Billy Joel tour dates New York City 2008 Shea stadium

Billy Joel To Be Shea's 'Last Play'
Billy Joel

February 07, 2008, 12:00 AM ET

Ray Waddell, Nashville
Billy Joel will be the last artist to play at New York's Shea Stadium with a July 16 concert billed as "The Last Play at Shea, From the Beatles to Billy." The show comes in the midst of the New York Mets' final season at Shea; the team moves into its new home at Citi Field in 2009.

The Joel show, promoted by Live Nation in association with Mitch Slater, goes on sale Feb. 16. Joel joins a long list of Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will have played the Queens, N.Y. baseball stadium, beginning with the Beatles in August 1965 and including including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Police, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.

"The Last Play at Shea," which comes the day after the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, makes Joel the only artist to ever have played both Yankee Stadium (two nights in 1991) and Shea Stadium. It is also the first in-season concert at Shea since Clapton and John played there during the 1992 baseball season.

On of the world's top concert draws, Joel took in $40 million in 2007 from only 29 shows according to Billboard Boxscore. This year, Joel is "not touring, just working," his longtime agent Dennis Arfa tells Billboard.com. "We put weeks together instead of months."

Joel is out for a brief run beginning Feb. 23 at the Honda Center in Anaheim and including stops in Sacramento (26), Denver (28), Milwaukee (March 2). He then plays Des Moines on April 15 and Pittsburgh April 18, prior to headlining the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival April 26.