Billy Joel Sounds Like 'Bob Dylan if He Had a Cartoon Show' in Hilarious Resurfaced Interview
While Billy Joel is unquestionably one of the most successful and beloved musicians of all time, that doesn't mean he hasn't looked to other iconic rock stars for advice from time to time throughout the course of his career...and when he revealed the helpful advice Bob Dylan once gave him, it ended up being one of the funniest moments in late night history.
During a recently resurfaced 1997 appearance on Late Night With David Letterman, Joel opened up about what happened when he met Dylan backstage at a performance in Milan, Italy. As Joel explained, he took the opportunity to ask Dylan a very important question.
"I said, 'How do you do it, Bob? How do you remember all these words?'' Joel recalled, before going into a Dylan impression to share his response, adding, ''Oh, that's easy. Just go over in the dressing room and take a look on the coffee table.''
"You sound like Bob Dylan if he had a cartoon show," Letterman quipped, laughing at Joel's attempt at a Dylan voice.
'So, I look over on the coffee table, and there is a store-bought book, Bob Dylan's The Songs of Bob Dylan," Joel continued.
"He's got them all right there," he added. "He's got this big book on the coffee table. And I say, 'Well, okay, but how do you read the lyrics on-stage?' He goes, 'Well, I really can't read them. I just feel good knowing they're there.' It's like a security blanket. And I've actually started doing it. I put a little book of lyrics on the piano. Of course, you can't dive into them in the middle of a song. But it just makes you feel a little bit better. There they are.'
That's not the only time Joel gave fans a laugh with behind-the-scenes story about Dylan, either. During an interview with Howard Stern, Joel remembered what it was like recording "We Are the World" with Dylan in 1985, per I Love Classic Rock, explaining that Dylan was hesitant about singing his part until Stevie Wonder stepped in to help with his vocals.
'Stevie Wonder teaching Bob Dylan to sing like Bob Dylan was a moment," Joel said at the time.Billy Joel Sounds Like 'Bob Dylan if He Had a Cartoon Show' in Hilarious Resurfaced Interview first appeared on Parade on Aug 12, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
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