Five Revelations From Billy Joel Documentary

A new film documentary about the life of Billy Joel premiered this week at the Tribeca Festival in New York City.

The Piano Man opened up like never before about some dark times in his life – and how his music career really began – in the film “Billy Joel: And So It Goes.”

Here are five revelations from the documentary:

He had an affair with his best friend’s wife – and later married her! In his early 20’s, Joel was in the band Attila with his best friend Jon Small. Joel lived with Small and his wife, Elizabeth Weber. Joel and Weber spent a lot of time together and eventually, Joel admitted to Small that he was in love with Weber. “I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker. I was just in love with a woman and I got punched in the nose which I deserved. Jon was very upset. I was very upset,” Joel said in the documentary. Years later, Joel would marry Weber and they were together from 1973-1982.

The fallout from the affair sent Joel into a deep depression. He found himself without a best friend and without the woman he loved, and Joel turned to drinking. “I had no place to live. I was sleeping in laundromats and I was depressed I think to the point of almost being psychotic,” Joel said. He attempted suicide twice.

After the first attempt, Joel was in a coma for days. He had taken a bottle of sleeping pills and ended up in a coma in the hospital. He recovered, only to attempt a second time.

He recognized he needed help. Joel said he felt like a lost soul and checked himself into an observation ward. He stayed there for two weeks and said it set him on a different path. “I got out of the observation ward and I thought to myself, you can utilize all those emotions to channel that stuff into music,” he said.

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