Billy Joel Calls Taylor Swift Her ‘Generation’s Beatles’

He didn’t start the fire, huh?

Billy Joel is stoking the flames between two zealous fan bases with his recent remark that Taylor Swift has filled the blank space left by the Beatles.

The “Piano Man” crooner called Swift “a very talented girl” in an interview with USA Today published Wednesday.

“She’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs, and she’s huge,” Joel said of Swift. “You have to give her high marks. She knows music and she knows how to write. She’s like that generation’s Beatles.”

Joel also had high praise for Adele while talking to USA Today and said she is “a phenomenal singer, kind of a [Barbra] Streisand throwback.”

But equating one singer’s set of pipes to another’s isn’t quite as bold as comparing two musical acts that seem stylistically across the universe from one another.

So, of course, some Beatles fans had trouble, trouble, trouble (sorry), accepting Joel’s comparison on Twitter. But many Swifties seemed to feel vindicated.

For what it’s worth, Paul McCartney, an actual Beatle, recently drew a parallel between the Beatles and legendary grunge band Nirvana.

And if you also don’t agree with that comparison either, we don’t know what to tell you. Nevermind then, all apologies.