Billy Joel to hit baseball stadiums on 2017 tour

LOS ANGELES – Billy Joel will play Dodger Stadium for the first time in May in a return to the city where he first gained attention.

The May 13 show was announced in a news conference at the iconic baseball stadium. The Dodgers will be on a seven-game road trip when Joel takes over their home.

The Dodger Stadium show is part of Joel’s 2017 tour that will take him to SunTrust Park, the Atlanta Braves’ new stadium, on April 28. He also is set to play in other baseball stadiums, including Cleveland, Wrigley Field in Chicago, Fenway Park and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

The 67-year-old singer-songwriter from New York first became known as a piano player and lounge singer at the Executive Room on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, where he played for six months in 1972 under the name Bill Martin. The characters from his hit song “Piano Man” were based on staff and customers at the bar.

Joel has an ongoing residency at Madison Square Garden, having played one show a month there for the last three years.