If you don’t know about Billy Joel’s dramatic early days, the new documentary about him fills in the blanks.
The first part of “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” premiered at Tribeca Festivalin New York City earlier this year and it’s a jaw-dropper.
During the first part of the documentary, the “Vienna” singer, 76, revealed that he’s been through two suicide attempts and as a result, fell into a coma.
The downward spiral occurred after he had an affair with his former bandmate’s wife.
The dark period in his life happened in his 20s, when he was in a band called Attila, along with his best friend Jon Small. At the time, he moved in with Small, his wife Elizabeth Weber and their son.
“Bill and I spent a lot of time together,” Weber noted in the documentary, mentioning that their bond was a “slow build.”
Small then realized something was going on and Joel came to him with the truth.
“I’m in love with your wife,” Joel finally confessed.
“I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,” Joel admitted. “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 scuffle between the two men marked the end of Attila and was the end of their friendship for a long time. During this time, Weber left and this led to Joel’s excessive drinking, per People.
This was the beginning of a dark spiral for the star.
“I had no place to live. I was sleeping in laundromats and I was depressed I think to the point of almost being psychotic,” the “Piano Man” singer said in the documentary. “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 the time, Joel’s sister, Judy Molinari worked as a medical assistant and gave her brother sleeping pills to help with sleep.
But it wasn’t the normal kind of sleep Joel had in mind.
“Billy decided that he was going to take all of them… he was in a coma for days and days and days,” Molinari said in the documentary, clearly emotional as she recalled the event: “I went to go see him in the hospital, and he was laying there white as a sheet. I thought that I’d killed him.”
The singer thought back to that time and realized how “very selfish” he was for attempting to take his own life. He even remembered coming to, contemplating on doing it again – but “right” this time.
The second time he attempted suicide was when he chugged a bottle of Lemon Pledge, according to Molinari. For that attempt, Small was able to take Joel to the hospital.
“Even though our friendship was blowing up, Jon saved my life,” Joel revealed.
“He never really said anything to me,” Small recalled. “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. Eventually I forgave him.”
After the suicide attempts, Joel felt detached from himself and made the decision to check himself into an “observation ward.” He was then released weeks later, only to realize that the entire experience was life changing.
He decided to take what he’s been through and turn it into something positive.
“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.
As for Weber and Joel, fortunately the two reunited years later, which culminated into a marriage from 1973-1982.
“Billy Joel: And So It Goes” is now available on HBO.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pennlive.com ’
