Seeing her daughter Alexa Ray Joel perform gets Christie Brinkley choked up.
Alexa Ray, whose father is Billy Joel, kicked off a two-week run at the famed Café Carlyle on Tuesday night, and her proud mom beamed from the audience throughout the performance.
“I had a lump in my throat half the evening. I was fighting, like, ‘Don’t cry. You have too much makeup on,'” the stunning model, 61, told Page Six after the show.
Alexa Ray, who sang a mix of soulful original tunes and covers (none by her famous dad, though she did say on stage that he’s her favorite songwriter), last performed at Café Caryle in June, making her triumphant return after dramatically collapsing there in April.
One of Brinkley and Alexa Ray’s favorite songs from Tuesday’s set was “Verona,” a heartfelt tune about the daughter Alexa Ray hopes to have one day.
Wearing a curve-hugging lace gown, a furry shawl and sparkling jewelry, and with her long waves pulled back dramatically into a headband, 29-year-old Alexa Ray told Page Six after her gig, “I actually started writing [the song] before I had a boyfriend and I was single and I was getting that anxiety that I think a lot of girls in their 20s get … not that I want to be pregnant now, but I wanted to find my man and to have that future and have that little girl or child.”
Alexa Ray, who has been dating restaurateur Ryan Gleason since last year, continued, “I happened to have dreams every night of having this little girl and I really like the name Verona. I think it’s because I love Dad’s song ‘Vienna.’ … [Writing ‘Verona’] drummed up all these fantasies in my mind and all the imagery of this beautiful little girl.”
Gleason was also at Tuesday’s show, though he wasn’t present when Brinkley gushed to us, “Oh my gosh, yes,” when asked if she looks forward to having grandchildren someday.
