Billy Joel is having an incredible third act, considering that he hasn’t really released any new music in over twenty years. For a significant portion of his life, he has been engaged in conflict: against his former spouses, against alcohol, against poor management, and against bankruptcy, and against critics who have deemed him to be too uncool for rock ‘n’ roll. Robert Christgau, a legendary critic for the Village Voice, referred to him as “a force of nature and bad taste.”

At the age of 65, Billy Joel is currently in the midst of holding a residency at Madison Square Garden that has never been seen before. Each of his monthly events brings in more than two million dollars for him. More than 150 million records have been sold under his name, and he has been elected into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In the year 2013, he was one of the individuals who received honors from the Kennedy Center. He was born and raised in Hicksville, and for many years, he has been regarded as the poet laureate of Long Island State.

But he has always felt that he has failed in the area that matters the most: love.

In the new book “Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography,” Billy Joel is quoted as saying to the author Fred Schruers, “None of those people in the arena screaming your name really know you.” After sitting through one hundred hours of interviews, Joel eventually decided to withdraw from the project due to concerns that it would reveal too much information.

To know, accept, and love you for being, well, just the way that you are, all you need is one person out of millions of people. “You just need one.” It is really moving to witness elderly people going down the street who appear to have been together for fifty years. The fact that they have been together for such a long time is something that I find very significant. In the past, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why don’t I have that? When I think about it, I can dream about it, and when I sing about it, I can make music and lyrics about it. I am even capable of attempting to accomplish it once more, and I have done so on numerous occasions.

A testament to this is the fact that he has been through three difficult marriages, each of which has inspired music.

Is the Shark
In 1970, Joel’s friend and bandmate Jon Small introduced him to the woman who would become his first wife. While Elizabeth Weber was married to Small, the couple had a son named Sean, but Joel was knocked out. Sean was the only child they had. He informed Schruers, “She was not like a lot of the other girls I knew at that time who had taken home ec and cooking classes.” Schruers was surprised to hear this. “She was not only clever and not hesitant to say what was on her mind, but she also had the ability to deceive others. The kind of girl who is not typical of American girls; she is almost like a European.

Weber abandoned both of them after Small found out about the affair, and he remained absent for several weeks. Joel developed suicidal tendencies. At the age of 21, he was destitute, without friends, and without love, and he was “crashing at my mom’s place again, which is an abject failure.”

A little while after Weber left, Joel took an excessive amount of nembutal and then contacted Small to apologize for his actions. Small was alarmed and rushed to the residence of Joel’s mother in Hicksville, where he discovered Joel lying on the ground. In his conversation with Schruers, Joel shared his experience by saying, “The next thing I remember, I woke up in the hospital and learned that they had pumped my stomach.” “Oh, great, I couldn’t even do this right,” I remember thinking to myself at the time. A further setback was experienced.

A few weeks later, Joel made another attempt, this time partaking in the consumption of furniture polish. Joel checked himself into a mental institution this time, and he remained there for a period of three weeks. Additionally, another member of his family discovered him. The realization dawned on him: “The people I was locked up with were never going to be able to overcome their problems, whereas mine were all self-made,” he said with Schruers. “I should be able to fix this,” I felt.

Once more, he started writing. His self-medication consisted of alcohol and smokes, and he was never much of a drug user. After much excruciating back-and-forth, he finally established a relationship with Weber, who has a keen understanding of business and agreed to manage him. The wedding took place in September of 1973. She was the source of inspiration for the songs “She’s Got a Way” and “She’s Always a Woman,” but many others around Joel were concerned about her. They considered Weber to be domineering, manipulative, and nasty, and they felt that she was far more enamored with the rock and roll lifestyle than Joel was.
The song “Just the Way You Are” was written by him as a birthday present for her, and after he played it for her, she said, “Do I get the publishing license as well?”

The song “Just the Way You Are” was written by him as a birthday present for her one year, and after he played it for her, she said, “Do I get the publishing, too?” She was not joking around.
Weber, in her capacity as Joel’s wife, was entitled to fifty percent of his wealth and was also receiving a portion of his earnings in his capacity as manager. The moment she brought her brother Frank into the household, Joel experienced a profound sense of discomfort. She was also a source of inspiration for his subsequent album, which included the hit tune “The Stranger” that bore his name.

They filed for divorce in 1982, although Joel had the hope that they could get back together. He had agreed to purchase whatever she desired, including a town house on the Upper East Side that cost $4 million and an Alfa Romeo, but then he was involved in a motorbike accident that resulted in both of his hands being broken. During his time in the hospital, Weber paid him a visit while he was under the influence of pain medication and pondering the possibilities of his career as a musician. He brought the contract with him. It is a memory that Joel had of her asking him to sign everything that he had over to her.

The statement that Joel made to Schruers was as follows: “I may have acted like an idiot a time or two, but I’m not a complete idiot.” “That was the final straw that broke the camel’s back right there and then.”

During the divorce proceedings, Frank Weber took Joel’s side. In 1989, Joel filed a lawsuit against Frank, claiming that he had stolen approximately $30 million of his earnings. In addition, Joel demanded that Frank pay him $60 million in punitive damages. This discovery came several years later.

By declaring bankruptcy, Frank was able to outwit Joel, and in 1990, Joel reached a settlement with Frank outside of court.

“I began a relationship with the Borgias!” Schruers was informed by Joel. “What a wonderful family to choose from.”

It’s the Supermodel.
When Joel and Elizabeth broke up in 1982, he traveled to St. Bart’s for the holidays before returning home. He located a piano bar and started playing. A few moments later, to his astonishment, Elle Macpherson, who was just 19 years old at the time, and Christie Brinkley, who was 28 years old, were standing on either side of the 33-year-old, together with an undiscovered Whitney Houston.

According to what Brinkley tells Schruers, all of them were competing for Joel’s attention. As Whitney puts it, “I am able to sing!” In the meantime, Elle has thrown herself over the piano in a manner similar to that of Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Fabulous Baker Boys.”

When Brinkley and Macpherson returned to New York, they engaged in a competition for the attention of Joel, who was residing in a penthouse apartment with a view of Central Park. His doorman, Nick Turturro, who was an actor who was having trouble making ends meet, would rank all of the women that Billy brought home. “On a regular basis, he would display eight, nine, or ten fingers,” Joel shared with Schruers. Brinkley was the only person to receive ten fingers on both occasions.

“I was trying to act cool, but somewhere inside me the kid from Hicksville was going, ‘Yessssss!'” as was said by Joel on the very first night that he was successful in convincing Brinkley to come home with him. In the moment when the elevator door to his apartment opened, Macpherson was already standing there. Even though a portion of me was thinking, “Oh, God, no,” another portion of me was thinking, “Holy crap, if my friends could see me now,” all at the same time.

Christie is fond of making jokes about how the dissolution of the marriage was the moment that my career as a songwriter came to an end. If nothing else, I believe it to be a joke.

– Billy Joel Brinkley did not appear to be bothered. Macpherson remained, but Joel fell in love with Brinkley. She, on the other hand, left. In 1985, they tied the knot, and the album “An Innocent Man” was a love letter to her all throughout its entirety. Over the course of their wedding night, they became parents to a daughter named Alexa Ray.
However, because to Joel’s financial difficulties, he was forced to go on tour ceaselessly in order to recoup his money, which caused the marriage to suffer a great deal. The turning point occurred in the year 1993. As a result of Joel’s decision to stay at a nearby hotel rather than make the ninety-minute trip home after a play at Nassau Coliseum, Brinkley was informed by a member of Joel’s band that he was having an affair. Despite Joel’s denials, By the time that year came to a close, they were aware that the marriage had come to an end, and it was also the year that Joel would release his final record.

Joel told Schruers, “Christie likes to joke that the end of the marriage spelled the end of my songwriting career.” I was referring to the fact that the marriage ended. At the very least, I believe it to be a joke.