Watch this US music star flip a piano on stage in the USSR

Russia Feed recently reported about the western bands that rocked the USSR. But it wasn’t only hard rock and screaming vocals that delighted Russian music audiences long before the age of Youtube and easy travel.

READ MORE: 6 bands that ROCKED the Soviet Union

Billy Joel, the piano man himself came to Moscow and Leningrad in 1987, playing night after night to sold out crowds.

During one infamous performance in Moscow, Joel flipped his piano on stage before smashing a microphone stand.

Why did he do this?

Apparently his film crew that was brought over from the US, kept shining spotlights on the audience in order to get ‘crowd shots’. Joel noticed that the audience didn’t take kindly to this and repeatedly shouted ‘stop lighting the audience’ prior to knocking over his instrument.

Many falsely reported that it was Soviet security guards who were lighting the audience. This simply isn’t true. As Joel said at the time, his own film crew were the targets of his stage rage.

Now watch as Billy Joel goes from piano man to piano smashing man. Only in Russia!

This clip, by contrast shows the same section of another evening’s performance after his crew stopped lighting the audience….much more calm…sort of.