Billy Joel’s co-writer Freddy Wexler on ‘Turn the Lights Back On’

Freddy Wexler already had a good career going long before he co-wrote and produced “Turn the Lights Back On” with Billy Joel. Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Post Malone, P!nk and Lil Wayne were among the artists who had recorded tunes by the Grammy-nominated songwriter. 

But writing with his musical hero, who had long ago stopped writing pop songs, fulfilled an unimaginable dream for Wexler and brought Joel back onto the Hot 100 this week for the first time in more than 25 years. 

The unlikely story of how the pair met and, ultimately, over the course of more than a year crafted the song, co-written with Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector, seems too fantastical to be true, but Wexler tells Billboard how it happened and how both their lives have changed. 

In an interview conducted via email, Wexler tells Billboard about the circuitous path that led him to Joel, what the Piano Man thought when he first met Wexler and if there are more songs in the works. 

You have been a huge Billy Joel fan. How did you get in the same room with him? 

For my 35th birthday, my incredible wife Olivia made it her mission to get me a meeting with Billy Joel. He’s basically the reason I became a songwriter, and in my gut, I always knew I’d meet him — I just didn’t know how or when. But Billy was hard to get to. Olivia tried going through the music business — she was a great music manager and former A&R exec — but no one seemed to have an in. So, she looked outside the usual channels — and even the unusual channels — and eventually found that a Long Island doctor friend of ours used to know Billy. After many months, I got the meeting. 

Was he familiar with any of your hits? 

No, he thought he was meeting a “kid” and signing an autograph. He knew nothing about me, and it was clear he wasn’t really looking to “dine” when he ordered his BLT to go! I had 10 minutes to change the course of that meal, so I just got into it. No small talk. We were two people having a real conversation, and we found that we had a lot in common, particularly in our approach to songwriting. It was the sort of connection that doesn’t happen every day, and 10 minutes turned into two hours. 

 Billy told Audacy Check In that you brought him a melody that quickly resonated with him. Had you written it with him in mind? 

Yes. I’m constantly thinking “What would Billy do here” when I’m writing — but in this case, I actively channeled him. I wanted to basically write a Billy Joel song.

Where did the theme about trying to rekindle a lost love come from? 

It came from my observation that even the greatest couples go through highs and lows, and sometimes it takes too long to realize they’ve lost “sight” of one other.

How long did it take to write and were you in the same room the whole time with Billy, Arthur and Wayne? 

I started the song with Arthur and Wayne. Billy and I met some time later in Sag Harbor, New York. We became close friends, and we started quietly working on his unfinished material from over the years. This period was about a year and a half during which Billy, unbeknownst to nearly anyone, started to dip his toe into writing again. I travelled with him to many of his shows and, eventually, I showed him “Turn the Lights Back On.” He helped me finish it at a studio and, as I suspect he does with anything, he made it much better. 

What’s it like to be in a room with Billy Joel to write? 

A little intimidating. Not because he’s doing anything to intimidate, but because he’s Billy Joel. He’s literally one of the greatest songwriters of all time. So, yeah, I’ve had some hits, I’ve had No. 1s, but with Billy, I’m like a high school tennis player hitting with Federer. No matter how nice he is, the bar he’s set is just intimidating, but it’s also inspiring. As Olivia Rodrigo said at Grammy rehearsals, he’s the “blueprint.” 

Have you been in touch with Billy since you got the chart news that “Turn the Lights Back On” came on the Hot 100 at No. 62, marking his first time on the chart since 1997? 

Of course. The whole thing kind of feels like a movie. 

Did you and Billy write anything else together? 

Yes. There are a handful of ideas we’ve worked on, and as long as he’s having fun, I think we’ll keep writing more. But for now, we’re both sort of taking in this moment. 

Billy said you made writing fun for him again. How does that make you feel? 

Billy has given me so much joy through his music. His songs have helped me through the toughest periods of my life. All I wanted was to help him rediscover some of that joy again. So, watching this whole thing unfold has been pretty amazing. And yeah, I wanted the world to get another Billy Joel song. But I didn’t expect to be part of it. That’s just icing on the cake. 

What did you learn from Billy that you’ll take forward as a songwriter?

I’ve been studying Billy’s song craft my whole life. But from working with him personally, funnily enough, what I learned was that even the greatest artists and songwriters of all time can forget how great they are. The lesson is never give your inner critic too much power. 

They say never meet your heroes. Do you feel you’re living proof that the saying is wrong?

Absolutely — though the first thing I said to Billy was, “They say you should never meet your heroes, so I have very low expectations for this.”