Billy Joel Revisits His Classic Eras in AI-Assisted Video For Comeback Single ‘Turn the Lights Back On’

Billy Joel is fully back in his pop mode in the new video for comeback single “Turn the Lights Back On.” In fact, thanks to generative AI, Joel is back in all his pop modes in the time-tripping visual directed by Warren Fu (Daft Punk, Dua Lipa), which uses technology from Deep Voodoo to portray the now 74-year-old piano man in all his different eras.

The clip opens with today’s Joel in a black suit at his trusty Steinway, playing the song’s elegiac instrumental intro, a cigarette burning in the ashtray, before jumping back to 1970s shaggy-haired Joel singing the track’s wistful opening lines, “Please, open the door/ Nothing is different, we’ve been here before/ Pacing these halls, trying to talk over the silence.”

After the camera pans to the rafters, it swings back to another past Joel, focusing on the song’s lyric sheet atop the piano before revealing a 1980s BJ in a leather jacket and sweatshirt. Another sweep reveals a slightly older sunglass-and-brown-blazer-wearing Joel tickling the ivories before a final montage shows Joel on stage, backstage, in the studio and with his kids throughout his half-century career.

After performing his first new pop song in 17 years on the 2024 Grammy Awards, Joel was back on Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart dated Feb. 10 at No. 11, marking his first entry on the chart since 1998. The singer also returned to the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated Feb. 17, debuting at No. 62, marking his first entry on the chart since his cover of Bob Dylan’s “To Make You Feel My Love” hit No. 50.

Watch the “Turn the Lights Back on” video below.