Joel's daughter followsfootsteps, SCHOOL'S OUT FOR EVER

Joel's daughter followsfootsteps
StarPhoenix - Saskatoon,Saskatchewan,Canada
TORONTO (CP) -- Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of piano man Billy Joel, says it took a bit of convincing to get her pop idol dad and supermodel mom Christie Brinkley ...

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR EVER
Vogue.com - UK
ALEXA RAY JOEL, daughter of Billy Joel and supermodel Christie Brinkley, admits it took some work to convince her parents to let her leave university and ...

 ALEXA RAY JOEL, daughter of Billy Joel and supermodel Christie Brinkley, admits it took some work to convince her parents to let her leave university and follow a career in music. "It wasn't hard for me because I just felt it," the 20-year-old singer told the Canadian Press. "I knew that I needed to do it or I would not be very happy. It was just a matter of convincing my parents who, of course, were very disappointed at first but now they couldn't be more proud." Currently on a Hard Rock Café tour, Alexa, whose middle name is an homage to the legendary Ray Charles and who has been singing since she was one, is attempting to make her name as a performer before going ahead debut album. "I think it surprised them," she said, of the moment she told her parents she was leaving New York University. "They did not think I was going to pursue this whole thing so quickly and with such vigour and it's gone so well that they don't even mention school to me anymore, which is funny." Anyway she is following their footsteps by not completing her studies. "He didn't even graduate high school," she said of her father. "And my mom didn't graduate college and I always throw that back at them too. I'm always like, 'You can't say anything!'" Joel's father, however, who has been awarded multiple honourary degrees throughout his career, is not going to be a regular sighting at his daughter's shows. "If he came to all the shows, it would immediately direct all the attention onto him," said Joel. "He's been to a couple - you know, he's kind of snuck in and kept a low profile - and he's going to come to a few more later on." (May 24 2006, AM)