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A Fellow Legend Slammed Billy Joel's Sobriety Journey — He Still Feels the Sting
Billy Joel has never been shy about the fact that drinking played a role in his biggest heartbreaks — including the end of his marriage to Christie Brinkley. In her recent memoir, Brinkley wrote that 'booze was the other woman,' and recalled how his drinking left her feeling abandoned even after surviving a helicopter crash. But if that chapter in Joel's life was painful, the next one — when a friend publicly questioned his recovery — left a different kind of scar.
'Elton had made a comment that he thought I needed real rehab,' Joel says in the second half of HBO's And So It Goes, referring to Elton John's 2011 Rolling Stone interview. 'He chalked it up to, 'Oh, he's a drunk.' And that really hurt me.'
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This wasn't tabloid pot-stirring. Joel and John had toured together for years, and their longtime friendship made the comments feel personal. 'I said, 'Wait a minute? Don't you know me better than that?'' Joel says. 'There was bad blood for a little while.'
John's full quote wasn't exactly subtle. He blamed Joel's alcoholism for tour cancellations, accused him of 'coasting,' and described Joel's rehab stints as 'light,' quipping that when he went to rehab, he had to clean the floors, while Joel had TVs.
This all came just a few years after Joel had entered the Betty Ford Center in 2005 — not for PR, but because his then-wife Katie Lee gave him an ultimatum. 'I don't want to do this anymore,' Joel wrote to his band at the time. 'I'm gonna stop.'
For someone who'd already lost a marriage to addiction and was trying to step back quietly, the public shaming from a friend wasn't a wake-up call. It was a gut punch. 'It was like all the signs were pointing to me: Enough,' he says in the doc.
The two have long since reconciled — and to be fair, Elton's heart likely was in the right place. But addiction isn't linear, and recovery doesn't come with a script. When it comes to sobriety, even well-meaning words can land like a slap — especially when they come from someone who's been there, of SheKnows
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