Billy Joel to play Mohegan Sun for first time in over 16 years

Billy Joel is returning to Mohegan Sun. Not for one of his celebrated residencies, like the 10-show one he played at the resort casino in 2008, but for a single performance on Feb. 22, 2025.

Tickets for the Mohegan Sun Arena show go on sale with various presale offers starting Tuesday, then to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster. If the show hasn’t already sold out, tickets will be available on Saturday at the Mohegan Sun box office. Prices have not yet been revealed.

Billy Joel is one of the bestselling singer/songwriters in pop music history, with worldwide sales of over 160 million records. He adapted to the MTV era with a series of popular music videos in the 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and was a Kennedy Center Honors honoree in 2013.

In the 1970s, Joel played at several different Connecticut colleges including the University in Bridgeport in 1972, at Quinnipiac College (now Quinnipiac University) in Hamden in 1974, the same year that he had his first top 40 hit with “Piano Man,” a two-night stand at Connecticut College’s Palmer Auditorium in 1976 and at Fairfield University in 1978. He also played The Bushnell in Hartford in 1977.

By the 1980s, Joel was mainly playing large arenas, including New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum in 1978 and Hartford Civic Center in 1980. But in July of 1980, he did two surprise shows at Toad’s Place in New Haven which were recorded for his 1981 live album “Songs in the Attic.” Toad’s Place owner Mike Spoerndle told so many friends about the secret booking that it was nearly canceled.

In 2011, he performed as part of a lively Q&A session with UConn students at the school’s Jorgensen Auditorium, letting them sing along on some of his hits. He did the 10-show residency at Mohegan Sun 16 years ago and headlined the annual Greenwich Town Party event in 2022.