The Arts Council: The Music of Billy Joel & Elton John, Starring Michael Cavanaugh

Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Thursday,

March 6, 2025.

Have your host, James J. Mailov here.

I am joined by Sally Kister from Save of the Arts

and the Arts Council.

Sally, good to see you.

Good to see you.

Thank you so much for joining us.

And thank you, Sally.

You brought a friend.

We have with us, Michael Kavanaugh.

Michael is going to be joining us here in town real soon

with the music of Billy Joel and Elton John.

That show is going to be coming up Thursday, March 20th,

over at the Performing Arts Center.

Michael, how are you?

I'm doing great.

Happy to be here.

Thanks a lot for the time, man.

I really appreciate it.

I can, Sally and I were joking in our pregame.

We cannot imagine how busy you are.

So just taking the time to talk to us in our audience,

we really appreciate.

Michael, we like to really get to know people around here.

So I always like to begin with an origin story.

Where are you from?

Where would tell us a little bit about your background?

I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.

And my parents bought a piano when I was seven years old.

I attacked it the first day we had it.

I didn't know what I was doing, but I was all over the thing.

And by the time I was in fifth grade, I played in my first

little band, I played in the school talent show

and the girl screamed.

And that made me stop and say, wait a second.

I think I'm on to something here.

Because I knew there was no other way I would ever make

a girl scream other than playing music.

So I was sick with it.

And yeah, so by the time when I was 12 years old,

I played in my first nightclub, which is crazy.

By the time I was 13, I was a regular.

I was playing three, four nights a week.

All throughout my teams, it was a pretty crazy time.

And luckily, I've never been the type of kid who got in trouble.

So I never got into all the craziness that I saw around me.

And it's been what I've done my whole life.

I got married and we moved to Florida.

I worked in a piano bar and then I moved to Las Vegas,

worked in another piano bar, a doing piano bar.

And to make a very long story short,

I got to know Billy Joel's manager and his name is Max

and Max decided to surprise me and bring Billy Joel

to hear me in the piano bar in Vegas,

which nearly gave me a heart attack, obviously.

It was crazy, right?

But it turned out great because that was the reason

I got to go to Broadway and star in Billy Joel's

big musical on Broadway called Moving Out.

Change my life.

Cannot wait to get more into that with you.

Before then, though, I do want to mention first,

one of the things that we love in these interviews

are getting to talk to artists like yourself, Michael,

is hearing about those early that first hit of applause

or that first scream or laugh or something they get.

I'm an actor and I've been acting since I was a kid.

But the first thing that I ever did like that was actually

a break dancing thing with a buddy of mine.

And there was like 20 people, but they clapped.

And I can hear it to this day.

I can still hear those claps.

I, it's, there's something about that.

And I think for other artists under like really hear that

and immediately like just nod their head.

Because it's not about the, oh, I love the attention.

So much is, oh, they liked it.

Oh, they liked what I did.

Do you think it's more of that than it is just some,

I'm sure for every artist it might be a little bit different,

but when it comes right down to a for a lot of us

that do this as a grind and everything,

it's really about, oh, they liked it.

Yes, I completely agree.

Because when I'm not on stage,

I basically blend into the wallpaper, you know?

It's, it's two different personas.

Like we, my wife don't have to go to church

and my wife knows everybody.

And I'm, I don't care and husband and it's great.

But then they see me on stage and like, what happened to you?

So like, what is going on?

And not that I'm, you know, not that I'm swinging

on a trap, he's or anything, but, but I do take on

a different persona and it is true.

I appreciate when, when, when they're hooting and hollering

over what I, over what we just did on stage.

That's a big deal to me.

And then when I, you know, after the show,

if I go to a restaurant somewhere,

I love to go somewhere where it's quiet and, you know,

that I go back to just being your everyday guy.

Michael, you mentioned playing piano at a young age.

Were there any other instruments who picked up along the way

or early on that helped you get better at the craft?

Yes, the first instrument I wanted to play was drums.

I still, I still think to this day

I was probably born to be a drummer.

Now the piano thing worked out very well.

But, but I was young.

I remember I was like five years old

and my parents bought me a snare drum

and I banged on that thing, nonstop.

And then one day it magically disappeared.

I still, I, I still'm not sure I'm buying the story.

My, my mom tells me about that.

But, so then they, they got the piano.

And I, and the thing that's great about a piano

when I tell a lot of young musicians this,

no matter what instrument you play,

it's great about a piano is you're looking at your hands,

you're really seeing what's going on.

You, you, you get a good picture of all the notes

you're playing in the scales and everything else.

We're on guitar because I've been playing guitar now

since I was, and I've been playing guitar for a very long time.

So I play, I play a bunch of instruments.

People ask me all the time, what instrument do you play

and I say, whatever takes to get the gig.

Yeah, no, piano is home, no for sure.

Guitar, the closed second.

But, you know, on guitar sometimes you,

you can think about shapes you're making

and you're not really thinking about the notes.

I know so many great players, guitar players, bass players.

And you ask them to play a certain note on the fretboard

and they fumble through it.

Like, whoa, whoa, where's the A, where's the C?

But when they get on stage

and it's funny because these same guys

can play a song they've never heard before.

It's just like their hands know where to go

but they don't really know what they're playing.

This is just a few of them that I know.

Whereas on the piano, you kind of have to know what you're playing

because you're looking right at it.

That's why I think it's such a good place to start.

I appreciate that.

One of the things we love to do with this interview,

Sally and I, and Eric, when he's here with us

is certainly promoting you, talking about,

say, for the arts, promoting the arts in our area

but also encouraging young artists

and giving them insight, giving them some tips

or anything they might need to get to the next level

and everything.

That's why we have so many of the,

you know, chances for these kids to meet artists

and things like that.

So really do appreciate that insight.

I was looking through your resume,

did my homework for this interview.

I have heard of you before and certainly listened to you

before and everything.

Michael, I've been a fan of yours for a while actually.

Oh, thank you.

But one of the things I got to be honest with you,

I had not come across before is the comment that was there

and something you mentioned earlier,

you being handpicked by Billy Joel

to start in a hip Broadway,

the hip Broadway move and out.

Michael, your resume is impressive.

I really feel like you could save some time.

All you need is that.

That's all you need on your resume, man.

You could just save some time, save some ink.

I was chosen by Billy Joel to play Billy Joel.

I don't know how anybody tops that.

What did that feel like, man?

Well, it was crazy because, you know, Billy was,

and is, you know, he's my musical hero.

He really is not.

I'm also hugely influenced by Elton John,

hugely by the Beatles.

But if I had to pick one, Billy Joel was,

when my dad played me Billy Joel the first time,

it was like, whoa, stop everything.

This is, what is going on here?

So, I mean, I used to camp out,

literally camp out in the snow to buy tickets to his shows.

And I remember being a teenager saying,

and I was probably just being a cocky teenager.

I would say I'm not only gonna meet Billy Joel,

but I'm gonna know him someday.

And I used to say that and people were like,

what are you talking about?

And I was just, I was a kid from Cleveland.

I didn't really know what I was talking about.

And then when it actually happened, it was crazy.

And when it was, you know, when he's in the piano bar

and he's watching me and I actually don't melt down,

that was a huge thing too.

Because sometimes that can make or break somebody,

how they can, you know, when that spot like it's turned on,

are you ready to go?

Because I felt like I was preparing

for that moment my whole life.

Unfortunately, I held it together

and it turned out to be a great thing.

And Billy became a friend.

I mean, it was unbelievable.

Yeah, I think you nailed the gig, man.

Yeah, he definitely did.

When it comes to doing this performance

that you're doing right now,

this amazing tour that you have going on,

that Polster ranked this show in the top 50 touring acts shows

over the last two years.

Understandable, especially with what you just explained to us

about choosing some Billy Joel.

What made you decide to add on Elton John

as if doing a whole Billy Joel show wouldn't be enough?

No, let's just go ahead and put on another legend

on there on Dwight Plate.

How did you come to that decision?

Certainly, those two touring together

certainly might have played a bit of an influence,

but for you to do that, that seems like to take on a lot.

Yeah, I mean, I will say when they two were together,

I remember the first time I saw that was,

I think it was in 1998.

It was, I was living in Florida at the time

and the Tampa stadium.

I was so blown away.

When I first heard they were going to tour together,

I couldn't believe it was even real.

Because Elton was, like I said, also very, very big in my house,

very, very big in my house.

So it started with, after moving out,

it started performing with a lot of symphony orchestras,

and I still do that to this day.

We started with our Music Ability Joel show,

and then they said, I started with the Indianapolis Symphony,

but I've been with way, well over 100 orchestras

all over the world from California to Malaysia,

all over the place.

And when it came time for our second show,

we thought, well, it's an obvious choice

to go with the Music of Elton John,

another piano player, they two were together,

another hero of mine, so we did that.

And when we decided to put together

our performing arts center shows that are,

which is what we're doing right now,

we decided, you know, let's cast a big net,

because usually people that are Billy fans

are also Elton John fans.

I mean, sometimes I will say that the challenging part

is these two legends have so many songs

that for me to play all their hits,

I think I'd be up there for eight hours.

But I will tell you, when you can hit the audience

between the eyes on every song, it's pretty cool.

Yeah.

When you're following teams from a time,

restaurant with Benny and the Jess,

and then you're doing New York State of Mine,

and then you're doing Rocket Man.

I mean, it's like you're hitting.

Oh, I can only imagine.

And Michael, you just set me up perfectly.

My list here, my very next question was,

how do you choose from this live, these two libraries?

Just choosing from one would feel like it was difficult,

let alone choosing from both.

You also answered, you're such a good guest.

You already answered two of my questions kind of already,

because I was curious if you did the scenes

from Italian restaurant, that's my favorite Billy Joel song.

Like top 10 favorite song of all time,

that I love that song.

So that's cool to hear you do that.

I love that song too.

Yeah, yeah, that one is, that one is,

you know, it's funny because it was never a radio hit.

The Billy Joel folds his own audience.

It's probably 15 years ago.

What songs do people want to hear most on the tour?

Number one was piano man.

Number two was Steve Swentine restaurant.

That song is just, it's like a masterpiece.

I mean, it really is.

I play that song so many times in my life,

and I still love it every time, I do.

It's like three songs in one.

There's like three different songs going on.

It's incredible work.

It really, I think one thing about Billy Joel,

it doesn't get enough credit, it's his song writing.

And his musical production and everything.

He's great voice, great piano player, obviously,

but that part doesn't get, you know,

and that's one thing I noticed listening to you.

I didn't expect this part, Michael.

Listening to you gave me even more appreciation

of these guys in many different ways.

And just, I felt like I could understand

their body of work a little bit differently

from a different perspective.

While you do an amazing job,

you do an amazing job with these songs.

One of the other things that I wanted to ask you about,

I'll get to in a moment,

but you're not an impersonator up there.

You're not up there in a, you know,

Billy Joel circa 1980.

You're not sitting up there,

one of Elton's crazy outfits or something like that.

So no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, yes, yeah, which is a little unfortunate

that I cast, but I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

You can rock it, I bet.

People have asked me, oh, they told me so.

People have said, where's the duck suit?

You know, well, there's a lot of guys out there

who do that.

There are guys, I mean, I live in Las Vegas now.

So I mean, there's a personators everywhere, right?

They put on the duck suit, they put on the Dodgers thing,

they do the whole thing, and that's fine.

I've never really saw myself as that kind of guy.

I don't try to impersonate Billy Joel

or Elton John or anyone else,

but there are times when people will say,

I close my eyes and you sound just like him, moments.

And it's probably because this music is in my blood

and maybe it comes out at times the way it went in,

but at the same time, I'm not trying to,

I'm not trying to copy them,

but I certainly don't want to,

I don't want to mess up a good thing.

I want to give the songs they do.

Have a Billy Joel fans shows up

and they want to hear me play Angry On Man

or see Switzerland Restaurant.

I'm going to smoke that thing the same way Billy does.

You know, I'm going to give it everything I have.

But I remember when Billy's daughter came to see moving out,

Alexa, I was so nervous.

I was just as nervous for her to watch me as her dad,

I think, because I just had these visions of her coming up

to me saying, who do you think you are?

Play like that, too.

Yeah, yeah.

And she was, she was amazing.

Like she came up, she gave it the biggest talk.

She said, you made it your own.

She said, I love it.

I love the way you play these songs.

And that was really an awesome moment, you know, that.

I want to come back to that.

It's another name.

If you like them, my room just started talking to me.

I had to watch.

That poor kid, I imagine it gets a little odd.

We're speaking with Michael.

We're speaking with Michael Kavanaugh right now.

And Michael, when it did come to choosing the songs,

how did that go?

How would that process work?

So are you talking about my show?

Yeah, for your show choosing the particular songs

you'd be playing from both of these gigantic libraries, yeah.

Well, I'll tell you what, it changes all the time.

I try to get a read.

Like, if obviously if I'm in anywhere in New York,

we're going to play New York State of mind.

If I'm in LA, we may, but we may not.

Like, I mean, they're so, like, I might think, OK, we're in LA.

Maybe I'm going to prioritize uptown girl over,

because there's a lot of young people at this show,

and they know uptown girl.

I mean, everybody knows uptown girl, right?

I know what you mean.

I think a lot about where I am.

I mean, there's certain songs that are always going to be there.

I mean, if I lead the stage of that playing,

the scale of man, they're probably not going to be too happy.

If I don't do, if I don't do Benny and the Jets,

they're going to have something to say about that.

But it is challenging.

I do write a different set list for every show I do.

So that's, so there's definitely some wiggle room.

And sometimes I'll have the audience vote sometimes.

Now, usually if we do that, I'm not going to,

because if I say, what would you rather

hear crocodile rock or I'm still standing?

Well, people are just going to be screaming all over the place.

Sure, sure.

So sometimes we'll do it through a text message.

And I'm not going to put those two songs up against each other,

because they're both two massive songs.

But if I take a song like, oh, I'll say,

Philadelphia, which I don't know if you know the song,

Philadelphia, one of my favorite Billie Joel songs.

Yeah, that's cool.

It's more of a more of an album cut, but the diaries love it.

If I put that up against honesty, honesty is probably going to win,

but you never know.

Yeah, there's so many songs that pick from such a fun way to do it.

And I got to say, I don't know how I look to Sally,

but my eyes are wide.

I'm so impressed by that, man, most people

that I talk to to do anything similar to what you're doing.

It's a set thing every night.

That's what it is, nothing against that.

Just that's what they do.

The fact that you and your band, your team,

you guys are able to do that.

That is so impressive to me.

I have no follow-up question, just that that's really great.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm kind of like Peyton Manning at the line.

I'm like, oh, my heart.

Yeah, exactly.

I do that all the time.

Before we let you go, I did want to note one thing.

In reading everything, one of the comments that I came across,

I thought was so key.

Kavanaugh is no impersonator, but the similarities

between their Billie Joel's and Kavanaugh's styles

are not to be missed.

I thought that really nailed what you do so well,

and so much of what we've been talking about here.

You are just nailing these songs and hitting them

and bringing us whether it's back to the first time

we heard them or for some, the first time

they're going to hear it of many, first time of many.

For you, what does it mean to be able to bring these songs out

there and do that, and sometimes even

to a whole new generation?

Well, I tell you, the whole new generation thing

really is amazing to me.

I perform for all different ages, you know?

And when a young person, whether they're a college kid

or a high school kid or a teenager, and sometimes,

they actually say, I'm a huge Billie Joel

or a huge Elton John fan, and I know all these songs,

or sometimes they say, I've never heard these songs before,

and I'm going right, I've already gone on Spotify,

and I've gotten all, I'm going to listen to this nonstop.

It's really important to me, because this music,

really shaped who I am as a musician, a performer,

and even a songwriter, like it's really,

it's shaped who I am with what I do with my career,

what I do every day, so it's very important to me.

It's great to hear, Michael, can I thank you enough

for the time, we're looking forward to welcoming you

to town, we're going to make sure you have a full crowd.

Again, thank you for the time.

If you do happen to talk to Mr. Joel,

please tell my mother, she loves him.

And sorry, I had to say, my Jewish mother

in the back of my head, I had to.

That's awesome.

Yeah, thank you, man, it was great to get to meet you

and talk to you, have a great, safe travels out there,

and we'll talk soon.

Awesome, guys, thanks so much.

Wonderful conversation with Mr. Michael Cavanaugh, great guy.

We're going to have in our podcast links

to Michael's website along with Saver the Arts

and some of the other chances.

If you want to get a little preview of Mr. Cavanaugh

and his great work, Sally, how did you come across him?

Actually, I saw a video of him,

and I had to see him,

and so I kept watching for where he was performing,

and he was at the Wasa Grant Theater.

So I went to see him.

First time I saw him, I absolutely loved him,

but I had to see him one more time,

because he's a little on the expensive side.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

You know, he's very talented.

So after I saw him the second time,

I approached our Wisconsin presenters network folks,

and we put a routing together

to make it more reasonably priced for him, for us,

for everybody.

So I think we had five or six in the state.

Wow.

For the routing.

Oh, that's so wonderful.

Yeah, and I thank you to everybody

that works so hard to make this happen

and get him here and him and his team,

because this is an incredible talent coming to town,

and it's five minutes away, Sally.

Like wherever you're listening to us,

it's pretty much five minutes away.

Sally, let's give people the details of the show.

You bet, Thursday, March 20th at 730

at the Performing Arts Center.

Tickets are 54 for adults and 10 for students.

You can get them at saverthearts.com, 24-7,

or give us a call, 715-424-2787,

or stop by NCS, 1048 Street, South, Suite 101,

and our office hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 to 230.

And keep on listening to our morning show.

Everybody, Sally gave us a pair of tickets to give away,

so we're going to be giving away a pair

on the morning show, be listening for that,

and get your tickets.

Don't wait.

If you win the tickets, then you just got two extras.

You can bring two more friends or something.

Get those tickets.

They're not going to stay there very long.

We don't get talents like this every day or out here.

So this is going to be pretty cool.

We cannot wait for it.

And I did a mean thing here, Sally.

I'm sorry, but I saved enough time to do this to you.

I don't need to put you on the spot, but I did mine earlier.

Scenes from a Italian restaurant.

Do you have a favorite Billy Joel song?

I can ask you a tough question, Sally.

It's a tough one, I know.

I'm still standing.

That's one of my favorites, yeah.

It's got to be right toward the top.

That's a good one.

Thank you, Sally, for not only everything

you and Saver the Arts do, or our community,

setting up this interview with Michael was not easy.

I appreciate you and Pam and everybody

working together on this one and set our produce

and our sound and everything.

Nice work.

Oh, thank you.

Remember, everybody, get those tickets at saverthearts.com,

saverthearts.com, be listening.

We'll be giving away a pair right here at WFHR,

locally grown radio.