“We Didn’t Start the Fire” was written by Billy Joel and covered 40 years of wars, cultural milestones, political upheaval and celebrities.
Following Brigitte Bardot’s death, only three people of the 59 mentioned in Joel’s song are still alive. BB’s passing also marks the end of an era, and not just about classic films. The French actress’s death also narrows an unexpectedly exclusive pop culture group, as the true people mentioned in Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
Brigitte Bardot’s Son Takes On Animal Foundation Over $76 Million Estate https://t.co/Z64udNMIsR via @theinquisitr
— Anne Sewell (@anners2008) December 31, 2025
Bardot died at the age of 91 on Sunday, December 28, which was announced by Agence France-Presse in a statement from the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.
“The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” the statement read.
Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire #80s pic.twitter.com/M1oDHTZgfP
— Ladytron Fan Account (@Lady_FanAccount) December 26, 2025
Billy Joel released the song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in 1989, and according to a chart posted on Reddit’s r/dataisbeautiful subreddit, only three of the 59 people named in the lyrics are still alive.
“Line starts when someone is born. Ends when they die. And a dot for when they did the thing they were mentioned for in the song,” the songwriter explained.
The three remaining people that the song references are musicians Chubby Checker and Bob Dylan, along with Bernhard Goetz, who faced criminal possession of a weapon and murder after he shot four black teenagers in a New York City subway station in 1984. Of course, Brigitte Bardot was mentioned due to her acting career and animal foundation.
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” was released at the height of Billy Joel’s career, while the lyrics start in 1949, the year the singer and songwriter was born. It then follows four decades of war, cultural milestones, political upheaval, and several celebrity names.
In 1989, Joel spoke with Larry Katz of Northeastern University, explaining that he wrote the song while getting close to 40, while describing the lyrics as “the history teacher in me coming out.”
“When I was a kid, we didn’t have a television, so I read a lot. I became a history nut. I wanted to be a history teacher. I always wanted to know what happened to get us to where we are,” Joel said, adding:
Well, I was talking with this guy in his 20s, and he was going on about how tough it is to grow up today with AIDS and crack and the homeless. I said, ‘Yeah, I know how you feel. I felt that way growing up.’ “And he took exception to that. He said, ‘C’mon, nothing happened in the ’50s and early ’60s.’ And the history teacher in me went, ‘Whoa, didn’t you ever hear of the Korean War, the Suez Canal, the Hungarian freedom fighters?’
Joel added that he started writing down each name and event he could remember from his first 40 years, saying, “It started looking like a rap song, so I just kept going.”
Here’s hoping that the remaining three people from the song are still around for a while.
