Swifties! That’s what Billy Joel and his daughters call themselves!
The artist, who is 74 years old, and his wife, Alexis Roderick, accompanied their two children, Della Rose, 8, and Remy Anne, 6, to see Taylor Swift and meet her at her Eras Tour stop in Tampa, Florida, earlier this year.
Now, in an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF), when an exhibit crafted in his honor opened on Friday, Joel details that he “got very cool Dad points” for helping his two youngest children look and spend time with the Midnights artist. This conversation took place at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF).
The singer of “Uptown Girl” was asked about his opinion on Taylor Swift, and he responded by saying, “Oh, she’s fantastic. She is definitely very talented. It’s quite likely that we’ll pay another visit to her.
When Joel and Roderick brought his daughters to see Taylor Swift in April, the happy father documented the enjoyable family adventure with a carousel of images and videos that he posted to his Instagram profile.
“Rockin’ into our new ‘era’ thank you @Taylorswift we loved the show!” The caption that Joel added to his image included the hashtags “#Swifties,” “#TaylorSwift,” and “#TheErasTour.” Joel is also the father of Alexa Ray Joel, whom he shares with his ex-wife Christie Brinkley.
In one of the pictures that was uploaded, Roderick could be seen standing with her children while they were both beaming broadly, and in another one, Joel could be seen strolling beside Della and Remy while holding hands with both of them.
One last video showed Joel and Roderick’s children moving around and dancing during the performance to Taylor Swift’s song “… Ready for It?” from her album Reputation.
Joel gushed about Swift as a performer after seeing her Eras Tour in person and, in an interview with The New York Times, he drew comparisons between Swift and The Beatles.
“The only thing I can compare it to is the phenomenon of Beatlemania,” he said while speaking to the newspaper about it.
When Joel was interviewed by USA Today in 2021, he referred to Taylor Swift as “The Beatles of her generation,” and he expressed similar opinions at the time.
“Taylor is also a very talented girl, and she’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs, and she’s huge,” added the musician. You are obligated to give her a good grade. She has a background in music, and she also has some writing ability. She is to that generation what the Beatles were to the previous one.