Photo: Getty Images
Sunday (September 11th) marks the 21st anniversary of the horrendous 9/11 attacks. Lifelong New Yorker Billy Joel reflected back on 9/11 and told us that although the events of the day will obviously never be forgiven or forgotten, New York's strength and resilience should never be in doubt: "We'll never forget. Nah, I don't think it'll be forgotten, but I think we've recovered a good deal. I know once they nailed (Osama) Bin Laden -- that's another thing that put it behind us. I don't know, this city has great resolution. There's a lot of resolve, there's a lot of character here. You're not gonna keep this place down."
Billy, who performed at both the September 21st America: A Tribute To Heroes telethon and the October 20th, 2001 Concert For New York City, explained that ego and career played literally no role in saluting the casualties of 9/11: "I felt kind of irrelevant, to tell you the truth. I'm glad they raised money and I'm glad I could do something. It wasn't nearly enough. I dunno, something like this makes you feel very inadequate, really. That was a feeling I was getting from people -- we were meeting and greeting backstage. . . kinda chagrined shrugs, like, 'Well, at least we can try to do something.'"
Here is his performance of "New York State Of Mind" from that telethon: