A Brooklyn man who claims to have attended 24,000 concerts says his long fascination with live music has left him with boxes of memorabilia and a lifetime of memories over the decades. 

Every corner of "Concert Joe's" Bay Ridge apartment looks like it could belong to a music venue, with bracelets, ticket stubs, t-shirts, posters, strobe lights and disco balls filling the space.

"Recorded is good, but not as good as live"

Joe, the retired telephone repairman who got the nickname from friends, says he has spent more than half a century chasing live performances.

"I never listen to any recorded music ... because I see live music almost every night for 54 years. My ears are ringing the next day, you know, what do I need a music system for?" he told CBS News New York's Hannah Kliger.

He compares the experience to food. 

"It's the difference between fresh food and frozen food ... Recorded is good, but not as good as live. Frozen food is good, but not as good as fresh," he said.

Joe keeps boxes of ticket stubs and decades-old calendars to track what he says amounts to nearly 24,000 full concerts in 50 years.

"That's full shows, opening acts not included. If I counted opening acts and band performance, it'd be over 30,000," he said.

His most prolific year was 1992, when he claims to have seen more than 1,000 shows, including 99 in a single month.

"I've taken three loans to buy tickets"

Joe recalls his early concerts that inspired a lifetime of attendance.

"My first one that I actually bought tickets for was The Birds at Carnegie Hall in 1971," he said.

Over the years, he has built a circle of music-loving friends. George Kaye, one of his longtime buddies, says he's approaching his 10,000th show.

"There was maybe a 30-year span ... that I saw between 200 and 250 concerts a year," Kaye says,

Others in his circle share similar experiences. 

"After the 100th Grateful Dead show, I stopped counting, and that was in 1990," Greenpoint resident Scott Daragh said.

"I did from 1986 to 2016, 100 concerts plus a year," said Will Denson, Jr., of Long Beach, known for his energetic dancing at shows.

Joe admits his passion hasn't come cheap. 

"I've taken three loans to buy tickets," he said, estimating he's spent more than half a million dollars over his lifetime on his obsession. 

At 71, Joe shows no signs of slowing down. This summer alone, he says he's strung together more than 50 nights of live music in a row.

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