The 77-year-old “Piano Man” said Wednesday, Sept. 9 on his SiriusXM channel that he initially didn’t want to have the surgery to implant a brain shunt but eventually changed his mind.
“I said, ‘Well what does that entail?’” Joel explained. “Well, we drill a hole through your skull and we stick a shunt inside your brain. I said, ‘Nah, I think I’ll pass on that.’”
But after learning more about the procedure and the shunt — a clear tube that drains fluid on the brain to different parts of the body — Joel changed his mind.
“Then I read up on it, and I realized it can help improve your balance, it can help your memory. I don’t wanna lose my marbles,” Joel said. “And it actually improved things. My memory got better, my balance got a little better.”
Joel was diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus in March 2025, after he fell during a show. The diagnosis led to Joel cancel all of his planned concerts, and he explained Wednesday that his career was possibly to blame for the condition in the first place.
“It was giving me something like a concussion every time I did a show,” Joel said. “It was causing damage to my brain nerves. And I could be losing more brain cells the more I played, the more shows I did. And I realized that means I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I gotta improve.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice and receive free news updates.
