Hank Bordowitz - Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man

DEDICATION

To Caren, who put up with my bitching and moaning as this book took on a monstrous, Frankensteinish life of its own, and who shrugged off the tight times when the advance ran out. Im shameless when it comes to loving you.
To Bruce, Rachel, Justin, and Charlotte Gentile, who are the finest demonstration I know that just surviving is a noble fight.
To J-Mo and J-9. We love you just the way you are.
To Tom and Melissa. We never knew what friends we had.
To Larry. Sing us a song, youre the piano man.
To Mike and Billy. This is the time to remember.

Backbeat Books

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Copyright 2006, 2011 by Hank Bordowitz

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Revised and updated edition published in 2011

Originally published in 2006 by Billboard Books

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bordowitz, Hank.

Billy Joel: the life and times of an angry young man/Hank Bordowitz.Rev. and updated ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

Originally published in 2006 by Billboard Books.

ISBN 978-1-61713-005-2

1. Joel, Billy. 2. SingersUnited StatesBiography. 3. Rock musiciansUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

ML420.J72.B67 2011

782.42166092dc22

[B]

2011007601

www.backbeatbooks.com

CONTENTS

by Bruce Gentile

CHAPTER 26. GOT A NEW WIFE

All thanks to:

Jim Fitzgerald, who casually brought this up over beer and sandwiches at the Pig and Whistle one afternoon, knowing it would snowball, and doing the deal for the revised edition.

Bob Nirkind, who bought this hair-brained scheme and got a few more gray hairs in the bargain. Bob is a very proactive editor, a tough taskmaster who gives his writers no slack! Beware this monster, fellow writers. He will make your book better than you thought it could be.

Mike Edison, Carol Flannery, and my old pal John Cerullo for shepherding this edition.

Sandy Gibson, my first interview subject for this project, who helped shape various aspects of my perceptions, if not the book; and Todd Everett, for hooking us up.

Kenny Wallace and Jonathan Moorehead. J-Mo did so much legwork toward the end, he made me look lazy.

Bruce Gentile, the Plain White Rapper, who is responsible for vast amounts of great stuff in this book, not to mention helping to vet it, keep the timeline honest, and catching a bunch of my dumb mistakes!

Irwin Mazur and Artie Ripp, who I thought would be hostile witnesses but had very few negative things to say about Billy.

Howard Bloom and Elaine Schock, two people in Billys camp who consented to be interviewed on the record for this project. Several other folks who had off-the-record conversations with me shall remain nameless, though as any lawyer will tell you, the testimony that shapes a trial is the testimony the jury is ordered to ignore.

Jerry Schilling and Bill Thomas, who were extremely forthcoming about their Billy Joel experiences.

The cast and crew at the Lincoln Center Library, the Suffern Free Library, and the New York Public Library for the Humanities.

Barney Hoskins of Rocks Back Pages.

Burt Goldstein at Big Daddy for crucial information in record time.

Turnstiles.org, former home of a most excellent Billy Joel archive.

Jeff Jacobson, my longtime legal guardian.

The people at All Music Guide, one of the greatest online resources ever, and at Lexis-Nexis, Ebsco, Gale, and all the other online resources.

To really know Billy Joel is to know that hes been living in his own personal combat zone, fighting, his whole lifefighting for love, fighting for fame, fortune, and acceptance. Billy the Kid, the piano man, the stranger, the entertainer, the innocent man, the angry young man, our own home boy, and probably one of the worlds best songwriters. Has Billy really written the last words hes got to say? Has he turned his back on rock and roll forever? Did classical music and Broadway steal him away from rock for good?

Ive known Billy since around 1968. At the time, a local band called the Hassles had given him and his sidekick, drummer, and best friend Jon Small their first pro taste of the music biz. Billy sang his heart out. He reminded people of Steve Winwood, who played keyboards and sang tunes like Gimme Some Lovin for the Spencer Davis Group.

The mid to late 60s were a magical time on Long Island. Local bands were becoming stars so fast it was like we had a galaxy of our very own. Groups like the Vagrants, with a guitar player named Leslie West, the Young Rascals (who were actually from New Jersey, but keep that quiet), and Soft White Underbelly, Vanilla Fudge, Mynds Eye, the Rich Kids, and the Good Rats started to infest the Island with their brands of distinctive rock.

Long Island clubs like the Golden Pheasant, My House, and the In Crowd were sort of a hippie scene. The Pheasant was probably the club where Billy and a guy like me had our first groupie. The club had a lot of places to hideBilly and I were both underage, and the owner, Tony, would tell me and a few other cats to hide under the stage when cops would show up. Those were good old days, when Billy was differently polished from his head down to his toes, a veritable fashion plate in English clothes from Granny Takes a Trip in downtown Manhattan.

Billy was a rocker with a kind of magical control over his B3 organ and Leslie cabinet. You could hear Jimmy Smith, Ray Charles, and Felix Cavaliere in his style. It was always rumored that Billy could duplicate a lick with either his right hand or his left hand, in total control. Theyd say, That short cat with the bug eyes is really hot. Sings good too; boys got soul.

The years 1967, 1968, 1969 were great and a very special time to grow up on the Island. But getting back to the combat zone Back then, Billy was rooming with Jon and Elizabeth Small and their very young son, Sean, in a large stone home in Dix Hills that we called the Rock House. Billy and Elizabeth started to become smitten with each other after the breakup of the Hassles and the making of an album he would rather forget called Attila, which he recorded with drummer, heavy metal lover, and good pal Jon Small. Trouble was in the air.

I remember hanging out with Billy and Jon at clubs like Deans College Inn, around the corner from the Rock House, and the Action House and Leones in Long Beach. Lots of hot chicks, mostly fans of the Illusion, one of the first hair bands.

Billy was always a blackout drinker in those days. Now hes well known for his taste in good, expensive bottles of wine. These days, most of my friends on the comedy circuit refer to him as Americas new crash-test dummy.

It was during the late 60s and very early 70s when Billy wrote Everybody Loves You Now, Shes Got a Way, and a couple of other songs that he recorded later for the Cold Spring Harbor record. I started to jam with Billy at the Rock House as he was getting ready for that project. This was Billys first solo album deal, the one contract every young musician signs without reading, and it was a joke. When Billy told us the producers last name was Ripp, we thought that should have been an omen. Billy has been ripped off for millions since then by managers, lawyers, and a lot of other sharks in his inner circle of people.