Liberty DeVitto first appeared as Billy Joel [ tickets ]'s drummer on the 1975 album "Turnstiles." The mammoth Columbia releases that followed--"The Stranger," "52nd Street," "Glass Houses," "Songs in the Attic," "The Nylon Curtain," "An Innocent Man," "The Bridge" and "Storm Front"--all feature Long Island native DeVitto.

As a child, DeVitto watched Ringo Starr drum with the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. "Ringo was the man," he exclaims. "I went to take lessons in the beginning, and everything would be jazz. And I'd say, 'Well, I want to learn how to play like Ringo.' And the guy would say, 'Well, why do you want to play like Ringo? He stinks!' And I'd say, 'I saw these girls screaming for him, and nobody's beating down your door.'"

Now countless awards and appearances later, DeVitto finds himself again sharing the stage with not only Joel but another ivory legend, Elton John, on the Face to Face tour. DeVitto spoke with liveDaily correspondent Don Zulaica from his home in Orlando, Fla.

LiveDaily: So you're taking a break from the tour. When does it start again?

DeVitto: We start again April 9th in Denver, and we'll go for another five weeks. They've been pacing it five weeks at a time, five weeks on, five off. That's what Billy meant when he said--well, everybody said, "Oh, I thought he was going to retire." He meant he would stop doing 18-month tours. He never said he'd stop playing.

How did this tour with Elton John come about?

Our lighting designer, Steve Cohen--who has been with Billy as long as I have, like 27 years--also worked for Elton a couple of times. When people were talking about steep ticket prices, you know, getting bang for your buck, Steve said he'd talk to Elton about a tour. Two piano men together, it'd just be a string of hits.

What has this been like for you as a drummer, playing alongside [John's drummer] Nigel Olsson?

The funny thing is, way back when I got the phone call for the Billy audition, I asked, "What is Billy into?" They said, "Go buy [John's] 'Captain Fantastic.'" So I learned all of Nigel's licks. ... You know, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," where he rides that cymbal for the longest time--on [Joel's songs] "Honesty," "Leningrad," I do the same thing in there.

How did you start working with Billy?

The funny thing is, now when Billy introduces me, he says that I'm the oldest member in the band, I've been there the longest. He says, "He's even been there before I was there."

I had a band called Topper. It was me, Doug Stegmeyer, Russell Javors and Howie Emerson. Now Doug, in the meantime, while living in L.A., had gotten the bass gig with Billy. "Streetlife Serenade" had just come out [1972], so Doug did that tour. All this time, Billy's talking about moving back to New York and starting a new band. Doug is telling him, "I know the drummer you have to have." So they come back to New York, I do the audition and get the gig.

The three of us go into the studio to do "Turnstiles," and as we need more things like guitar players, we get Howie and Russell to come in. So, it's actually the Topper band, plus Richie Canata on sax and Billy. So when Billy says I've been there longer than he has, he's right.

He joined your band.

Yeah. [laughs] I had a great band, we just needed a singer that wrote great songs and played great piano.

How do you feel about his solo/orchestral aspirations? Have you heard anything, and if so what's it like? Will you be involved?

I heard a whole CD of it. [sighs] I just don't get it. [laughs] You know, our sound has always been him being the classical guy that comes up with these melodies, and me being the street guy that brings it to the common denominator, down to the people. But it's funny, because some of it I hear and think, "Man, that would have made a really good pop song!"

On your down time, do you gig with anyone else?

Yeah, I just released an album with the Fun(k) Club called "A Taste of Money." It's an instrumental band, a rhythm section with two horns. Funky, jazzy, kind of hard to pigeonhole. Charlie DeChant, who plays with Hall & Oates, is on saxophone. Bunch of local guys from here who play with different people. We actually do an instrumental that Billy wrote in '76 but never released, called "Handball." I put the CD out and sell it on my website.

What's your opinion about Internet distribution in general, and Napster?

I can see why Lars [Ulrich of Metallica] is so pissed at Napster. That's a lot of people downloading their stuff. But my kid went on there and downloaded some things, and two songs from The Fun(k) Club came up--which is good for us. Because we're just selling it through the website, and if somebody saw it and played it and liked it, that's another fan we have. So for the independent artists, I guess it's good. But for the big guys, it's not that good.

But the Internet has opened up a whole new world, and it's great for independent record companies and people who want to put something out. It lets you hear a lot of stuff that you normally wouldn't hear because the big labels run everything. If they don't want you to hear something, you're not going to hear it. You only hear what they want you to hear, which sucks.

The obvious question: you've got the rest of the tour with Billy and Elton to do, but what's after that? Is Billy's deal open-ended?

It's definitely open-ended. Billy just brought property and he's building a house, so hopefully he'll spend a lot of money. Basically, at this point, that's what tours are based on--cash flow. "Let's go on tour!" [laughs] You know, he's got no record to promote or anything like that.

Elton's having a gas with Billy. Where we couldn't sell out in certain markets, Elton carries us. And where Elton couldn't sell out, we carry him. So it's great, we're lovin' it.