In new documentary, Billy Joel bares two suicide attempts, coma after affair with friend's wife
Warning: This article deals with self-harm and suicide.
Pop great Billy Joel bared that he had two suicide attempts and even fell into a coma after having an affair with a former bandmate's wife.
PEOPLE Magazine, citing the documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival in New York City on June 4, reported that Joel, in his early 20s, was part of the rock duo Attila with his best friend Jon Small.
He moved in with Small, who was with his wife, Elizabeth Weber, and their son at the time.
"Bill and I spent a lot of time together," Elizabeth said in the documentary, adding it was a "slow build."
Small then realized what was happening, and Joel told him, "I'm in love with your wife."
Joel said he felt "very, very guilty about it."
"They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,” he said. "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."
The incident led to Attila's disbandment and the end of Joel and Small's friendship for a while. Joel also went on a drinking spree and became homeless, while Elizabeth ran away. (Joel and Elizabeth would reconnect years later, getting married from 1973 to 1982.)
“I was sleeping in laundromats and I was depressed, I think to the point of almost being psychotic," he said. "So I figured, 'That’s it. I don’t want to live anymore.' 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."
At one point, Joel's sister, Judy Molinari, a medical assistant, gave him sleeping pills, but she said he "decided that he was going to take all of them."
"He was in a coma for days and days and days," Molinari said. "I went to go see him in the hospital, and he was lying there white as a sheet. I thought that I’d killed him."
Looking back, Joel called himself "very selfish." He also recalled waking up in the hospital, thinking he'd do it again but in the "right" way.
Molinari said that some time after the sleeping pill incident, Joel tried to drink a bottle of "lemon Pledge."
In a surprise turn of events, Small brought him to the hospital.
“Even though our friendship was blowing up, Jon saved my life,” Joel said.
Small noted that Joel "never really said anything" to him afterward.
"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," he said. "Eventually, I forgave him."
After his suicide attempts, Joel went to an "observation ward," saying he's a "lost soul." He described the experience as life-changing, and was released after a few weeks.
"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.
Joel, who has the moniker "The Piano Man," has been a pop mainstay and performer extraordinaire since the '70s, with a catalog of fan favorites including Uptown Girl and New York State of Mind.
In 2024, he capped a decade-long residency with over 100 shows at Manhattan's famed Madison Square Garden.
That year, Joel also released Turn the Lights Back On, his first new original song in almost two decades.
Joel's laundry list of accolades includes six Grammy Awards, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and that organization's top lifetime achievement honor, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Kennedy Center Honors.
Billy Joel: And So It Goes will premiere on HBO in July.
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If you think you, your friend, or your family member is considering self-harm or suicide, you may call the National Mental Health Crisis Hotline at 1553 (Luzon-wide, landline toll-free), 0966-351-4518 or 0917-899-USAP (8727) for Globe/TM users, or 0908-639-2672 for Smart users.
