10 More Huge Songs That Bands Refused To Play Live
4. Just The Way You Are - Billy Joel
Many musicians draw inspiration from their own relationships when writing their songs, which can be very touching when the romance is still going, but an absolute killer when they stop.
Billy Joel wrote Just the Way You Are about his first wife and business manager Elizabeth Weber, and very nearly didn’t put it on his 1977 album The Stranger. His mind was changed by Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow, who loved the song, and it turns out that the general public loved it as well, as they sent it to number three in the Billboard charts.
Weber had married Joel in 1973, but the relationship eventually broke down and the pair divorced in 1982. This made singing a song about how much Joel loved her a tad awkward to sing, so the song has regularly gone missing from the singer’s shows since then.
He seems to be more open to performing it these days, as it's appeared on Billy's more recent setlists, but stories like this are a reminder of the risks of baring your heart and soul through your art.