WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 Imagine like an amateur boxer, right? A teenager 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.459 who basically spends his evenings getting his 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:07.480 nose broken in the Golden Globes circuit. Oh, 00:00:07.660 --> 00:00:10.099 man. Just taking heavy hits. Exactly. Taking 00:00:10.099 --> 00:00:12.080 hits, spitting blood, and just forcing himself 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:14.580 back up off the mat. Now, I want you to imagine 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:18.019 that exact same guy sitting down at a grand piano. 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.800 Right. And he's writing some of the most sensitive, 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:23.820 universally beloved ballads of the 20th century. 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.660 I mean, it creates a tremendous cognitive dissonance, 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:28.820 doesn't it? It really does. We're just so used 00:00:28.820 --> 00:00:31.760 to that classic, you know, delicate artist stereotype. 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:34.719 Like, we like to think of musical geniuses as 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:37.119 floating above the fray somehow. Yeah. Insulated 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:40.439 from the rough edges of the world. Exactly. Completely 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:43.259 insulated. Well, welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:46.039 our mission is to explore the incredibly resilient, 00:00:46.539 --> 00:00:49.000 surprising, and, I mean, at times really dark 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:50.979 life of William Martin Joel. That are known to 00:00:50.979 --> 00:00:52.359 you and the rest of the world as Billy Joel. 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:55.899 Right. And we are pulling from a massive biographical 00:00:55.899 --> 00:00:58.539 deep dive, tracing his journey all the way up 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:01.659 to early 2026. And, you know, you probably know 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:04.099 the staggering statistics already. Oh, sure. 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:08.140 The 160 million records sold. Yeah. Or that unbelievable 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:11.159 record breaking Madison Square Garden residency. 00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:13.599 But there's a whole other side to this story 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:15.799 that you might not know. Yeah, we're talking 00:01:15.799 --> 00:01:18.180 about his time as that teenage boxer we mentioned 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:22.719 or a literal onstage meltdown in the Soviet Union 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:25.459 during the Cold War. Not to mention the severe 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:28.739 health battles he faced recently in 2025. Right. 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:32.519 It's a narrative of these extreme stratospheric 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:35.500 highs. But it's anchored by some devastating 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:38.200 life threatening lows. Because to understand 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:39.819 the music, you really have to understand the 00:01:39.819 --> 00:01:42.260 survival instinct that forged it. OK, let's unpack 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:44.590 this, because I promise you we are going far, 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:46.530 far beyond the radio hits today. Way beyond. 00:01:46.689 --> 00:01:48.969 So before he was a music icon, he quite literally 00:01:48.969 --> 00:01:51.269 had to fight to survive. Where does that foundational 00:01:51.269 --> 00:01:54.450 grit actually come from? Well, it starts with 00:01:54.450 --> 00:01:56.489 some incredibly heavy family history, actually. 00:01:56.569 --> 00:01:59.269 He was born in the Bronx in 1949. OK. And he 00:01:59.269 --> 00:02:01.890 grew up in Levittown and Hicksville on Long Island. 00:02:02.450 --> 00:02:04.290 But to understand the psychology of his family, 00:02:04.629 --> 00:02:06.310 you really have to look at his father, Howard. 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:09.270 Right. Because Howard escaped Nazi Germany, didn't 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:11.909 he? He did. And it wasn't just a matter of fleeing. 00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:15.340 Hadred's father had built this highly prosperous 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:17.719 mail -order textile business back in Germany. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:21.300 Wow, okay. But then in 1938, under the Nuremberg 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:25.340 laws, the Nazi regime basically forced the family 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.639 to sell that thriving business for an absolute 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:32.120 fraction of its value. Man, so there's this... 00:02:33.230 --> 00:02:35.810 immediate generational lesson there, right? Like 00:02:35.810 --> 00:02:37.330 everything you build, everything you own can 00:02:37.330 --> 00:02:39.090 just be stripped away from you in an instant. 00:02:39.270 --> 00:02:42.129 Exactly. By forces entirely outside your control. 00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:45.569 And that sudden forced loss of everything, it 00:02:45.569 --> 00:02:47.810 creates a really complex psychological foundation 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:49.680 for the family. I can imagine. They eventually 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:51.939 made it to America. Actually, they spent time 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.800 in Cuba first, just to bypass strict immigration 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:56.860 quotas. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. And Howard 00:02:56.860 --> 00:02:58.599 became an engineer in the US, but he was also 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.180 a classically trained pianist. So he passed that 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:03.879 musical mandate down to his son. Though, I mean, 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:06.159 Billy started playing piano at age four very 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:07.860 reluctantly, right? Yeah, mostly because his 00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:10.870 mother insisted. Right. And here is where I really 00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:13.689 want to push back on that delicate musical prodigy 00:03:13.689 --> 00:03:15.949 image we mentioned earlier. Please do. Because 00:03:15.949 --> 00:03:19.270 Levittown in the 50s and 60s, it wasn't exactly 00:03:19.270 --> 00:03:22.610 a sanctuary for sensitive piano players, you 00:03:22.610 --> 00:03:25.590 know. No, definitely not. He was bullied a lot. 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:28.169 So what does he do? He takes up boxing. Yeah. 00:03:28.270 --> 00:03:30.889 And he doesn't just hit a heavy bag in his basement 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:34.680 for cardio either. No. He actively competes as 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:37.180 a welterweight on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit. 00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:40.120 And he was formidable, too. I mean, he won 22 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:43.719 out of 26 fights. That's a serious record. He 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:46.400 only quit because his nose was broken in his 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:50.000 final match. And he realized his hands, which, 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:52.419 you know, he kind of needed for the piano, were 00:03:52.419 --> 00:03:54.599 taking way too much of a beating. Which is just 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:57.060 such a powerful lens to view his early career 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:59.360 through. It's like a literal boxing match. Oh, 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:01.879 absolutely. If you look at his initial foray 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:03.800 into the music business, it wasn't so. He did 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:06.939 not. He was playing these exhausting late night 00:04:06.939 --> 00:04:09.819 piano bar gigs to help support his mother and 00:04:09.819 --> 00:04:12.120 sister after his parents divorced. Right. And 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:15.860 because of those gigs, he overslept and actually 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:19.459 missed a crucial English exam. Oh, no. Yeah. 00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:22.000 He fell one credit short of graduating. And when 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.879 he found out he famously declared, to hell with 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:27.819 it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:30.199 I'm going to Columbia Records. I mean, it's a 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:32.839 fantastic sound bite. It is great. But reality 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:35.319 hit much harder than that. His early bands there 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:38.199 was The Hassles and then this bizarre heavy metal 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:41.579 organ duo called Attila. Attila. Yeah. They were 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:44.060 massive commercial failures. Which brings us 00:04:44.060 --> 00:04:46.639 to a period in the late 60s and early 70s that 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.670 is just, it's almost unbearably dark. It really 00:04:49.670 --> 00:04:51.970 is. Attila breaks up. And a major reason for 00:04:51.970 --> 00:04:54.410 that breakup is that Billy starts an affair with 00:04:54.410 --> 00:04:56.629 the wife of his bandmate and best friend, John 00:04:56.629 --> 00:04:59.730 Small. Right. Her name was Elizabeth. Yeah. And 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:01.589 the fallout from that was absolute devastation. 00:05:01.709 --> 00:05:03.610 He was completely estranged from his closest 00:05:03.610 --> 00:05:05.730 friend. The guilt must have been awful. He was 00:05:05.730 --> 00:05:08.730 consuming him. Plus, he was broke, he was evicted, 00:05:08.730 --> 00:05:11.889 and he was literally sleeping on the floors of 00:05:11.889 --> 00:05:15.470 laundromats. He just spiraled into a profound 00:05:15.470 --> 00:05:18.699 clinical depression. So how bad did it actually 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:22.319 get? Because the 2025 HBO documentary, Billy 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:26.540 Joel, and so it goes, it shed a lot of new light 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:29.620 on this specific era, right? It did. And it got 00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:33.120 to the absolute brink. What's fascinating here 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:36.040 is how openly he has finally discussed the sheer 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.560 desperation of that time. Yeah. Because he actually 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.480 attempted suicide twice. Wow. The first time. 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:43.860 He took an enormous overdose of sleeping pills 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:46.459 and fell into a coma for days. And I remember 00:05:46.459 --> 00:05:47.980 reading that when he woke up in the hospital, 00:05:48.139 --> 00:05:50.579 his first reaction wasn't relief, you know, like 00:05:50.579 --> 00:05:52.519 he was furious that he survived. Right, he was 00:05:52.519 --> 00:05:54.339 angry. So he decided he was going to do it right 00:05:54.339 --> 00:05:56.920 the second time. And the method he chose for 00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:59.060 that second attempt is just rough to even think 00:05:59.060 --> 00:06:01.220 about. Yeah, it is. He drank furniture polish. 00:06:01.339 --> 00:06:03.459 He did. He drank furniture polish. He later explained 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:05.600 that he chose it simply because in his deeply 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:08.980 clouded desperate state of mind, it, quote, looked 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:12.160 tastier than bleach. Oh my god. And the tragic 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:14.699 irony is that the person who found him and rushed 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:17.220 him to the hospital, ultimately saving his life, 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:21.209 was John Small. The very friend he had betrayed. 00:06:21.610 --> 00:06:24.170 Exactly. That is just incredibly heavy. So he 00:06:24.170 --> 00:06:26.550 ends up on a suicide watch ward at Meadowbrook 00:06:26.550 --> 00:06:29.589 Hospital. He does. And that hospital stay was 00:06:29.589 --> 00:06:32.430 a stark turning point for him. How so? Well, 00:06:32.430 --> 00:06:34.829 if we connect this to the bigger picture, being 00:06:34.829 --> 00:06:38.350 surrounded by people dealing with severe, unmanageable 00:06:38.350 --> 00:06:41.250 psychiatric struggles made him realize something. 00:06:41.389 --> 00:06:44.149 What was that? That his own problems, the guilt, 00:06:44.550 --> 00:06:47.269 the poverty, the career failure... They were 00:06:47.269 --> 00:06:48.949 circumstantial. They could actually be fixed. 00:06:49.129 --> 00:06:51.250 Right. They weren't permanent. Exactly. But that 00:06:51.250 --> 00:06:53.829 trauma, it permanently colored his songwriting. 00:06:54.009 --> 00:06:56.509 It gave his music this really visceral, grounded 00:06:56.509 --> 00:06:59.149 weight. I mean, his track, Tomorrow Is Today, 00:06:59.589 --> 00:07:01.509 was actually originally written as his suicide 00:07:01.509 --> 00:07:04.389 note. Wow. I had no idea about that. So how does 00:07:04.389 --> 00:07:06.370 a guy go from a suicide watch ward to writing 00:07:06.370 --> 00:07:08.230 some of the most famous songs on Earth? Well, 00:07:08.230 --> 00:07:10.170 it wasn't a straight line. Right. Because his 00:07:10.170 --> 00:07:12.670 first attempt at a solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, 00:07:12.709 --> 00:07:16.269 in 1971, was yet another brutal hit, wasn't it? 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:19.629 Oh, it was a total technical disaster. Due to 00:07:19.629 --> 00:07:22.149 a mastering error, the album was pressed at too 00:07:22.149 --> 00:07:24.689 high a speed. Oh, man. And if you understand 00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:27.509 the mechanics of analog tape, speeding it up 00:07:27.509 --> 00:07:30.230 doesn't just make the tempo faster. It actually 00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:32.829 alters the pitch and the timbre. So it completely 00:07:32.829 --> 00:07:35.949 changes his voice. Exactly. Billy Joel has this 00:07:35.949 --> 00:07:39.850 rich, baritone voice. But on that record, he 00:07:39.850 --> 00:07:42.310 sounded artificially high, almost like a chipmunk. 00:07:42.649 --> 00:07:44.610 That's heartbreaking after everything he'd been 00:07:44.610 --> 00:07:48.149 through. It gets worse. The label, Family Productions, 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:51.389 had locked him into a predatory 10 -album contract 00:07:51.389 --> 00:07:53.709 that completely stripped him of his publishing 00:07:53.709 --> 00:07:56.850 rights. Wait, really? Yeah. He didn't even own 00:07:56.850 --> 00:07:59.790 his own songs. So what does he do? He runs, he 00:07:59.790 --> 00:08:02.569 literally flees New York for Los Angeles just 00:08:02.569 --> 00:08:04.889 to escape this contract. Right. And he takes 00:08:04.889 --> 00:08:07.930 a job playing at a piano bar on Wilshire Boulevard 00:08:07.930 --> 00:08:10.470 called The Executive Room. But because he's hiding 00:08:10.470 --> 00:08:12.250 from his label, he came and used his real name. 00:08:12.370 --> 00:08:15.149 Nope. He works under the alias Bill Martin. Right, 00:08:15.269 --> 00:08:17.110 and he's just playing for tips, observing the 00:08:17.110 --> 00:08:19.689 patrons, completely anonymous. Just another guy 00:08:19.689 --> 00:08:22.300 in a bar. And here's where it gets really interesting 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.480 because to me this is like an actor taking a 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.459 miserable anonymous day job just to pay the bills, 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.920 right? Only to realize that that miserable job 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:35.399 was the exact raw material they needed for their 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:37.519 Oscar -winning script. That's a great analogy. 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:41.100 He had to become a literal piano man enduring 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:44.340 the loneliness of a smoky bar room studying these 00:08:44.340 --> 00:08:47.240 heartbroken isolated characters before he could 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:50.029 write the anthem for them. Right. That miserable 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:52.990 day job as Bill Martin was the exact inspiration 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:55.769 he needed to write his signature song, Piano 00:08:55.769 --> 00:08:58.570 Man. It's amazing. It really is the perfect example 00:08:58.570 --> 00:09:01.610 of transforming mundane, grinding reality into 00:09:01.610 --> 00:09:04.850 universal art. But while Los Angeles gave him 00:09:04.850 --> 00:09:07.600 the material for Piano Man... LA wasn't his soul. 00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:10.799 No. His soul was tied to the frantic, abrasive 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.519 energy of New York. Exactly. Moving back to the 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:15.840 East Coast was the catalyst that truly unlocked 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:18.200 his creative potential. And that move back East 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:20.379 inspired the album Turnstiles, which he produced 00:09:20.379 --> 00:09:23.279 himself. But it's when he teams up with the legendary 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:26.379 producer Phil Ramone that everything just explodes. 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:29.820 Like in 1977, they dropped The Stranger. Oh, 00:09:29.899 --> 00:09:32.879 yeah. This album is a cultural earthquake. It 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:36.580 sells over 10 million copies. It officially dethrones 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:39.220 Simon and Garfunkel's rage over troubled water 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:41.720 as Columbia Records best -selling release ever. 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:44.559 And it was just packed with undeniable hits, 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:47.659 you know. Movin' Out, Only the Good Die Young, 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:50.519 Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. Classics. 00:09:50.740 --> 00:09:53.330 And crucially, Just the Way You Are. Which he 00:09:53.330 --> 00:09:55.389 wrote for Elizabeth, right? The same Elizabeth 00:09:55.389 --> 00:09:58.309 from the bandmate drama years prior. Yes. They 00:09:58.309 --> 00:10:00.629 had eventually married. And the mechanics of 00:10:00.629 --> 00:10:03.350 how he wrote that song are wild. He actually 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:06.169 composed the melody based entirely on a dream 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:08.190 he had. Really? Yeah, he woke up and just wrote 00:10:08.190 --> 00:10:10.509 it down. And he actually found out he won the 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:12.710 Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:14.690 Year for that track while sitting late at night 00:10:14.690 --> 00:10:17.929 in a hotel room in Paris. Wow. Think about that 00:10:17.929 --> 00:10:21.029 arc. I know. from drinking furniture polish on 00:10:21.029 --> 00:10:23.990 a laundromat floor to a Paris hotel suite holding 00:10:23.990 --> 00:10:27.450 two Grammys? It is an incredible ascent. But, 00:10:27.909 --> 00:10:29.809 you know, with stratospheric success comes a 00:10:29.809 --> 00:10:32.169 new set of problems. Which is? Well, namely, 00:10:32.710 --> 00:10:35.289 the industry tries to categorize you. Because 00:10:35.289 --> 00:10:38.429 just the way you are with such a massive adult 00:10:38.429 --> 00:10:40.710 contemporary hit, critics immediately slapped 00:10:40.710 --> 00:10:42.750 a label on him. Oh, really? They called him a 00:10:42.750 --> 00:10:45.649 safe, mellow, soft rocker or dismissed him as 00:10:45.649 --> 00:10:48.070 just a balladeer. And we know how the former 00:10:48.070 --> 00:10:50.690 amateur boxer reacts to being put in a corner. 00:10:50.789 --> 00:10:53.509 He fights back. He literally throws a rock. Like, 00:10:53.529 --> 00:10:56.169 if you look at the cover of his 1980 album Glass 00:10:56.169 --> 00:10:59.490 Houses, he is pictured wearing a leather jacket, 00:10:59.929 --> 00:11:02.570 winding up to hurl a rock straight through the 00:11:02.570 --> 00:11:05.529 glass window of his own house. It's such a great 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:07.370 image. It was a massive visual statement. He 00:11:07.370 --> 00:11:09.850 was basically saying, I am shattering this image 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:12.309 you have of me. And the music delivered on that 00:11:12.309 --> 00:11:15.629 threat, too. Glass Houses gave him his very first 00:11:15.629 --> 00:11:18.090 number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with 00:11:18.090 --> 00:11:20.690 It's Still Rock and Roll to Me. He definitely 00:11:20.690 --> 00:11:23.210 proved he had teeth. But he refuses to stay in 00:11:23.210 --> 00:11:27.049 that lane either. In 1983, he pivots completely 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:30.929 with An Innocent Man. Right, which is this joyous, 00:11:31.210 --> 00:11:35.509 vocal -heavy tribute to the 50s and 60s doo -wop 00:11:35.509 --> 00:11:38.549 and R &B he grew up listening to. Exactly. And 00:11:38.549 --> 00:11:41.600 it features the global smash Uptown Girl. Oh, 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:45.000 man. There is this wild story about how that 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.840 song came to be. Yeah. He's on vacation in the 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.980 Caribbean, playing a piano at a hotel bar, and 00:11:50.980 --> 00:11:53.720 in walk, Christie Brinkley, Whitney Houston, 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.899 and Elle McPherson. All at once. Oh my god. Which 00:11:56.899 --> 00:11:58.720 has to be the most intimidating audience a guy 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:00.919 could possibly ask for while casually playing 00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:03.220 the piano. Absolutely. And Christie Brinkley 00:12:03.220 --> 00:12:05.799 ends up starring in the music video for Uptown 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:08.000 Girl. Right. She actually had to teach him how 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.460 to dance for the shoot because when she arrived 00:12:10.460 --> 00:12:13.559 he told her point -blank... I don't dance. That's 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:15.360 hilarious. They struck up a romance and eventually 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.019 married in 1985. But wait, I need to understand 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:19.960 something here. Sure, what's that? The guy singing 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:23.480 Uptown Girl, who is married to a supermodel and 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:27.460 absolutely dominating MTV, decides to go to Soviet 00:12:27.460 --> 00:12:30.019 Russia at the height of the Cold War in 1987? 00:12:30.299 --> 00:12:32.580 Yeah. How does that even work? Why on earth would 00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:35.100 he do that? Well, it was an unprecedented move 00:12:35.100 --> 00:12:37.759 in cultural diplomacy. He really wanted to break 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:40.519 through the Iron Curtain using music. OK. It 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:44.000 was one of the very first fully staged arena 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:47.019 level pop rock shows to ever enter the USSR. 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.559 But the reality of playing there was a volatile 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:53.919 mix of historic triumph and absolute disaster. 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:57.909 Really? How so? So the Soviet audience had never 00:12:57.909 --> 00:13:01.590 experienced an energetic, visceral American rock 00:13:01.590 --> 00:13:04.169 show. They were completely stiff. Just not knowing 00:13:04.169 --> 00:13:06.330 how to react. Right. And part of the problem 00:13:06.330 --> 00:13:09.009 was the production itself. They brought a documentary 00:13:09.009 --> 00:13:11.450 film crew. And to make sure the cameras could 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:13.850 capture the massive crowds, the harsh stadium 00:13:13.850 --> 00:13:16.110 lights were turned all the way up, blasting the 00:13:16.110 --> 00:13:17.929 audience. That's incredibly awkward for a concert. 00:13:18.070 --> 00:13:21.110 Very. And on top of that, strict Soviet security 00:13:21.110 --> 00:13:23.169 guards were patrolling the aisles, physically 00:13:23.169 --> 00:13:25.679 removing anyone who stood up, damped, or showed 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.240 too much emotion. Wow. So the crowd was essentially 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:30.860 frozen in terror. Which, I mean, for a performer 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:33.779 who thrives on the kinetic energy of a live crowd 00:13:33.779 --> 00:13:36.659 has to be pure torture. It broke him. He was 00:13:36.659 --> 00:13:40.139 trying to connect, and he was met with this terrified, 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:44.659 brightly lit wall of silence. He became so enraged 00:13:44.659 --> 00:13:47.519 by the lights and the security that he experienced 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:49.919 a full -blown meltdown on stage. He flipped his 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:52.220 piano, right? He flipped his electric piano completely 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:55.240 over and violently snapped a heavy microphone 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:58.059 stand in half. Oh my god. All while refusing 00:13:58.059 --> 00:14:00.659 to stop singing. See, the boxer comes out again. 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:03.919 When he feels cornered, he fights. Exactly. And 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:06.620 financially, the tour was a massive loss. He 00:14:06.620 --> 00:14:09.299 spent an estimated $1 million of his own money 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:12.240 to fund the production. That's a huge hit. But 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:15.200 historically, the impact was monumental. It resulted 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:18.620 in the first live rock radio broadcast in Soviet 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:21.580 history. Amazing. It perfectly encapsulates what 00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:24.100 drove him. Like, he cared deeply about forcing 00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:26.539 an authentic human connection, far more than 00:14:26.539 --> 00:14:28.559 he cared about the financial loss or the political 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.419 rules. But, you know, as we push into the 90s 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:34.059 and the 2000s, while he is at the absolute zenith 00:14:34.059 --> 00:14:36.720 of his global fame, the foundation beneath him 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:38.919 starts fracturing. Yes, it does. Because the 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:40.840 financial betrayals he faced around this time 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:43.240 are just staggering. They were deeply personal 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:46.159 betrayals, too. He discovered massive accounting 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:49.419 discrepancies and fraud orchestrated by his manager, 00:14:49.899 --> 00:14:52.440 Frank Weber. And Weber wasn't just his manager. 00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:55.139 No. He was his former brother -in -law and the 00:14:55.139 --> 00:14:58.419 godfather to his child. Weber was allegedly using 00:14:58.419 --> 00:15:01.360 Billy's money to float his own dubious investments. 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:06.600 Wow. So Billy sued him for $90 million. Yes. 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:09.179 And if that wasn't enough, he later had to sue 00:15:09.179 --> 00:15:11.759 his own prominent music lawyer, Alan Grubman, 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.139 for another $90 million. Geez. Yeah. Alleging 00:15:15.139 --> 00:15:17.000 a conflict of interest and further financial 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:19.690 mismanagement. It's just incredible that he was 00:15:19.690 --> 00:15:22.429 fighting these massive corporate and legal battles 00:15:22.429 --> 00:15:25.049 while simultaneously fighting for the working 00:15:25.049 --> 00:15:27.409 class out on the water. Oh, the fishermen protest. 00:15:27.570 --> 00:15:30.970 Yeah. In 1992, he joined a protest with East 00:15:30.970 --> 00:15:33.789 Hampton fishermen. The state had introduced new 00:15:33.789 --> 00:15:36.269 regulations that were really threatening the 00:15:36.269 --> 00:15:39.029 livelihood of these local Baymen. Right. And 00:15:39.029 --> 00:15:40.830 Billy Joel didn't just write a check to a charity, 00:15:40.970 --> 00:15:42.629 he went out on a boat with them. He got right 00:15:42.629 --> 00:15:44.950 in the middle of it. He was charged by the state 00:15:44.950 --> 00:15:48.149 with fishing out of season and using banned methods? 00:15:48.769 --> 00:15:51.789 Like, he risked actual arrest to defend them 00:15:51.789 --> 00:15:54.090 because he remembered working on an oyster dredger 00:15:54.090 --> 00:15:56.600 as a teenager. That alignment with the working 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:59.440 class is such a consistent thread with him. Absolutely. 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.220 Now, he did step into the broader political arena 00:16:02.220 --> 00:16:04.519 at times. I mean, he played a benefit for Barack 00:16:04.519 --> 00:16:07.700 Obama with Bruce Springsteen in 2008, and he 00:16:07.700 --> 00:16:11.220 endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 mayoral race. 00:16:11.399 --> 00:16:13.860 Right. Alongside donating to various Democrats 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:16.220 over the decades. Yes. Now, just a quick note 00:16:16.220 --> 00:16:18.399 for you listening. Our goal today is strictly 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:21.000 to impartially unpack the history exactly as 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:23.240 it's documented. You know, we're not here to 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:25.700 endorse any specific political. Exactly, just 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:27.500 reporting the facts from the source material. 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:30.279 But looking objectively at the history, Joel's 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:32.399 approach to his audience regarding politics was 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:35.620 fascinating. He famously told his crowds that 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:37.659 people who pay hard -earned money for concert 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:39.799 tickets don't want to be lectured on who to vote 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:42.279 for. Which makes sense. So when the house lights 00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:45.059 went down he kept the show entirely focused on 00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:47.450 the music. And regarding that music, the early 00:16:47.450 --> 00:16:50.870 90s is where he makes a massive, unprecedented 00:16:50.870 --> 00:16:54.389 creative pivot. Oh, right. Following his 1993 00:16:54.389 --> 00:16:57.809 album, River of Dreams, he essentially retires 00:16:57.809 --> 00:17:00.309 from writing pop music. OK, I have to stop you 00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:02.990 there. Because when I hear that a pop superstar 00:17:02.990 --> 00:17:05.250 at the absolute peak of his career just stops 00:17:05.250 --> 00:17:09.069 writing lyrics, my first thought isn't authenticity. 00:17:09.529 --> 00:17:12.339 What is it? My first thought is fear. I mean, 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:15.039 if you write Piano Man and Uptown Girl, don't 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:16.920 you just get terrified that your next song is 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:19.640 gonna flop? It's a valid question. Is it possible 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:21.700 he'd just quit while he was ahead so he didn't 00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:23.819 have to face a critical decline? It's a fair 00:17:23.819 --> 00:17:26.380 challenge, for sure. But if we look at the mechanics 00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:29.579 of his composition, it wasn't fear. It was... 00:17:29.109 --> 00:17:31.750 exhaustion with the format. Exhaustion. Yeah. 00:17:31.990 --> 00:17:34.130 Pop music has very rigid structures, you know, 00:17:34.289 --> 00:17:36.529 verse, chorus, bridge, three and a half minutes. 00:17:36.950 --> 00:17:39.750 He felt he had entirely exhausted what he could 00:17:39.750 --> 00:17:42.470 say within those confines. Ah. So he didn't stop 00:17:42.470 --> 00:17:45.190 creating. He just shifted formats entirely. Yeah. 00:17:45.769 --> 00:17:48.650 In 2001, he released an album of classical compositions 00:17:48.650 --> 00:17:51.109 called Fantasies and Delusions. And that wasn't 00:17:51.109 --> 00:17:53.940 just a vanity project, was it? Not at all. It 00:17:53.940 --> 00:17:56.700 hit number one on the classical charts. The expansive 00:17:56.700 --> 00:17:59.759 canvas of classical music allowed him to express 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:03.140 what pop structures no longer could. So what 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:05.900 does this all mean, like for his legacy? Well, 00:18:06.099 --> 00:18:09.359 it means he refused to manufacture art just to 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:12.220 stay relevant. I mean, he even canceled a three 00:18:12.220 --> 00:18:15.200 million dollar memoir in 2011. He returned the 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:17.339 advance. He returned a massive advance because 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:19.559 he realized he had no interest in dissecting 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:22.019 his past. If he didn't have a new song burning 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:24.660 inside him, he wouldn't force it. That's incredibly 00:18:24.660 --> 00:18:27.579 rare. And the fans clearly respected that authenticity. 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:29.980 I mean, he transitions into this unbelievable 00:18:29.980 --> 00:18:32.740 live fixture of the garden shows. Yeah. He takes 00:18:32.740 --> 00:18:34.839 over Madison Square Garden, eventually being 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:37.559 named the venue's first ever music franchise. 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:40.380 Sitting right alongside legendary franchises 00:18:40.380 --> 00:18:42.519 like the Knicks and the Rangers. They even raised 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:44.960 a banner to the Rafters with the number 12 on 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.859 it honoring his record for the most consecutive 00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:50.579 sold -out shows. But just when the world had 00:18:50.579 --> 00:18:54.660 him comfortably pegged as you know a legacy touring 00:18:54.660 --> 00:18:57.720 act settling into his residency His life took 00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:02.079 a series of wild turns in 2024 and 2025. It really 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:05.680 did. In 2024, out of nowhere, he releases Turn 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:08.480 the Lights Back On, his first new pop single 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:11.220 in decades. Yeah, that was a huge surprise. And 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:13.950 later that same year, He concluded that historic 00:19:13.950 --> 00:19:18.490 Madison Square Garden residency with his 150th 00:19:18.490 --> 00:19:21.049 lifetime performance at the venue. 150 shows. 00:19:21.230 --> 00:19:23.930 150 shows at the garden. It's just staggering. 00:19:24.150 --> 00:19:26.789 And 2025 brought an avalanche of reflection too. 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.160 The two -part HBO documentary premiered, giving 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:33.559 audiences that raw, unfiltered look at his early 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:35.680 traumas. Right. And this was paired with the 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:39.359 release of a massive 155 -track playlist featuring 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.599 rarities, unreleased live cuts, and demos. But 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.279 2025 also brought a punch from his own body that 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:47.759 he really didn't see coming. Yeah. In May of 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.880 that year, he faced a severe health crisis. Yes, 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:52.079 he did. He was diagnosed with normal pressure 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:54.640 hydrocephalus. Which sounds terrifying. It is. 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:57.210 To understand how terrifying... this is for a 00:19:57.210 --> 00:19:59.769 musician, you really have to look at the mechanism 00:19:59.769 --> 00:20:02.390 of the condition. What happens exactly? It occurs 00:20:02.390 --> 00:20:05.470 when excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in 00:20:05.470 --> 00:20:08.549 the brain's ventricles. That fluid builds up. 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:11.920 and literally squeezes the brain tissue. Oh, 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.019 wow. And this pressure severely impacted his 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:17.960 hearing, his vision, and his balance. Which are 00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:20.539 the exact faculties a live performer relies on 00:20:20.539 --> 00:20:23.039 most. Exactly. It mimics symptoms of dementia 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:25.579 or Parkinson's, and it forced him to immediately 00:20:25.579 --> 00:20:28.579 cancel all his upcoming concerts. But, true to 00:20:28.579 --> 00:20:31.380 form, he didn't stay down on the mat. By July 00:20:31.380 --> 00:20:34.859 2025, he was doing interviews with People Magazine 00:20:34.859 --> 00:20:37.440 and sitting down with Bill Maher, explaining 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:39.380 that the condition is actually treatable and 00:20:39.380 --> 00:20:41.519 that he was already feeling significantly better. 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:44.279 Yeah, it's amazing. I am just in awe of the sheer 00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:46.420 resilience. Like, you look at the arc of this 00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:49.279 life, from surviving multiple suicide attempts 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:52.240 and drinking furniture polish in his 20s. To 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:54.819 battling massive corporate fraud in his 40s. 00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:58.400 Right, to fighting a severe neurological disorder 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:02.160 in his 70s, and through it all, he is still recovering, 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:05.119 still playing, still finding a way forward. This 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:06.859 raises an important question, I think, about 00:21:06.859 --> 00:21:10.500 what it actually takes to endure in an industry 00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:12.839 and really a world that is notoriously designed 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:16.079 to chew people up and spit them out. Yeah. He 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:18.779 didn't just survive. He adapted. He fought back 00:21:18.779 --> 00:21:21.299 against critics who tried to label him. He fought 00:21:21.299 --> 00:21:23.519 back against predatory executives who tried to 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:26.299 own him. And he fiercely guarded his own authenticity. 00:21:26.740 --> 00:21:29.140 That is the perfect way to encapsulate it. Billy 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:31.339 Joel isn't just the guy playing piano man in 00:21:31.339 --> 00:21:34.109 a smoky lounge. Not at all. He is a golden loves 00:21:34.109 --> 00:21:37.970 boxer. He is a classical composer. He is a defender 00:21:37.970 --> 00:21:41.009 of the working class. And above all, he is a 00:21:41.009 --> 00:21:44.009 survivor of immense personal financial and physical 00:21:44.009 --> 00:21:46.250 trial. His life is living proof that the most 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:49.569 enduring resonant melodies often emerge from 00:21:49.569 --> 00:21:52.029 the hardest hits we take. Beautifully said. So 00:21:52.029 --> 00:21:54.130 the next time you hear Billy Joel song at a party 00:21:54.130 --> 00:21:56.089 or it comes on the radio while you're driving, 00:21:56.430 --> 00:21:58.069 remember that you aren't just hearing a catchy 00:21:58.069 --> 00:22:00.720 pop tune. No, you're not. You are hearing the 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:03.579 resilience of a man who survived his absolute 00:22:03.579 --> 00:22:07.180 darkest moments to give the world a soundtrack. 00:22:07.299 --> 00:22:10.039 A soundtrack that continues to bridge generations, 00:22:10.359 --> 00:22:13.000 decades after the vinyl was pressed. Which leaves 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:15.099 us with a final thought for you to mull over 00:22:15.099 --> 00:22:17.880 today. Billy Joel walked away from writing pop 00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:20.920 music for 30 years because he felt his story 00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:23.759 in that format was complete. Right. He absolutely 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:26.279 refused to force out content just for a paycheck. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:28.420 Exactly. Or just to keep his name in the news 00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:30.920 cycle. And in today's hyper -connected world 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:34.259 where you and I are constantly pressured to produce, 00:22:34.420 --> 00:22:37.859 to post, to share, to stay relevant 24 -7. It's 00:22:37.859 --> 00:22:40.599 exhausting. It is. So what could you gain by 00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:42.920 having the courage to simply step away from the 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:44.880 microphone when you have nothing left to say? 00:22:45.099 --> 00:22:46.819 trusting that the work you've already done will 00:22:46.819 --> 00:22:49.700 speak for itself. Exactly. Think about it because 00:22:49.700 --> 00:22:52.400 sometimes the most powerful move a fighter can 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:55.000 make is knowing exactly when it's time to take 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:55.559 off the gloves.