eagles tour

He's sold some 80 million records in the United States, which makes him the sixth best-selling artist in the country, right behind the Eagles and a notch above Pink Floyd.
That won't stop him from hearing the question: ''What have you done for us lately?''
The 58-year-old legend certainly hasn't been writing new pop songs. After dominating the airwaves in the '70s, '80s and early '90s with smash upon smash, Joel has been decidedly quiet in recent years. He hasn't released a new pop album since 1993's ''River of Dreams,'' a disc that hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and has instead focused on composing instrumental works.
He has remained active on the road, having toured for the better part of a decade on a co-bill with fellow piano man Elton John. In 2006, he finally ventured out on his first solo tour of the United States in years. That outing proved so popular he's staging a second trek.
Recently, Joel took the time to discuss the new tour and other subjects during a phone interview.

You've been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. Which one means the most to you?
Probably the songwriter. I'm from Long Island, so that was a lay-down. The Rock and Roll Hall of Advertisement Fame?
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The Eagles, ranked No. 5 in the nation by ESPN.com, used an imposing inside game to win two tournament games. With a starting front court averaging 6-9 and four reserves ranging in height from 6-7 to 7-0, Montverde routed Cardinal Gibbons 73-49.

Winter Park, without a single player taller than 6-6, got two tournament victories from a perimeter-oriented game, crushing host Mount Dora 67-30 in Saturday night's feature game.

Kyle McClanahan scored the first seven points of the game and wound up with 20 points in 16 minutes as the Wildcats substituted liberally after jumping to a 24-8 first-quarter lead. Austin Rivers added 12 points as nine of the 10 Winter Park players scored. All 10 got into the game in the first half.

Anthony Harley led Mount Dora (0-2) with nine points.

The Wildcats (2-0) are seeking their third straight trip to the Class 6A State Tournament and showed they have the potential for getting there.

"We have a very young team and we make mistakes," said Winter Park Coach David Bailey. "We have some guys with very high basketball IQs and we learn from our mistakes. Our kids play hard and we put a lot of emphasis on rebounding to overcome our lack of size."

Montverde (2-0) wore down Cardinal Gibbons (2-1) with size, athleticism and depth. Ten players scored for the Eagles. Marcus Capers led the way with 16 points. Dashan Harris and Femi Akinpetide each had 14.

Josh Nirenberg had 14 and Caleb Stokes added 13 for the Chiefs.

The only other team in the 12-team tournament to win two games was Eustis. Eustis defeated Union County 59-40.

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You know, rock 'n' roll - that's what I do. But songwriting is the hardest part of the job, so that's probably the one I appreciate the most.

After touring with Elton John for so many years, why did you finally decide to mount your own solo trek?
We were touring with Elton for about 10 years. . . . I got to do his songs, he got to do my songs, we got do our songs together, he got to play with my band, I got to play with his band - there were whole different combinations of things. But after 10 years, we were pretty much doing a stock greatest-hits show.
Elton was the opening act on the tour, he went on first. So, we'd be sitting backstage and Elton would be playing hit after hit after hit. We'd be sitting there saying, ''Oh, my God, we have to follow this?'' Well, if you try to go up there and do album tracks or obscurities, the crowd is going to go to the bathroom. So, we were doing greatest hits for 10 years, and that got a little old.

What can fans expect from these set lists?
You have to have a balance. The majority of the audience is there to hear the songs that it's familiar with, which are the hits. But . . . if that's all we played, then we'd get bored. . . . So, when it was time to consider going on our own, we thought, ''Well, this is a good opportunity for us to dig back into the archives and do album tracks and songs we like to do - songs that weren't hits.''
* BILLY JOEL performs Thursday at 8 p.m. at the EnergySolutions Arena, 301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $25 (upper bowl seating only) at 801-325-SEAT, all Ticketmaster outlets