Billy Joel reveals he twice attempted suicide after affair with friend's wife

The Star

12 hours ago

Late last month, Billy Joel announced that he'd been diagnosed with a brain condition known as hydrocephalus, which can lead to symptoms such as vomiting, vision problems, difficulty walking and cognitive impairment. Photo: TNS
In his upcoming documentary for HBO, Billy Joel reveals that he twice attempted suicide, even landing in a coma, following a messy affair with his best friend's wife that left him wracked with guilt.
The 76-year-old Piano Man recalls the painful period — and the love triangle involving his former bandmate Jon Small and Small's then-wife, Elizabeth Weber — in Billy Joel: And So It Goes , which premiered last week at the Tribeca Festival.
Joel says he was in his early 20s and living with the couple when he fell 'in love' with Weber, who would later become his first wife.
'I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,' Joel says. '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 fallout led to the end of their band, Attila, while Weber severed her relationships with both men.
Left grieving and without a place to live, Joel says he fell into a downward spiral of heavy drinking, depression and sleeping in laundromats.
'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,' the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer says of wanting to 'end it all.'
Joel then overdosed on sleeping pills and wound up in a coma for days on end.
His sister, Judy Molinari, a medical assistant at the time, provided him with the pills thinking they'd help him sleep — not knowing he planned to 'take all of them.'
'I went to go see him in the hospital, and he was laying there white as a sheet. I felt that I killed him,' she tearfully recounts in the documentary.
That unsuccessful suicide attempt was followed by another when Joel drank a bottle of furniture polish, Molinari says.
Despite his fractured relationship with Small at the time, Joel credits his former bandmate for saving his life, saying he was the one who took him to the hospital after the second attempt. The gesture ultimately helped them repair their friendship.
Joel eventually moved back into his mother's home and then checked into an observation ward, where he says he realised he could channel his emotions into music.
The songs he wrote as a result would become his first solo album, 1971's Cold Spring Harbor . The album produced tracks including Tomorrow Is Today, Why Judy Why and She's Got A Way , the latter of which was inspired by Weber.
Joel and Weber also reconciled their relationship and got married, which lasted from 1973 to 1982. She also served as his manager.
The raw recollections in the documentary, which is scheduled to hit HBO in July, come amid another difficult period in Joel's life. Late last month, the New York State Of Mind crooner announced that he'd been diagnosed with a brain condition known as hydrocephalus, which can lead to symptoms such as vomiting, vision problems, difficulty walking and cognitive impairment.
As a result of the diagnosis, Joel was forced to cancel all of his upcoming performances scheduled through July of next year.
SiriusXM host Howard Stern said earlier this week that he'd had dinner with Joel, who told him he could assure his listeners he's 'not dying.' – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
Those contemplating suicide can reach out to the Mental Health Psychosocial Support Service (03-2935 9935 / 014-322 3392); Talian Kasih (15999 / 019-261 5999 on WhatsApp); Jakim's family, social and community care centre (011-1959 8214 on WhatsApp); or Befrienders Kuala Lumpur (03-7627 2929 /email [e-mail]/befriender centres in malaysia).