Singer Billy Joel is pulling back the curtain on one of the most devastating periods of his life, revealing how a forbidden romance in his early 20s nearly destroyed everything he held dear.
In his new HBO documentary series, the 76-year-old music icon confronts the guilt and consequences of falling in love with his best friend’s wife, a decision that would shatter relationships, end his first band, and push him to the brink.
The music legend’s new two-part documentary, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” takes viewers back to the late 1960s when Joel was struggling to make it in the music industry as part of a heavy metal duo called Attila.
Living in an unconventional arrangement with his band mate Jon Small, Small’s wife Elizabeth Weber, and their young son, Joel found himself in an impossible situation that would change his life forever.
“I was just in love with a woman, and I got punched in the nose, which I deserved,” Joel admits in the documentary, reflecting on the moment he confessed his feelings to Small, as Fox News describes.
He added, “I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child, you know? I felt like a homewrecker.”
Weber wasn’t like other women in Joel’s circle at the time.
As he explained in Fred Schruers’ 2015 book, “Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography,” “She wasn’t like a lot of the other girls I knew at that time who had taken home ec and cooking classes. She was intelligent and not afraid to speak her mind, but could also be seductive.” Their connection developed gradually as they spent countless hours together, with Weber describing their romance as “a slow build.”
The Untold Story of Billy Joel’s First Wife | Elizabeth Weber Breaks Her… https://t.co/oTtFGj7Fu6 #BillyJoel #ElizabethWeber #MusicHistory #CelebrityMarriage #UntoldStories pic.twitter.com/l8Li5ldipV
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When Small began noticing changes in his friend’s behavior, Joel knew he couldn’t continue hiding his feelings.
The confession devastated Small, who revealed in the documentary: “I kept seeing that Billy was not the same guy. Something was the matter, and Billy one day came up to me, became a little honest and said to me, ‘I’m in love with your wife.’ So, it was a very devastating thing for me because these were basically my two best friends.”
Small described watching Joel break down during the confession: “He’s crying, and he’s telling me he feels so bad, and he didn’t know what to do about it. How does he break his best friend’s heart? But he said she was so powerful to him that it was worth it to him to lose our friendship for it.”
Still, there was not much shock about the aftermath of Joel’s life due to his actions, with many saying karma was at work.
“Yeah well, that’s what happens when you wreck a home,” one person commented on Yahoo’s site. Another wrote, “It takes two to tango. We are each responsible for our own actions. You can call Billy a homewrecker but that Lady who gave up the goods to her husband’s best friend was just as guilty, or more so.”
A third individual said, “Come on Billy … not just a homewrecker … but just a terrible human being. Hopefully karma got you back.”
The immediate aftermath was catastrophic for Joel. Attila disbanded, their friendship ended, and Joel found himself homeless and spiraling into severe depression.
“I had no place to live. I was sleeping in laundromats and I was depressed I think to the point of almost being psychotic,” he recalls in the documentary.
The pain became so unbearable that Joel attempted to harm himself twice.
“I was just in a lot of pain and it was sort of like why hang out, tomorrow is going to be just like today is and today sucks. So, I just thought I’d end it all,” he explains, according to the New York Post.
His first attempt involved overdosing on sleeping pills provided by his sister, leaving him in a coma for days.
Joel’s second attempt involved drinking furniture polish.
“The next time, he drank a bottle of lemon Pledge,” his sister Judy Molinari revealed in the documentary. Ironically, it was Small who saved Joel’s life by rushing him to the hospital, despite the betrayal that had destroyed their friendship.
The “Uptown Girl” singer recalls waking up in the hospital after his first attempt still wanting to try again, but “this time right.” However, his time in psychiatric observation became transformative, teaching him to “utilize all those emotions to channel that stuff into music.”
Small eventually found the strength to forgive his former friend, offering insight into Joel’s extreme reaction: “He never really said anything to me, the only practical answer I can give as to why Billy took it so hard was because he loved me that much and that it killed him to hurt me that much. Eventually, I forgave him.”
After a period of separation, Joel and Weber reconnected and married in 1973.
Weber became his business manager and inspired many of his biggest hits, including “Just the Way You Are.”
Billy Joel with ‘Just The Way You Are’ (1977). Joel rarely performed the song live after 1986 until the 2000s. Joel has publicly stated that he disliked playing the song live in the wake of his divorce from Elizabeth Weber. He also apparently didn’t like the song. pic.twitter.com/QwA90zqDG3
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Even Small could recognize Joel’s deep feelings through his music: “You could tell from the lyrics that he was really in love with Elizabeth.”
Their marriage lasted until 1982, ending not from infidelity but from Joel’s dangerous motorcycle obsession. Weber explained her decision to leave: “I would’ve stayed, I would’ve been able — like so many women before me — to make that accommodation for someone you love, but there was no way that I could stand by and watch him kill himself.”
Now facing health challenges with normal pressure hydrocephalus, Joel reflects on this turbulent period with the wisdom of age, finally ready to share the full truth of how love, guilt, and redemption shaped his remarkable journey.
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