Fans of Billy Joel looking for updates on his health may have been surprised to find out from Google that he had died on Thursday.

The Piano Man, 77, announced last week that he had undergone brain surgery following his 2025 diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus, commonly referred to as water on the brain.

At that time, he confirmed he was “still here” and concentrating on his recovery, which has kept him off stage for all but one brief appearance since starting treatment.

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It’s understandable that fans might want to know about any updates. However, if they searched for Joel on Thursday, they might have seen an information box in the search results stating his death date.

Upon discovering this development, his publicist, Claire Mercuri, quickly released a statement: “Billy’s not dead. I was just emailing with him.”

The news of the error also reached Google, which issued its own statement: “This is no longer appearing and was not a manual change by Google. When people vandalize public info sources, this can affect the information that appears in Search.”

How is Billy Joel Managing His Brain Disorder?

Joel explained that doctors recommended surgery “because of my job, which is playing rock and roll music very loud; it was giving me something like a concussion every time I did a show.”

He added: “It was causing damage to my brain nerves and I could be losing more brain cells the more I played and the more shows I did. And I realized that means I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I gotta improve.”

“They don’t want me to stress too much. So, I’m doing physical therapy. I’m doing whatever it is they tell me to do because I don’t want to lose it.”

“I know people have heard, ‘Oh, he’s got a brain disorder.’ And I’m okay. I just want people to know, don’t worry about me. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. I’m still here.”