Big Shot Earns Another Brick For Vets

Billy Joel Band guitarist Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot earn another brick with a Nov. 16 concert to benefit the veterans service group General Needs. Photo illustration/The Paramount

There’s a tradition at The Paramount: every headliner who performs there is presented on show night with a brick. The brick is custom engraved with the name of the act, and the date they played the venue.

An odd tradition, perhaps. It’s a play on the Pink Floyd lyrics from The Wall. Every performance is “…another brick in the wall.”

Mike DelGuidice has so many bricks he paved a walkway in the garden of his Long Island home with them.

“And I still have more,” DelGuidice said in a telephone interview from his Florida home this week. “Every so often they ship a box of them to me.”

Big Shot’s DelGuidice earns his bricks through a residency at The Paramount that’s not unlike the one his boss has at Madison Square Garden. Nearly every month, Big Shot sells out The Paramount, or comes close to it playing the music of Billy Joel.

Billy Joel tribute band leader Mike DelGuidice’s act is so good, the “Piano Man” actually hired him to play in his band.

Billy Joel is, of course, the boss. DelGuidice has been lead guitarist for the Billy Joel Band since 2016, around the time of Billy’s epic concert at the Huntington venue. In fact, that concert was DelGuidice’s debut performance with the band.

He’d had great success leading Big Shot, which is universally considered the premier Billy Joel tribute band anywhere. Legend has it that Joel heard DelGuidice performing and was so blown away he hired him on the spot.

“I had been rehearsing with the band but the Paramount show was the first time I played with them publicly,” DelGuidice said. “Talk about grinning from ear to ear. I made so many mistakes, I kept hoping the rest of the band was covering for me, or that maybe my guitar wasn’t plugged in.”

Blame it on nerves, because DelGuidice probably knows the music as well as Billy. And he’s had plenty of time since then to perfect it as he plays his uniquely dual roles as Billy Joel band member, and the Piano Man himself when he’s touring with Big Shot.

So how does playing to 20,000-plus at the Garden compare to playing the Paramount?

“Both fulfill me in different ways,” DelGuidice said. “The Garden is the Garden. There’s no comparison. But when I’m with Billy, it’s very clear I’m a supporting act. The whole band is there to support him,” he said. “With Big Shot, the responsibility is all on me. It’s not just playing and singing, it’s talking to the audience between songs, communicating with the rest of the band. It’s non-stop.”

DelGuidice has a soft spot for The Paramount. It is, after all, his home court.

“We’ve had a great run They’re like family,” he said.

He has a soft spot for veterans, as well. Another tradition came together when DelGuidice, TD Bank and The Paramount teamed up to raise funds for Long Island veterans. For the third year in a row Big Shot’s November show at The Paramount will be a tribute to veterans, and a fundraiser for General Needs, a locally based non-profit that helps homeless Long Island veterans by providing basic necessities such as new clothing, shoes and socks, toiletries, and household goods.

“It’s always a great night. When we do ‘Goodnight Saigon’ we bring them all up on stage. They have a great time,” DelGuidice said, adding that Lonnie Sherman and the folks at General Needs are “amazing people. They’re doing things on a daily basis, taking care of homeless veterans. The amount of caring and passion is incredible.”

Ticket buyers for the Nov. 16 show have an option to purchase a $10, $20 or $50 upgrade; the entirety of the donation will go straight to General Needs.

Tickets are $20-$50-plus at Paramountny.com.

By Peter Sloggatt
psloggatt@longislandergroup.com