August 6, 2023

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Two rock and roll icons, Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks entertained a packed Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday night.

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Stevie Nicks, a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, was the first legend to take the stage.  

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Dressed in her traditional flowing black dress, Nicks approached her mic stand that was decorated with beads and scarfs to belt out "Outside The Rain," a deep track from her debut solo record.

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Nicks mixed up her solo songs, cover tunes and of course her songs from Fleetwood Mac very nicely through out her set.

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Stevie told the story of how Tom Petty gave her the song, "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" without even knowing her, and of course they became great friends.  As the band went into the song, Billy Joel strolled out to center stage to sing Petty's part of the duet.  

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What a great moment.

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A nice cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" was mixed in with "Gypsy" and "If Anyone Falls."

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Nicks paid tribute to her friend, Tom Petty by performing his song "Free Fallin'" while images of the two of them performing together over the years were projected behind her.

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"Gold Dust Woman" and "Edge of Seventeen" which was led by long time guitarist Waddy Wachtel closed out her main set.

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The band returned to play the Fleetwood Mac classics "Rhiannon" and a beautiful version of "Landslide" that was dedicated to Christine McVie to end the show.

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The Piano Man himself, Billy Joel then took over center stage with his rotating piano and played a little bit of "Ode To Joy" before going into "My Life."

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After "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" Joel told the 65,000 people in attendance that he had some good news and some bad news.  The bad news was that he didn't have any new songs to play and that he was only going to play the old songs.   However, he noted that that was also the good news and that everyone would know everything he was going to play.

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"Just the Way You Are" and "Zanzibar" were played before Joel said, "I guess they want me to stand for this one.  I'm no Mick Jagger.  Immediately  the band launched into  "Start Me Up" and Billy did his best Mick Jagger impression.

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Joel's catalog is so vast, he can't possibly play all of the hits, but he sure does play a lot of them including, "The Longest Time," "Don't Ask Me Why" and "Allentown."

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Of course, playing at Ohio Stadium, Joel and his band launched into Ohio's official rock and roll song, "Hang On Sloopy" that featured long time sax player Mark Rivera on lead vocals.  There's nothing like 65,000 people singing 'O-H-I-O' during that song! 

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In the middle of "The River Of Dreams" multi-instrumentalist and backup singer Crystal Taliefero took center stage and belted out a very impressive rendition of Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High."

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An operatic peace titled "Nessun dorma" was expertly sung by guitarist Mike DelGuidice.

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The main set was closed out with two of my favorite songs, "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and the song that got it started for Billy Joel, "Piano Man."

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The band returned to encore with the big hits, "We Didn't Start The Fire," "Uptown Girl," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," "Big Shot" and "You May Be Right."

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What a great night to see two icons on the same stage.

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Review by Greg Drugan

Photos by Greg Bartram/Ohio Stadium

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