BILLY JOEL had to rethink his views on things that go bump in the night after confronting a ghost in his former East Hampton, New York home.

The rocker was not a believer in the supernatural until the apparition of a woman appeared before him one night as he was getting ready for bed.

He tells Details magazine, "It was an old house that had been renovated, and I was going to bed one night, and I walked into my bedroom and I saw what looked like a woman brushing her hair in front of a mirror.

"She was very old-fashioned-looking; it looked like a 19th century woman in a dressing gown. It was quite realistic. It was quite three-dimensional. I wasn't dreaming. I saw this.

"It lasted for about a minute, and I said, 'OK, I'm one of those people...' I realised I don't know everything."