Billy Joel will be playing Fenway Park this Thursday, and he joined Jim Braude and Guest Host Jared Bowen for a preview on Boston Public Radio:

Does it ever get old, having 20,000—40,000 people screaming your name, singing along with every single word you’ve written? What does that feel like?

Joel: What’s running through my head, other than to remember the lyrics, is ‘this is such a great job!’ Did I pick a great job, or what? Who knew it was going to go to these lengths. Who knew it was going to last this long, who knew it would be successful? …I’ve got the greatest job in the world. It is a job, and I don’t lose sight of that fact. That’s what I do, that’s my occupation, that’s my career. I don’t sit up there and think, ‘aren’t I great, aren’t I fantastic, isn’t this great?’ I mean, it is great, but I’m not thinking about me so much as the gig. Part of me is actually in the audience when this is going on. There’s a sense of community, I remember that from the Beatles days. I was a big Beatles fan when I was a kid, and we were all kind of on the same page, that whole generation was on the same page with the Beatles, we were following these guys. They were our guys. I liked that. I like kind of recreating that sense of community when we’re doing a concert. Everybody’s singing along… you never get over that, that never gets old.

Listen to the interview and read more at WGBH.org.

Top photo: Billy Joel performs live at Fenway Park in Boston, MA, on July 16, 2015. Photo by Jeff Schock