The 1978 song Billy Joel should have never sang: “Bullshit”
Billy Joel has reflected on his songwriting career, singling out 1978's "Honesty" from the album *The Stranger* as the track he regrets most, calling it "the most bullshit song I ever wrote." The singer felt uneasy about lecturing listeners on truthfulness when he acknowledged he had not always been honest in his own life, highlighting a broader tension he felt between his introspective songwriting and the moralising tone some lyrics took on.
Joel has spoken previously about finding lyric-writing increasingly difficult as his career progressed, particularly as his songs drew heavily on his personal life, and this discomfort is thought to have contributed to his eventual retirement from songwriting after *The River of Dreams*. While "Honesty" can be read as a more universal, narrator-driven reflection rather than a direct rebuke of others, Joel viewed the song's message as somewhat hypocritical coming from him, even as he acknowledged its underlying advice about truthfulness still holds value.
- Billy Joel called his 1978 song "Honesty" his "most bullshit" track.
- He felt he had no right to preach honesty given his own past.
- The admission reflects his broader discomfort with confessional songwriting.
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Billy Joel is one of America's best-known singer-songwriters, famous for albums like The Stranger, which included hits such as "Just the Way You Are" and "Honesty". Released in 1978, "Honesty" was a slower, reflective ballad about the value of truthfulness in relationships, and it became one of the defining tracks of that era of his career.
In more recent years, Joel has spoken candidly in interviews about how he views his own back catalogue, including moments of self-criticism about songs he no longer feels fully comfortable with. He has also discussed how songwriting became harder for him over time, partly because his lyrics often drew directly on his personal life, which eventually contributed to him stepping back from writing new songs after his 1993 album The River of Dreams.
This background matters because it shows an artist reassessing his own work with hindsight, rather than a new dispute or controversy. Understanding Joel's long career, his personal songwriting struggles, and the reputation "Honesty" holds among fans helps explain why his comments about the track have drawn attention.