Billy Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, is proud that he is taking his health seriously.
“He's doing physical therapy regularly and doing very well. He's lost weight thanks to his diet,” the singer-songwriter told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Thursday. “I'm very proud of him. He's a great soldier, very resilient and committed to health and proactivity. He's a fighter. He's always been a fighter and he talks in his documentary about how life is like a fight.”
The “Piano Man” singer, who was the subject of the two-part HBO documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, or NPH, a disorder caused by a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain. According to a statement shared at the time, Joel's condition was affecting his hearing, vision and balance, and doctors recommended that he refrain from performing for a time.
Joel previously shared some encouraging updates about his condition in July.
“I know a lot of people are worried about me and my health, but I'm fine,” she told People. “What I have is something that very few people know about, including me, no matter how much you try to research it. I'm doing everything I can to work through it and recover.”
“I feel good,” he said during an appearance on Bill Maher's “Club Random” podcast. “They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I feel.”
Alexa Ray, Joel's daughter with ex-wife Christie Brinkley, also shared that her father had downplayed his infamous fall during a performance of “It's Still Rock and Roll to Me” at a show last year in Connecticut to keep him from worrying.
“When I saw the pictures, I was crying,” she said. “But then I went to the doctors with him and we are on top of everything. I just tell him to stay healthy.”
On Thursday, Billy immersed himself in love at a sold-out concert in her honor and her music at Carnegie Hall in New York. Performers included Alexa Ray, Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, Pat Monahan of Train, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Itzhak Perlman, Wyclef Jean and Rufus Wainwright.
