“I’m obviously 20th century,” Billy Joel tells Zoe Ball over TikTok hit

Billy Joel was on Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 Breakfast Show this morning where he admitted to being out of touch as far as TikTok is concerned.

As part of their conversation, Zoe asked Billy how he feels when he sees multi-generations of fans at his concerts.

“That’s the best part of our audiences now is seeing the different age groups,” he replied. “I’d assumed that our audience will age as we do, and I’m in my 70s now.

“So I’ll see people in their 70s, but I also see kids, teenagers, and younger people, and people college age and it’s just all ages which is the best kind of audience that you can have,” he added.

Zoe then asked about his song Zanzibar becoming a massive TikTok smash and wondered if he was aware of this phenomenon.

Billy admitted he didn’t really know about it, but said “Didn’t they do some kind of a dance to it?” He was surprised when Zoe told him that it was huge and still is. She said that it takes music to a whole new level, citing Kate Bush having a huge resurgence with a track in Stranger Things.

“Zanzibar now, my daughter absolutely loves it, and knows the words to loads of your songs through finding you on TikTok,” Zoe informed Billy.

He answered: “I don’t know how a lot of this stuff works. I’m obviously 20th century!”

Zoe admitted she is too and joked: “Please tell me you still have a fax machine!”

When Billy Joel Met Zoe Ball is available now on BBC Sounds