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Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Billy Joel tried to kill himself twice before realizing he could channel his sadness into music
Previously untold details of Billy Joel's life are revealed in the two-part documentary "Billy Joel: And So It Goes," which premiered last week and hits HBO in July. (Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press) Billy Joel's life is awash in revelations these days — some bad, some worse. Last month, the "Only the Good Die Young" singer-songwriter canceled all his upcoming concerts, revealing he was struggling with a brain disorder that causes a potentially reversible kind of dementia. Then last week, he divulged that he attempted suicide twice in his 20s after falling in love with his bandmate's wife and causing the downfall of the band itself. Advertisement Read more: Billy Joel cancels all of his upcoming shows after revealing brain disorder diagnosis "I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,' Joel says (via People) in the first half of the two-part documentary "Billy Joel: And So It Goes," which premiered last Wednesday and hits HBO Max in July. 'I was just in love with a woman and I got punched in the nose, which I deserved." Joel said both he and his friend and Attila bandmate, Jon Small, were upset by what happened while Joel was living with Small and Small's then-wife, Elizabeth Weber. So upset that Attila — a Led Zeppelin-inspired metal band, according to the New York Times — broke up and Joel started boozing, which sent him into a tailspin. 'I had no place to live," Joel says in the documentary. "I was sleeping in laundromats, and I was depressed, I think to the point of almost being psychotic. So I figured, 'That's it. I don't want to live anymore.'" Advertisement He tried twice to end his life in the early 1970s, according to the documentary. First, he took the entire lot of sleeping pills that his sister, then a medical assistant, had given him to help him sleep. That put him in the hospital. Read more: Christie Brinkley details turbulent marriage with Billy Joel: 'I hesitated to put that scene in the book' "He was in a coma for days and days and days," Judy Molinari says in the program. She thought she had killed her brother. Joel says in the doc that he woke up in the hospital still suicidal, hoping to do it "right" the next time. His sister said he wound up drinking "lemon Pledge" furniture polish. That time, an unlikely person took him to the hospital: Small, his then-estranged best friend. Advertisement "Eventually," Small says in the documentary, "I forgave him." As for those impulses to harm himself, they wound up paying off for Joel after he checked out of a facility he had checked himself into after the second suicide attempt. Read more: 'We apologize': CBS vows to air Billy Joel milestone concert again after ending is cut off "I got out of the observation ward and I thought to myself, you can utilize all those emotions to channel that stuff into music." Joel reconnected with Weber about a year after that, wrote about her in the 1973 song "Piano Man," and married her from then until 1982. Marriages to Christie Brinkley, Katie Lee and current wife Alexis Roderick would follow. Advertisement The first part of the documentary covers Joel's childhood and runs through his 1982 motorcycle accident, according to the New York Times. He doesn't meet his "Uptown Girl," Brinkley, until Part 2. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Billy Joel tried to kill himself twice before realizing he could channel his sadness into music
Billy Joel's life is awash in revelations these days — some bad, some worse. Last month, the 'Only the Good Die Young' singer-songwriter canceled all his upcoming concerts, revealing he was struggling with a brain disorder that causes a potentially reversible kind of dementia. Then last week, he divulged that he attempted suicide twice in his 20s after falling in love with his bandmate's wife and causing the downfall of the band itself. 'I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,' Joel says (via People) in the first half of the two-part documentary 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes,' which premiered last Wednesday and hits HBO Max in July. 'I was just in love with a woman and I got punched in the nose, which I deserved.' Joel said both he and his friend and Attila bandmate, Jon Small, were upset by what happened while Joel was living with Small and Small's then-wife, Elizabeth Weber. So upset that Attila — a Led Zeppelin-inspired metal band, according to the New York Times — broke up and Joel started boozing, which sent him into a tailspin. 'I had no place to live,' Joel says in the documentary. 'I was sleeping in laundromats, and I was depressed, I think to the point of almost being psychotic. So I figured, 'That's it. I don't want to live anymore.'' He tried twice to end his life in the early 1970s, according to the documentary. First, he took the entire lot of sleeping pills that his sister, then a medical assistant, had given him to help him sleep. That put him in the hospital. 'He was in a coma for days and days and days,' Judy Molinari says in the program. She thought she had killed her brother. Joel says in the doc that he woke up in the hospital still suicidal, hoping to do it 'right' the next time. His sister said he wound up drinking 'lemon Pledge' furniture polish. That time, an unlikely person took him to the hospital: Small, his then-estranged best friend. 'Eventually,' Small says in the documentary, 'I forgave him.' As for those impulses to harm himself, they wound up paying off for Joel after he checked out of a facility he had checked himself into after the second suicide attempt. 'I got out of the observation ward and I thought to myself, you can utilize all those emotions to channel that stuff into music.' Joel reconnected with Weber about a year after that, wrote about her in the 1973 song 'Piano Man,' and married her from then until 1982. Marriages to Christie Brinkley, Katie Lee and current wife Alexis Roderick would follow. The first part of the documentary covers Joel's childhood and runs through his 1982 motorcycle accident, according to the New York Times. He doesn't meet his 'Uptown Girl,' Brinkley, until Part 2.
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘And So It Goes' Traces Billy Joel's Dramatic Early Days: 5 Takeaways
The Tribeca Festival's opening-night premiere of the upcoming HBO documentary 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes' was marked, in part, by the absence of Billy Joel himself. Late last month, the musician announced that he was canceling all of his upcoming concerts because of a brain disorder called normal pressure hydrocephalus, which has led to problems with his hearing, vision and balance. After Robert De Niro called Joel 'the poet laureate of New York' and helped introduce the film with a dramatic reading of some of his lyrics ('He works at Mr. Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street,' he intoned), one of the film's co-directors, Susan Lacy, told the Beacon Theater audience that Joel sent his greetings — with typical wry humor: 'In fact, he said, 'Getting old sucks, but it's still preferable to getting cremated.'' The audience roared with laughter. On a note of encouragement, Lacy said Joel 'will be back.' The crowd broke out into applause throughout the screening, which included just the first part of the two-part film. It still ran nearly two and a half hours as it covered Joel's childhood and rise to fame through his infamous 1982 motorcycle accident. (To put that in perspective: It doesn't get to the writing of 'Uptown Girl.' No Christie Brinkley yet.) There are pictures and footage of early Joel performances and stories about the surprisingly robust Long Island rock scene of the 1960s. But 'Part One' is largely an intimate portrait of Joel's relationship with his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, who would eventually become his manager, and it elevates her to a starring role in his life. It also features a host of stories about the making of some of his best-known songs, and tidbits about his Long Island obstinance. Here's some of what we learned. As Joel's relationship with Weber first foundered, he attempted suicide twice. Joel and Weber's relationship began in dramatic fashion: She was married to Jon Small, Joel's early bandmate, and had a son with him. Joel and Small first played together in a group named the Hassles, then broke off to start a Led Zeppelin-inspired metal outfit called Attila. (An album cover shoot featuring a longhaired Joel standing amid sides of raw beef, wearing fur, is something to behold.) Eventually, Joel fell in love with Weber, but when a guilt-ridden Joel shared his feelings with Small, he got punched in the nose and Weber left. Despondent, Joel overdosed on pills and was in a coma for days. His sister, Judy Molinari, who had provided the pills to help him sleep, recounts her guilt onscreen. 'I felt that I killed him,' she says. Joel drank a bottle of furniture polish in another attempt on his life. After moving back into his mother's house, he checked into an observation ward where his own struggles were put into perspective. From there he started to channel his feelings into music, and the songs that he wrote as a result of the experience would become his first solo album, 'Cold Spring Harbor.' After about a year, Weber re-entered his life. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
