Billy Joel returns to NY hometown to speak at graduation

Billy Joel returns to NY hometown to speak at graduation. Gray Hall reports during Action News at 6 a.m. on June 25, 2017.

HICKSVILLE, N.Y. -- Fifty years after he finished short by one English class credit from graduating high school, Billy Joel returned to his Long Island hometown to speak at this weekend's commencement ceremony.

The 68-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was among the speakers at Saturday morning's graduation for Hicksville High School's Class of 2017.

The six-time Grammy Award winner didn't graduate with the class of 1967 because he had fallen shy by one English credit. But he returned for the 1992 graduation ceremony and received his diploma, telling the audience, "I can finally pull myself out of this dead-end job I have and start working on a career with a real future."

Musician Billy Joel speaks at the Hicksville High School 2017 graduation ceremony in the school's gymnasium, on Saturday, June 24, 2017, in Hicksville, New York.

Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP

Joel is in the midst of a tour.
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