He just delivered his first concert in San Diego in 15 years, and he’s preparing to give his 40th consecutive sold-out monthly concert at Madison Square Garden next week on May 27. Clearly, Billy Joel is one of the most successful pop/rock stars in history.

“I never wanted to be a nostalgia act, but I suppose I am.”

And he hasn’t put out new music in decades.

But, as you oughta know by now — that doesn’t matter. The Piano Man gave us 33 timeless Top 40 songs that entered our pop culture consciousness between the years 1973 and 1993. And that’s all we need.

“I don’t have anything new for you, [just] all the same old stuff,” Joel told the San Diego audience, which was only too happy to join him in a New York state of mind.

Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound
Funny, but it’s still rock and roll to me

The show featured Joel in a suit and tie with an eight-piece band, playing his good old rock/pop music. As The San Diego Union-Tribune put it, the group “performed with crisp precision and winning elan throughout.” Tickets sold out in 45 seconds.

It’s heartening that the classic Joel still has appeal. This isn’t a show filled with booty shaking and body baring. There is no sexual display, no thumping, bumping, and grinding — just words about meeting in an Italian restaurant and sharing a bottle of red, a bottle of white.

In several instances during the San Diego show, Joel gave the audience a “fielder’s choice,” according to The Union-Tribune, telling them two song titles and letting the volume of their applause determine which one he would do next. But in the end, it didn’t really matter. The audience loved it all.

Joel hasn’t made a new album of songs since 1993’s “River of Dreams” and ever since, he has been asked why he isn’t putting out more pop/rock tunes. “You get to a point where you realize: I’ve done the best I can,” he said before the Southern California concert. “Why am I driving myself crazy?’”

And in a New York Times story in 2013, Joel explained it in even simpler terms, saying, “I got tired of it. I got bored with it.”

I don’t need you to worry for me cause I’m alright
I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home
I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone

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The only new music he has put out since that 1993 album was 2001’s “Fantasies & Delusions: Music for Solo Piano,” an all-instrumental collection. It was not a commercial success, but that didn’t matter to Joel. Classical music is his true love, his first love — his father would play Beethoven and Chopin on the family’s upright piano when he was growing up — and maybe now his best love.

“For me, nowadays, there is already an inherent lyric in the music on its own. I only listen to classical music. I don’t even listen to pop on the radio,” he told The Union-Tribune. “I find myself listening to [classical] music and decoding what the composer was saying. I do that with Beethoven a lot. And, I suppose, I do it with my own music. I tend to write in sonata form.”

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Despite the fact that Joel says he isn’t writing new pop music, he’s (thankfully) still willing to perform it. And his fans are still willing to come see him perform it. Few artists have come close to the success he is having now in New York, filling Madison Square Garden’s 20,000 seats each month, a gig that is said to snag him a cool $2 million a show.

“I never wanted to be an oldies act, but I suppose I am,” he said. “I never wanted to be a nostalgia act, but I suppose I am.”

He has sold close to 150 million albums worldwide, won six Grammy Awards, and was given a Kennedy Center Honor in 2013. He earned $31.7 million in 2015, according to Billboard, a figure topped last year only by Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney and the Rolling Stones. And he did it by performing only 30 concerts — the 12 monthly New York shows plus 18 in other cities.

“It’s not that I’m not into being creative anymore — I just don’t feel compelled to write songs,” Joel said. “Did I grow up? Am I out of that [pop-rock] genre now? It almost became boring to me. I wanted a different challenge, and [classical] instrumental music does that for me. But I don’t feel compelled to record that.”

Why not?

“I don’t know,” he said, adding, “I don’t need the world to hear it.”

As for his legacy and how he wants to be remembered musically, he told The Union-Tribune he hopes his music lives on long after he does. “I don’t know why, because I’m not going to be around to appreciate how much I’m appreciated. As I get older, I wrestle with these questions more and more. Part of it is: ‘Why should I care? I won’t be here.’ On the other hand, there’s the ego — you want to be known for having done something. But these are all philosophical questions. And I’m not a philosopher.”

He shouldn’t worry. We’ll always love him just the way he is.

I said I love you and that’s forever
And this I promise from my heart
I couldn’t love you any better
I love you just the way you are