Billy Joel says aging musicians who keep making records past their prime 'dilute their legacy'

Billy Joel believes in leaving on a high note.

The five-time Grammy winner said he stopped writing music after his 1993 album "River of Dreams" because he felt like "I was done."

"I didn’t want to lock myself in a cave and devote myself like a monk to writing anymore. I had done it 12 times," he told music producer Rick Beato in an interview posted to YouTube on Monday.

The "Uptown Girl" singer added that he also had a wife, ex Christie Brinkley, and a young daughter — his oldest, Alexa — at the time. Joel and Brinkley divorced in 1994.

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He said he realized the Beatles made 12 albums and "that was just enough for me."

"And I decided I was not going to do it anymore because I’ve heard artists who keep putting out records and they really… they dilute their legacy," he added. "Maybe they’re not as good as they used to be, or they’re not as motivated as they were, but it ends up trailing off. I didn’t want to go like that."

The "Piano Man" singer didn’t name any of the aging artists he had in mind.

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He admitted that "it’s not easy to do" after Beato said he respected his decision to let his past music stand for itself.

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"Saying ‘no’ sometimes is really hard to do," he said, adding that, however, he did do an album of classical piano pieces afterward.

"That’s where I wanted to go. I was ready to do that," he said. "I didn’t want to just keep beating a dead horse and keep being played because I was Billy Joel. I wanted it to be good, and I recognized that I didn’t have the same motivation I used to have, so I said, ‘Stop. Don’t kill it.’"

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