professional food-wrangling spouse whips up healthy treats made with what Joel affectionately dubs "hippie food." Just four years older than Alexa Ray -- Joel's daughter with ex-wife Christie Brinkley -- Katie Lee will debut as a reality-show host in March on Bravo's culinary competition "Top Chef."
And, it's possible the couple may have a bun or two in the oven soon -- Joel says the duo is planning on having more than one child.