Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Billy Joel performed “Turn the Lights Back On” live at Sunday’s Grammy Awards. You can watch the performance here.

In a recent interview, the singer opened up about why it took him nearly two decades to release his new single. He said that he had fallen out of love with writing new music, adding that he did not find it “fun” for the better part of two decades. Joel went on to explain that when he heard some new music that co-writer Freddy Wexler was working on, it resonated with him. He explained, “The melody, the chords, the chord progression, even the time signature was something that struck me immediately, and that’s how I relate to music. This particular lyric in this song, I’ve had these thoughts, I could have written these lyrics verbatim. I’ve chewed on these words and I’ve thought of these words, and I’ve said these words before. It was all kind of falling into place and who am I to fight that?”

Listen to the full song here: