1
00:00:51,134 --> 00:00:52,927
Ah, key change.

2
00:00:53,011 --> 00:00:54,387
It's like a flat.

3
00:00:54,846 --> 00:00:56,514
One half step down.

4
00:01:44,979 --> 00:01:46,356
Mmm, yeah

5
00:01:48,483 --> 00:01:49,818
Alright

6
00:01:50,527 --> 00:01:51,903
Yeah!

7
00:02:05,750 --> 00:02:08,586
I don't need you to worry for me

8
00:02:08,670 --> 00:02:10,797
'Cause I'm alright

9
00:02:13,049 --> 00:02:15,844
I don't want you to tell me it's time

10
00:02:15,927 --> 00:02:17,679
To come home

11
00:02:20,515 --> 00:02:23,017
I don't care what you say anymore

12
00:02:23,101 --> 00:02:24,894
This is my life

13
00:02:27,522 --> 00:02:29,858
Go ahead with your own life

14
00:02:29,941 --> 00:02:34,070
Leave me alone

15
00:02:34,779 --> 00:02:36,739
Keep it to yourself

16
00:02:36,823 --> 00:02:38,825
It's my life...

17
00:02:39,659 --> 00:02:42,162
I don't like being told what to do.

18
00:02:44,289 --> 00:02:45,623
I never did.

19
00:02:45,707 --> 00:02:48,793
They will tell you you can't sleep alone

20
00:02:48,877 --> 00:02:50,837
In a strange place...

21
00:02:51,629 --> 00:02:52,881
When I was growing up,

22
00:02:53,506 --> 00:02:54,674
it was, "You're going
to graduate high school,

23
00:02:54,757 --> 00:02:56,009
"you're going to college,

24
00:02:56,092 --> 00:02:58,261
you're going to get a good job,
that's it."

25
00:02:58,344 --> 00:03:00,221
And there was really nothing beyond that.

26
00:03:00,305 --> 00:03:03,141
Ah, but sooner or later you sleep

27
00:03:03,224 --> 00:03:05,560
In your own space...

28
00:03:05,643 --> 00:03:07,937
And I thought, wait a minute,
that doesn't really suit

29
00:03:08,021 --> 00:03:09,439
what I want my life to be.

30
00:03:09,939 --> 00:03:11,774
I want to be something different.

31
00:03:14,527 --> 00:03:16,279
That's kind of my life's philosophy.

32
00:03:16,946 --> 00:03:19,073
If I want to do it, I'll do it.

33
00:03:19,157 --> 00:03:22,076
I don't need your authority
to get me there.

34
00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:23,912
Keep it to yourself

35
00:03:23,995 --> 00:03:26,539
It's my life

36
00:03:45,225 --> 00:03:49,395
The pop music artist of the '70s
known as "The Piano Man" is alive

37
00:03:49,479 --> 00:03:51,773
and doing rather well in the '80s.

38
00:03:51,856 --> 00:03:54,150
Proof of that could be found
in Cincinnati tonight.

39
00:03:54,234 --> 00:03:55,693
Dan Royal was there.

40
00:03:55,777 --> 00:03:59,155
At age 33, Billy Joel has been
29 years on the piano.

41
00:03:59,239 --> 00:04:01,658
1973 was a turning point in his career,

42
00:04:01,741 --> 00:04:04,077
some say, with the song "Piano Man."

43
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,829
National attention followed
by a string of hits.

44
00:04:07,205 --> 00:04:09,499
But just about a year ago,
another milestone:

45
00:04:09,582 --> 00:04:10,959
the motorcycle accident.

46
00:04:11,042 --> 00:04:13,795
The wrist got broken.
Wrist is, you know, it's...

47
00:04:13,878 --> 00:04:15,964
I don't have full range of motion in it.

48
00:04:16,464 --> 00:04:17,924
I should be able to get
my hand down further,

49
00:04:18,007 --> 00:04:19,300
but I can't.

50
00:04:19,384 --> 00:04:20,760
And the thumb got crushed.

51
00:04:20,843 --> 00:04:22,929
So there's a piece of bone
missing in the thumb.

52
00:04:23,554 --> 00:04:24,764
It hurts.

53
00:04:24,847 --> 00:04:27,767
But, I mean, this is rock and roll.

54
00:04:27,850 --> 00:04:29,602
I'm not Vladimir Horowitz here.

55
00:04:32,981 --> 00:04:35,191
In the past year,
Joel has split with his wife.

56
00:04:35,275 --> 00:04:37,360
You'd think that and the accident

57
00:04:37,610 --> 00:04:39,320
would tone this guy down a little.

58
00:04:39,404 --> 00:04:43,241
I accept it with quiet dignity and grace.

59
00:04:43,783 --> 00:04:46,369
I do not want to live!

60
00:04:46,452 --> 00:04:49,372
And the dogs go mad
in packs on the west side

61
00:04:49,455 --> 00:04:51,165
Have you been taking
very good care of Billy?

62
00:04:51,541 --> 00:04:52,750
I hear that you've had
a few personal problems,

63
00:04:52,834 --> 00:04:54,127
but you've got a new manager now and...

64
00:04:54,210 --> 00:04:55,545
No, they beat me up every night.

65
00:04:56,296 --> 00:04:57,297
Yeah.

66
00:04:57,380 --> 00:04:58,673
You know that motorcycle accident?

67
00:04:58,756 --> 00:05:00,717
I was driving the car.

68
00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,928
While the millionaires hide
in Beekman Place

69
00:05:04,262 --> 00:05:06,681
The bag ladies throw
their bones in my face

70
00:05:09,225 --> 00:05:12,312
I don't wanna hear it
but he won't turn it down

71
00:05:12,395 --> 00:05:14,731
For those who had
any doubt, Billy is back.

72
00:05:14,814 --> 00:05:16,649
And the strange thing about it,

73
00:05:16,733 --> 00:05:18,609
the crowds never seem to have left.

74
00:05:21,529 --> 00:05:24,699
The album "Glass Houses"
was great to play live.

75
00:05:24,782 --> 00:05:29,537
It had stronger dynamics to get across
in a big venue.

76
00:05:29,620 --> 00:05:32,957
It was closer to the rock and roll music

77
00:05:33,041 --> 00:05:35,126
that used to excite me when I was younger.

78
00:05:35,460 --> 00:05:37,754
And after that album was done,

79
00:05:37,837 --> 00:05:40,214
I wanted to completely change direction.

80
00:05:41,924 --> 00:05:43,551
I was going through a divorce.

81
00:05:43,634 --> 00:05:46,220
I was reevaluating everything in my life.

82
00:05:46,846 --> 00:05:49,390
I wanted to do something more serious.

83
00:05:55,688 --> 00:05:57,815
I went into the studio last year

84
00:05:57,899 --> 00:05:59,275
to do this album,

85
00:05:59,359 --> 00:06:00,693
but I got hung up finishing it

86
00:06:00,777 --> 00:06:02,445
because I'd had a motorcycle accident,

87
00:06:02,528 --> 00:06:04,614
and that kind of threw
the whole scheduling off

88
00:06:04,697 --> 00:06:05,782
and everything.

89
00:06:07,950 --> 00:06:10,661
It took a long time to make,
but I'm glad I stuck with it.

90
00:06:13,289 --> 00:06:16,584
Billy doesn't have that much patience
in the studio making a record.

91
00:06:16,667 --> 00:06:19,337
I would say "The Nylon Curtain"
was the exception.

92
00:06:20,254 --> 00:06:23,716
I wanted to make
a real sonic masterpiece.

93
00:06:25,927 --> 00:06:28,012
Normally, you would use the studio

94
00:06:28,096 --> 00:06:30,431
to capture something
that you were creating.

95
00:06:30,515 --> 00:06:33,559
In this case, there was a lot
of work in the studio

96
00:06:33,643 --> 00:06:36,562
using the technology to finish the song.

97
00:06:37,230 --> 00:06:39,065
I was experimenting
playing the studio

98
00:06:39,148 --> 00:06:40,400
as an instrument.

99
00:06:40,900 --> 00:06:43,778
He was creating moods and soundscapes,

100
00:06:43,861 --> 00:06:45,613
like in "Scandinavian Skies."

101
00:06:46,823 --> 00:06:53,830
I could play the blues all night

102
00:06:54,414 --> 00:06:58,209
Ah

103
00:06:58,918 --> 00:07:00,962
It was an incredibly fertile time

104
00:07:01,045 --> 00:07:03,089
musically and creatively for Billy.

105
00:07:06,467 --> 00:07:09,387
They started changing what I was hearing
in my headphones.

106
00:07:09,470 --> 00:07:11,013
The vocal sounded different.

107
00:07:11,097 --> 00:07:12,515
The echo sounded different.

108
00:07:12,598 --> 00:07:14,934
I said, oh, wow, I can write to that.

109
00:07:15,977 --> 00:07:19,272
Pressure! Pressure!

110
00:07:19,355 --> 00:07:22,900
It's so fucking weird and avant garde.

111
00:07:23,693 --> 00:07:26,988
I wanted to create something
where the sound was

112
00:07:27,071 --> 00:07:29,490
as important as the notes themselves.

113
00:07:32,994 --> 00:07:36,122
For "Pressure," I'm hearing
this Tchaikovsky like...

114
00:07:39,125 --> 00:07:42,211
And I want to hear mandolins
and balalaikas.

115
00:07:42,503 --> 00:07:45,798
Phil Ramone found these
Russian balalaika players,

116
00:07:45,882 --> 00:07:47,175
brought them all into the studio.

117
00:07:47,258 --> 00:07:48,926
Which is kind of weird,
walking in the studio,

118
00:07:49,010 --> 00:07:51,179
seeing all these old guys
with these old instruments.

119
00:07:51,512 --> 00:07:54,390
But it was very cool.
And it sounded great.

120
00:07:54,474 --> 00:07:56,225
Six balalaika players, for what?

121
00:07:56,309 --> 00:07:57,768
In a semicircle.

122
00:08:01,314 --> 00:08:03,566
You're kidding me.
No, that's what we want to do.

123
00:08:04,358 --> 00:08:06,277
Pressure!

124
00:08:08,613 --> 00:08:10,281
One, two, three, four...

125
00:08:10,364 --> 00:08:11,491
Pressure!

126
00:08:15,745 --> 00:08:18,789
I'm probably
the most proud of that album

127
00:08:18,873 --> 00:08:20,666
as a work of sonic art.

128
00:08:21,459 --> 00:08:24,128
And it was a transition in how I wrote.

129
00:08:24,795 --> 00:08:26,714
Because the music kind of directed me

130
00:08:26,797 --> 00:08:28,674
towards writing a different kind of lyric.

131
00:08:28,758 --> 00:08:31,511
It can't just be about love
and girlfriends.

132
00:08:31,594 --> 00:08:32,970
It has to be serious.

133
00:08:33,054 --> 00:08:35,306
Because the music was more serious.

134
00:08:36,766 --> 00:08:40,228
I had grown up.
I wasn't in my 20s anymore.

135
00:08:40,311 --> 00:08:42,271
It wasn't just about rock and roll.

136
00:08:42,355 --> 00:08:43,856
It was about the world.

137
00:08:45,566 --> 00:08:47,485
It was the era of Reagan

138
00:08:47,818 --> 00:08:49,820
which was supposed to be
the shining city on the hill,

139
00:08:49,904 --> 00:08:52,698
but there was a lot
of underbelly stuff going on.

140
00:08:52,782 --> 00:08:56,369
The promise of America
wasn't there anymore.

141
00:08:56,452 --> 00:08:58,162
Things were really changing.

142
00:09:10,007 --> 00:09:13,928
Well, we're living here in Allentown

143
00:09:14,387 --> 00:09:17,598
And they're closing
all the factories down...

144
00:09:18,182 --> 00:09:20,893
The steel industry
was dying in Pennsylvania.

145
00:09:20,977 --> 00:09:22,270
People were out of work.

146
00:09:22,353 --> 00:09:24,063
This was in the headlines every day.

147
00:09:24,146 --> 00:09:27,066
...here in Allentown

148
00:09:27,149 --> 00:09:29,986
But they've taken all
the coal from the ground

149
00:09:30,069 --> 00:09:33,447
At a certain point, he sort of turned
his attention to songs like "Allentown."

150
00:09:33,531 --> 00:09:35,741
The camera pulls back, and you see us all

151
00:09:35,825 --> 00:09:37,451
in a particular place in time.

152
00:09:38,536 --> 00:09:41,998
Every child had a pretty good shot

153
00:09:42,081 --> 00:09:45,918
To get at least as far
as their old man got

154
00:09:46,002 --> 00:09:49,380
I think he really got a lot
of what he was trying to go for.

155
00:09:49,463 --> 00:09:51,507
It was very much a Billy Joel song

156
00:09:51,591 --> 00:09:54,802
and very much a song about
something larger than him.

157
00:09:54,885 --> 00:09:57,221
...place

158
00:09:57,805 --> 00:09:59,056
Whoa

159
00:09:59,765 --> 00:10:05,479
And it's getting very hard to stay

160
00:10:05,563 --> 00:10:09,942
And we're living here in Allentown

161
00:10:10,818 --> 00:10:12,695
The egalitarian nature of that song,

162
00:10:12,778 --> 00:10:16,657
a connection to working people,
that's really important in his music.

163
00:10:17,158 --> 00:10:20,202
His songs relate to people.

164
00:10:20,286 --> 00:10:23,289
He knows what will reach someone,

165
00:10:23,372 --> 00:10:24,999
because he's felt it himself.

166
00:10:25,082 --> 00:10:26,751
So he's got the passion,

167
00:10:26,834 --> 00:10:30,755
and I think it starts
in the purity of the music.

168
00:10:34,634 --> 00:10:36,844
He cares about the human experience.

169
00:10:36,927 --> 00:10:38,137
There's no bullshit.

170
00:10:38,888 --> 00:10:40,640
He wrote songs that matter.

171
00:10:43,809 --> 00:10:49,190
We met as soulmates

172
00:10:49,273 --> 00:10:52,401
On Parris Island

173
00:10:53,069 --> 00:10:55,613
There's a song on "The Nylon Curtain"

174
00:10:55,696 --> 00:10:59,116
that I wrote for my friends
who were veterans of Vietnam.

175
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,952
They told me they wanted me
to write a song for them,

176
00:11:02,036 --> 00:11:04,246
and I said, well, I didn't go to Vietnam.

177
00:11:04,330 --> 00:11:06,499
I don't think I have
credibility to write a song.

178
00:11:06,582 --> 00:11:08,125
And they said, "We'll tell
you what we went through."

179
00:11:08,209 --> 00:11:13,130
...sharp as sharp as knives

180
00:11:14,465 --> 00:11:19,970
And we were so gung ho
to lay down our lives

181
00:11:21,013 --> 00:11:24,225
There was never a song really written
from the soldier's point of view,

182
00:11:24,308 --> 00:11:27,144
who was the guy over there
getting his ass shot off.

183
00:11:28,437 --> 00:11:30,022
Not whether it was wrong,
whether it was right.

184
00:11:30,106 --> 00:11:32,066
It was just: How did you feel
when you were over there?

185
00:11:33,317 --> 00:11:37,446
And we held onto each other

186
00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:41,033
Like brother to brother

187
00:11:41,117 --> 00:11:43,494
All art has political implications.

188
00:11:43,577 --> 00:11:45,663
But Billy's thing was less political

189
00:11:45,746 --> 00:11:48,416
than just pure attitude.

190
00:11:48,499 --> 00:11:52,795
Billy's angry young man thing
was literally just that,

191
00:11:52,878 --> 00:11:55,798
you know, it wasn't
an angry activist young man.

192
00:11:56,590 --> 00:11:58,592
One of the things I like
about Billy's writing

193
00:11:58,676 --> 00:12:00,845
is that he never directly goes there.

194
00:12:00,928 --> 00:12:03,723
It's also a part of why
the material hasn't dated.

195
00:12:03,806 --> 00:12:09,353
...all go down together

196
00:12:09,603 --> 00:12:16,610
Yes, we will all go down together

197
00:12:18,779 --> 00:12:20,114
When I listen to "Goodnight Saigon,"

198
00:12:20,197 --> 00:12:23,409
I'm not thinking about
the socio-political ramifications

199
00:12:23,492 --> 00:12:24,827
of the Vietnam War.

200
00:12:24,910 --> 00:12:26,662
I'm thinking about the guys in that song.

201
00:12:26,996 --> 00:12:30,207
I think Billy Joel at his best
writes about people,

202
00:12:30,291 --> 00:12:32,501
not causes or concepts.

203
00:12:35,588 --> 00:12:37,131
Thank you.

204
00:12:37,715 --> 00:12:38,966
You've been incredible.

205
00:12:43,137 --> 00:12:46,307
I've never liked
getting political onstage.

206
00:12:46,390 --> 00:12:48,434
People want to get away
from a lot of that stuff,

207
00:12:48,517 --> 00:12:49,518
I realize that.

208
00:12:52,646 --> 00:12:55,107
But sometimes,
there are things that happen,

209
00:12:55,191 --> 00:12:56,901
and you can't just look away.

210
00:12:58,068 --> 00:13:01,071
When I wore the yellow Star of David

211
00:13:01,655 --> 00:13:04,200
about a week after Charlottesville,

212
00:13:04,283 --> 00:13:06,202
The Unite the Right rally...

213
00:13:06,660 --> 00:13:09,497
Jews will not replace us!

214
00:13:09,955 --> 00:13:11,957
...I had to do something.

215
00:13:12,041 --> 00:13:13,459
I was angry. Here they are

216
00:13:13,542 --> 00:13:15,336
marching through an American city

217
00:13:15,419 --> 00:13:18,088
saying, "Jews will not replace us."

218
00:13:18,172 --> 00:13:21,091
We fought a war to,
you know, defeat these people.

219
00:13:24,887 --> 00:13:26,263
And then when Trump
comes out and says,

220
00:13:26,347 --> 00:13:28,849
"There were very fine people
on both sides."

221
00:13:28,933 --> 00:13:30,976
You had people that were...

222
00:13:32,061 --> 00:13:34,021
very fine people on both sides.

223
00:13:34,104 --> 00:13:37,107
You know, he should have come out and said
those are bad people.

224
00:13:37,942 --> 00:13:39,193
There is no qualifying it.

225
00:13:39,568 --> 00:13:42,988
The Nazis are not good people. Period.

226
00:13:43,072 --> 00:13:44,406
And I was angry.

227
00:13:44,490 --> 00:13:45,699
I was very angry,
and I had to do something.

228
00:13:45,783 --> 00:13:48,661
But I didn't want to get up
on a soapbox onstage

229
00:13:48,744 --> 00:13:49,829
and say this is wrong.

230
00:13:50,371 --> 00:13:52,456
So I wore the star,

231
00:13:52,540 --> 00:13:53,916
basically to say...

232
00:13:55,626 --> 00:13:56,752
no matter what,

233
00:13:57,586 --> 00:13:59,880
I will always be a Jew.

234
00:14:06,554 --> 00:14:08,013
I am a Jew.

235
00:14:09,974 --> 00:14:13,894
My father grew up in Germany
in a well-to-do family.

236
00:14:14,812 --> 00:14:18,274
I only met my father's
parents a few times.

237
00:14:18,357 --> 00:14:20,067
They were very proud to be German.

238
00:14:20,609 --> 00:14:22,486
They weren't practicing Jews.

239
00:14:23,028 --> 00:14:26,031
My father got bar mitzvahed,
and that was it.

240
00:14:26,115 --> 00:14:27,700
They really didn't go to synagogue.

241
00:14:28,158 --> 00:14:29,577
But in Germany,

242
00:14:29,660 --> 00:14:31,912
if your family was Jewish, you were a Jew.

243
00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:36,542
My paternal grandfather, Karl Joel,

244
00:14:36,625 --> 00:14:42,089
had a business called Joel Macht Fabrik
in Nuremberg,

245
00:14:42,673 --> 00:14:45,759
and they had a factory
where they made textiles

246
00:14:45,843 --> 00:14:46,969
and clothing.

247
00:14:47,636 --> 00:14:50,180
His business was doing very, very well

248
00:14:50,723 --> 00:14:52,933
until the Nazis came to power.

249
00:14:55,185 --> 00:14:56,395
They were wealthy people.

250
00:14:57,438 --> 00:14:59,982
They lived in a nice house next to a park.

251
00:15:00,858 --> 00:15:04,778
The park was where they had
the Nazi Nuremberg rallies.

252
00:15:05,905 --> 00:15:07,615
Heil!

253
00:15:07,698 --> 00:15:10,117
Heil! Heil!

254
00:15:10,784 --> 00:15:13,162
Heil! Heil!

255
00:15:29,637 --> 00:15:31,555
My dad would look over the fence

256
00:15:31,639 --> 00:15:33,807
while they were doing all
these anti-Semitic speeches

257
00:15:34,558 --> 00:15:36,226
and see this going on.

258
00:15:36,685 --> 00:15:38,354
I can't imagine the trauma

259
00:15:38,437 --> 00:15:42,733
to watch the SS parade
espousing these principles.

260
00:15:43,776 --> 00:15:46,904
He was born in 1923, so he was 10

261
00:15:47,446 --> 00:15:49,657
when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

262
00:15:50,324 --> 00:15:51,659
Things got nasty.

263
00:15:54,787 --> 00:15:57,915
The German government
revoked the citizenship

264
00:15:57,998 --> 00:15:59,875
of anyone who was Jewish.

265
00:16:01,710 --> 00:16:03,754
You couldn't sit in the park.

266
00:16:04,797 --> 00:16:06,173
You couldn't walk on the street.

267
00:16:06,548 --> 00:16:08,092
You had no rights at all.

268
00:16:09,885 --> 00:16:11,261
The Jewish kids in the school had

269
00:16:11,345 --> 00:16:13,180
to sit on the other side of the class.

270
00:16:17,893 --> 00:16:19,687
Eventually, he couldn't even go to school.

271
00:16:21,981 --> 00:16:24,441
There was a newspaper editor,
Julius Streicher,

272
00:16:24,775 --> 00:16:26,860
who had a couple
of anti-Semitic newspapers

273
00:16:26,944 --> 00:16:27,987
that they published.

274
00:16:28,070 --> 00:16:29,780
"Der Stürmer" was the big one.

275
00:16:30,322 --> 00:16:31,907
They would target my grandfather.

276
00:16:32,533 --> 00:16:34,994
"The Jew Joel," he was referred to.

277
00:16:37,746 --> 00:16:40,165
Eventually,
these ordinances and laws,

278
00:16:40,749 --> 00:16:43,919
anti-Semitic newspapers
took a toll on the business.

279
00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:46,922
They had to stamp everything
that they mailed out

280
00:16:47,006 --> 00:16:48,507
with a "J" for "Jew."

281
00:16:49,383 --> 00:16:52,553
I don't know why he thought
he could survive this,

282
00:16:52,636 --> 00:16:54,388
because it was becoming apparent

283
00:16:54,930 --> 00:16:57,558
that no Jewish business was
going to be able to survive.

284
00:16:57,975 --> 00:17:00,269
He must have been an optimist

285
00:17:00,853 --> 00:17:03,188
or just didn't want to see it,

286
00:17:03,272 --> 00:17:04,481
didn't want to know it.

287
00:17:07,026 --> 00:17:09,695
They were forced to sell
the business for nothing.

288
00:17:10,529 --> 00:17:12,156
You know, like pennies on the dollar,

289
00:17:12,948 --> 00:17:14,950
to a guy named Neckermann.

290
00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:17,202
But Neckermann never paid.

291
00:17:17,786 --> 00:17:20,998
My grandfather was asking what
he should do to get the money

292
00:17:21,832 --> 00:17:25,252
and he got a message,
"We'll settle the account."

293
00:17:26,503 --> 00:17:29,506
He was warned at the last minute,
you know, watch out.

294
00:17:29,590 --> 00:17:30,591
They're going to kill you.

295
00:17:32,134 --> 00:17:34,344
My grandfather realized this is it.

296
00:17:34,803 --> 00:17:37,306
I better leave while I can.
And he was lucky.

297
00:17:37,389 --> 00:17:39,641
They got to go across the Swiss border

298
00:17:39,725 --> 00:17:42,811
which was difficult for a lot of people.

299
00:17:44,021 --> 00:17:47,858
If my grandparents
had been found on the train

300
00:17:47,941 --> 00:17:49,651
with the documents that said "Jew,"

301
00:17:49,735 --> 00:17:52,863
they would have been sent immediately
to a concentration camp.

302
00:17:53,238 --> 00:17:55,157
They got out. A miracle.

303
00:17:57,076 --> 00:17:58,619
The ironic thing is,

304
00:17:58,702 --> 00:18:00,996
when Neckermann took over the business,

305
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:02,706
they actually started to manufacture

306
00:18:02,790 --> 00:18:04,208
the striped pajamas

307
00:18:04,291 --> 00:18:06,210
that the prisoners
in the concentration camps

308
00:18:06,293 --> 00:18:07,294
had to wear.

309
00:18:07,711 --> 00:18:09,671
That was made by Joel Macht Fabrik.

310
00:18:14,885 --> 00:18:17,805
I didn't know any of that
until I was in my mid-20s.

311
00:18:18,514 --> 00:18:19,765
There's still a lot I don't know.

312
00:18:19,848 --> 00:18:21,391
I'm still trying
to put the pieces together.

313
00:18:22,768 --> 00:18:24,311
I didn't know my father at all

314
00:18:24,812 --> 00:18:27,564
from the time I was about eight years old

315
00:18:27,648 --> 00:18:29,525
until I was in my mid-20s.

316
00:18:29,608 --> 00:18:31,110
Tried to...

317
00:18:32,569 --> 00:18:34,196
figure out where he was,

318
00:18:34,279 --> 00:18:36,907
how I could contact him,
but nobody knew.

319
00:18:39,451 --> 00:18:42,579
Well, so here I am

320
00:18:42,663 --> 00:18:45,165
At the end of the road

321
00:18:46,083 --> 00:18:48,877
Where do I go from here?

322
00:18:48,961 --> 00:18:53,048
When I was 21, 22, I went to Europe.

323
00:18:54,216 --> 00:18:57,094
I played in clubs,
and I played in these little bars

324
00:18:57,177 --> 00:18:59,138
and showcase places.

325
00:19:01,056 --> 00:19:04,143
And I figured maybe I could track down
my father somewhere

326
00:19:05,144 --> 00:19:06,353
because I never heard from him.

327
00:19:06,436 --> 00:19:08,689
I never got a card,
not a phone call, nothing.

328
00:19:08,772 --> 00:19:11,191
And I was wondering, is he dead or alive?
I didn't know.

329
00:19:11,275 --> 00:19:15,028
And it's hard

330
00:19:15,112 --> 00:19:17,781
The day I was leaving
to go back to the States,

331
00:19:18,365 --> 00:19:20,159
I get a telegram,

332
00:19:21,243 --> 00:19:23,078
and it says, "We found your father."

333
00:19:23,620 --> 00:19:25,873
And, oh, my God, they found my father.

334
00:19:25,956 --> 00:19:27,249
Where? How do I do that?

335
00:19:27,332 --> 00:19:30,669
And then I found out
my father lived in Vienna.

336
00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:39,136
I went to visit my father's apartment,

337
00:19:39,219 --> 00:19:41,555
and there was a little blonde boy.

338
00:19:42,764 --> 00:19:44,516
I found out I had a half-brother.

339
00:19:47,728 --> 00:19:49,605
I met Bill when I was five.

340
00:19:50,814 --> 00:19:52,149
I remember that moment.

341
00:19:53,317 --> 00:19:56,653
It was my first day in school.
And I just got out of school.

342
00:19:57,154 --> 00:19:58,488
He read me a goodnight story.

343
00:19:59,865 --> 00:20:01,450
I saw pictures of my father

344
00:20:01,533 --> 00:20:03,285
playing in the snow and skiing.

345
00:20:03,368 --> 00:20:05,704
And I said, you never did that with me.

346
00:20:06,038 --> 00:20:07,623
How come... What did I do?

347
00:20:07,706 --> 00:20:09,458
How come I never heard nothing?

348
00:20:11,251 --> 00:20:13,754
I had conflicting feelings about it,

349
00:20:14,630 --> 00:20:17,049
but he had a very strange life.

350
00:20:18,050 --> 00:20:21,637
He fought in the US Army
under General Patton.

351
00:20:22,429 --> 00:20:23,847
They liberated Dachau.

352
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:25,974
I tried to get him to talk about it,

353
00:20:26,058 --> 00:20:29,102
but he didn't really want
to talk about his past.

354
00:20:29,186 --> 00:20:32,064
And I heard most of it from my brother.

355
00:20:34,233 --> 00:20:36,652
In the first week, he was there

356
00:20:36,735 --> 00:20:40,280
after it was liberated
and saw the terrible things.

357
00:20:43,617 --> 00:20:46,495
It was something that
deeply traumatized him.

358
00:20:48,997 --> 00:20:50,958
And then I found out
about my father's family.

359
00:20:51,833 --> 00:20:53,126
They were hunted.

360
00:20:54,753 --> 00:20:56,588
Many from my family were in Auschwitz.

361
00:20:57,214 --> 00:21:00,133
Our whole family,
most of them were killed.

362
00:21:02,552 --> 00:21:04,346
I visited the graveyard

363
00:21:04,429 --> 00:21:06,473
where the Joel family's buried,

364
00:21:06,974 --> 00:21:09,559
and I didn't even know
I had that many relatives.

365
00:21:11,937 --> 00:21:15,399
There's an underlying rage
that comes out sometimes.

366
00:21:15,482 --> 00:21:16,942
And it's, "What are you
getting all mad about?

367
00:21:17,025 --> 00:21:20,237
Nobody did anything to you."
But they wiped out my family.

368
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,281
I would have liked to have
known some of these people.

369
00:21:27,035 --> 00:21:29,705
And so, my father, he was very internal.

370
00:21:30,330 --> 00:21:31,873
Very dark man.

371
00:21:31,957 --> 00:21:34,001
And he told me once
when I was a little kid,

372
00:21:34,668 --> 00:21:36,211
"Life is a cesspool."

373
00:21:37,170 --> 00:21:39,673
Wow. That's not a great outlook on life.

374
00:21:41,591 --> 00:21:45,345
After he moved to the States,
he didn't really take to America.

375
00:21:48,056 --> 00:21:49,725
He thought it was too commercial.

376
00:21:50,267 --> 00:21:51,685
Lacking in culture.

377
00:21:52,811 --> 00:21:56,231
And the anti-Semitism he ran into
embittered him a good deal.

378
00:21:57,733 --> 00:22:00,319
And then when my grandparents decided

379
00:22:00,402 --> 00:22:02,237
they were going to move back to Germany,

380
00:22:02,321 --> 00:22:05,866
my father and mother divorced
around that time,

381
00:22:06,783 --> 00:22:08,994
and he moved back to Europe.

382
00:22:14,416 --> 00:22:17,085
I was there when Billy met with his dad.

383
00:22:18,128 --> 00:22:21,089
His father walks in,
and nobody's saying anything,

384
00:22:21,173 --> 00:22:22,632
but you could see the angst.

385
00:22:24,551 --> 00:22:26,094
It was awkward.

386
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:28,680
How do you reconnect with your father?

387
00:22:29,181 --> 00:22:30,932
How does he reconnect with his son?

388
00:22:31,391 --> 00:22:34,227
I guess we were too shy
to talk to each other.

389
00:22:34,603 --> 00:22:37,939
We just kind of spent time
being near each other

390
00:22:38,315 --> 00:22:40,025
and trying to warm it up

391
00:22:40,108 --> 00:22:41,943
and figure out how to communicate.

392
00:22:42,903 --> 00:22:44,363
Neither of us knew how to do it.

393
00:22:51,703 --> 00:22:54,081
Those thoughts marinated.

394
00:22:55,749 --> 00:23:00,629
And one day, I just sat down
and started writing this song.

395
00:23:00,712 --> 00:23:03,882
This is for my father. Okay. Here we go.

396
00:23:20,148 --> 00:23:23,276
Slow down you crazy child

397
00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:26,571
You're so ambitious for a juvenile

398
00:23:26,655 --> 00:23:28,698
But then if you're so smart

399
00:23:28,782 --> 00:23:32,119
Tell me why are you still so afraid?

400
00:23:32,619 --> 00:23:34,830
Hmm

401
00:23:35,455 --> 00:23:38,041
Where's the fire? What's the hurry about?

402
00:23:38,125 --> 00:23:41,962
You better cool it off
before you burn it out

403
00:23:42,045 --> 00:23:44,965
You got so much to do and only so many...

404
00:23:45,048 --> 00:23:47,926
I've had the privilege of getting
to know Billy personally.

405
00:23:48,343 --> 00:23:51,555
And Billy had a lot of trauma
in his young life.

406
00:23:52,389 --> 00:23:54,015
When you look at some of Billy's songs,

407
00:23:54,099 --> 00:23:56,435
you see a glimpse of this.

408
00:23:57,060 --> 00:23:59,479
When will you realize

409
00:24:00,272 --> 00:24:02,983
Vienna waits for you?

410
00:24:04,609 --> 00:24:06,069
"Vienna waits for you."

411
00:24:06,153 --> 00:24:08,280
I suppose it's what I was searching for.

412
00:24:08,780 --> 00:24:10,323
You know, my father was there.

413
00:24:10,407 --> 00:24:11,908
I know I was searching for him.

414
00:24:12,367 --> 00:24:14,369
But beyond my father,

415
00:24:14,453 --> 00:24:16,913
it's the music city of the world.

416
00:24:16,997 --> 00:24:18,748
So it has a lot of meaning.

417
00:24:18,832 --> 00:24:20,417
There's a lot of different layers to it.

418
00:24:21,793 --> 00:24:24,504
Too bad, but it's the life you lead

419
00:24:24,588 --> 00:24:26,381
You're so ahead of yourself

420
00:24:26,465 --> 00:24:28,216
That you forgot what you need...

421
00:24:28,300 --> 00:24:32,304
I think Billy's story
is way deeper psychologically

422
00:24:32,387 --> 00:24:34,347
than Billy wants to know.

423
00:24:34,431 --> 00:24:37,058
You're right

424
00:24:37,142 --> 00:24:38,643
There are certain traumas

425
00:24:38,727 --> 00:24:40,270
that one never gets over,

426
00:24:41,271 --> 00:24:43,356
and there are certain motivators in life

427
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:45,150
that sometimes we're not even aware of.

428
00:24:46,526 --> 00:24:49,488
But I think his drive comes
from wanting to know

429
00:24:49,571 --> 00:24:50,822
his father through music.

430
00:24:51,323 --> 00:24:53,325
When will you realize

431
00:24:54,743 --> 00:24:59,873
Vienna waits for you?

432
00:25:14,346 --> 00:25:16,515
Alright. Thank you.

433
00:25:17,098 --> 00:25:19,935
Now, I want to try playing
the piano with my father

434
00:25:20,018 --> 00:25:21,269
if he'll come up and do it.

435
00:25:31,238 --> 00:25:34,324
There was always a remoteness,
there was always a distance.

436
00:25:34,407 --> 00:25:36,493
He was one of those people
who kind of held you off.

437
00:25:42,499 --> 00:25:44,042
I wanted to be close to him.

438
00:25:44,125 --> 00:25:46,545
I would have liked my father
to have been proud of me.

439
00:25:46,628 --> 00:25:50,298
I would have liked to have talked to him
about music and life.

440
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,388
But we never really made
a strong connection.

441
00:25:58,181 --> 00:26:00,267
Never really had that magic moment.

442
00:26:02,936 --> 00:26:04,104
It's disappointing.

443
00:26:09,651 --> 00:26:14,573
Where's the orchestra?

444
00:26:15,657 --> 00:26:20,954
Wasn't this supposed to be a musical?

445
00:26:21,746 --> 00:26:26,710
Here I am in the balcony

446
00:26:27,836 --> 00:26:32,799
How the hell could I have
missed the overture?

447
00:26:33,508 --> 00:26:35,802
I like...

448
00:26:35,885 --> 00:26:36,928
"Where's the Orchestra?" was

449
00:26:37,012 --> 00:26:38,096
the last song I wrote

450
00:26:38,179 --> 00:26:39,931
on "The Nylon Curtain" album.

451
00:26:40,015 --> 00:26:43,059
Even though I have

452
00:26:43,143 --> 00:26:48,607
Absolutely no

453
00:26:48,690 --> 00:26:50,692
Idea at all

454
00:26:50,775 --> 00:26:52,485
It was a song of disillusionment.

455
00:26:52,986 --> 00:26:55,322
It's a summation of life for me.

456
00:26:55,405 --> 00:26:58,199
Life is not a musical,
it's a Greek tragedy.

457
00:26:58,283 --> 00:27:03,830
Where's the orchestra?

458
00:27:07,584 --> 00:27:10,587
Goodnight, D.C. Don't take
any shit from anybody.

459
00:27:12,422 --> 00:27:14,007
I was wiped out emotionally,

460
00:27:14,090 --> 00:27:16,217
physically from doing "The Nylon Curtain."

461
00:27:16,301 --> 00:27:18,595
I felt like I was close to death.

462
00:27:19,429 --> 00:27:21,931
I'd been on the road
year after year after year,

463
00:27:22,015 --> 00:27:26,227
writing, recording,
touring, on and on and on.

464
00:27:26,311 --> 00:27:28,188
And I'd really never taken a vacation.

465
00:27:28,605 --> 00:27:31,858
So I was talking with
Paul Simon, who was a friend.

466
00:27:31,941 --> 00:27:33,777
He said, "Why don't you go to this place

467
00:27:33,860 --> 00:27:35,320
down in the Caribbean called Saint Barts."

468
00:27:35,403 --> 00:27:36,571
I never heard of it.

469
00:27:36,655 --> 00:27:39,074
"It's really quiet. It's real chill.

470
00:27:39,157 --> 00:27:40,283
"You'll really like it.

471
00:27:40,367 --> 00:27:41,951
Nobody's going to bother you."

472
00:27:43,036 --> 00:27:45,455
So I took his advice
and I went to Saint Barts.

473
00:27:46,539 --> 00:27:47,540
I just thought this is going to be

474
00:27:47,624 --> 00:27:48,750
a quiet little island.

475
00:27:48,833 --> 00:27:51,086
Let me tell you a story

476
00:27:51,169 --> 00:27:52,671
There you go.

477
00:27:52,754 --> 00:27:54,673
Christie Brinkley
has hooked the brass ring

478
00:27:54,756 --> 00:27:56,466
on the modeling merry-go-round.

479
00:27:58,218 --> 00:27:59,803
This golden girl from California

480
00:27:59,886 --> 00:28:01,513
has run up the astounding record

481
00:28:01,596 --> 00:28:04,808
of appearing on more than
100 magazine covers.

482
00:28:04,891 --> 00:28:06,810
She was always Christie Lee

483
00:28:08,395 --> 00:28:09,854
I was on a shoot.

484
00:28:09,938 --> 00:28:11,564
We were in Saint Barts.

485
00:28:11,648 --> 00:28:13,358
One of the people from our crew

486
00:28:13,441 --> 00:28:15,068
comes running in and goes,

487
00:28:15,652 --> 00:28:18,029
"Oh, my God, you guys,
Billy Joel's at the PLM."

488
00:28:18,113 --> 00:28:22,659
We zip over to the PLM,
and he's sitting at the bar.

489
00:28:26,413 --> 00:28:27,706
One of the things I love about Billy

490
00:28:27,789 --> 00:28:29,165
is he's never comfortable in a room

491
00:28:29,249 --> 00:28:30,291
until he sees a piano.

492
00:28:32,335 --> 00:28:33,962
He doesn't perform so other people

493
00:28:34,045 --> 00:28:35,255
can hear him play.

494
00:28:35,338 --> 00:28:37,090
It's like his security blanket.

495
00:28:37,173 --> 00:28:39,175
So it isn't surprising he's down there.

496
00:28:39,259 --> 00:28:40,719
He's in Saint Barts.

497
00:28:40,802 --> 00:28:42,971
He's in a bar. There's a piano.

498
00:28:43,054 --> 00:28:44,305
He sits down to play.

499
00:28:44,389 --> 00:28:46,057
And he looks up, and there are

500
00:28:46,141 --> 00:28:48,977
these amazingly beautiful
models staring down at him.

501
00:28:49,436 --> 00:28:51,020
He's burned to a crisp.

502
00:28:51,104 --> 00:28:53,440
He's got, like, a Hawaiian
shirt on or something,

503
00:28:53,523 --> 00:28:55,275
you know, like his holiday shirt.

504
00:28:57,193 --> 00:28:59,279
I said, oh, my God,
this is fantastic.

505
00:28:59,362 --> 00:29:01,239
Thank you so much, Mr. Piano.

506
00:29:01,322 --> 00:29:03,283
Right away, he cracked me up.

507
00:29:03,366 --> 00:29:04,909
He was so funny.

508
00:29:04,993 --> 00:29:07,495
And he's like, "Let me play
a couple songs for you."

509
00:29:07,579 --> 00:29:08,997
There's a piano bench,

510
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:11,291
so I go over and sit next
to him and he goes,

511
00:29:11,374 --> 00:29:12,459
"What kind of music do you like?"

512
00:29:12,542 --> 00:29:14,627
And I just launch into,

513
00:29:14,711 --> 00:29:19,048
Olha que coisa mais linda
mais cheia de graça

514
00:29:19,132 --> 00:29:20,884
And I'm doing the singing,

515
00:29:20,967 --> 00:29:24,345
and Billy's kind of like,
you know, "Okay, alright."

516
00:29:24,429 --> 00:29:26,556
He's playing the song, and I'm singing.

517
00:29:28,641 --> 00:29:30,894
And then, in comes Elle MacPherson.

518
00:29:30,977 --> 00:29:32,687
She is a huge Billy Joel fan.

519
00:29:32,771 --> 00:29:34,439
She's got this gorgeous body,

520
00:29:34,522 --> 00:29:36,524
and she's draping the gorgeous body

521
00:29:36,608 --> 00:29:39,068
all over the place to try
and get his attention.

522
00:29:40,195 --> 00:29:43,281
So I'm chatting up Elle,
I'm chatting up Christie.

523
00:29:43,364 --> 00:29:45,825
All of a sudden, this young girl

524
00:29:45,909 --> 00:29:49,162
comes over and goes,
"Well, I can sing too."

525
00:29:49,245 --> 00:29:50,580
Yeah, yeah, sure you are.

526
00:29:50,663 --> 00:29:52,499
Like, hey, don't bother me, kid.

527
00:29:52,582 --> 00:29:54,834
This young, beautiful girl

528
00:29:54,918 --> 00:29:57,712
comes out with this voice.

529
00:29:57,796 --> 00:30:00,423
It was Whitney freakin' Houston!

530
00:30:01,132 --> 00:30:03,426
It was like
her first modeling job.

531
00:30:03,510 --> 00:30:05,386
It was amazing.

532
00:30:05,470 --> 00:30:07,013
They were all beautiful.

533
00:30:07,096 --> 00:30:08,389
They were all models.

534
00:30:08,473 --> 00:30:10,183
And I was just a schlub

535
00:30:10,266 --> 00:30:12,310
with a sunburn playing the piano.

536
00:30:12,393 --> 00:30:14,229
And then Billy, you know,

537
00:30:14,312 --> 00:30:16,314
finally got a chance
to sing a couple songs.

538
00:30:16,397 --> 00:30:20,276
He was just so fun and funny

539
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:24,155
and pink and shiny.

540
00:30:24,239 --> 00:30:26,074
And...

541
00:30:26,157 --> 00:30:28,159
there was something
very endearing about him.

542
00:30:28,743 --> 00:30:30,245
We just had a great time

543
00:30:30,328 --> 00:30:32,747
laughing, talking, all of that.

544
00:30:32,831 --> 00:30:35,542
And so we decided
that we would stay in touch.

545
00:30:38,127 --> 00:30:39,921
We both lived in New York City,

546
00:30:40,463 --> 00:30:44,634
and we started to hang out
and liked each other.

547
00:30:44,717 --> 00:30:45,969
I said to my mom,

548
00:30:46,052 --> 00:30:48,513
I'm seeing this guy who's so sweet,

549
00:30:48,596 --> 00:30:51,474
but he's, like, you know,
not really my type.

550
00:30:51,558 --> 00:30:54,727
He's kind of got, like,
the Long Island bubble hair.

551
00:30:54,811 --> 00:30:57,146
But he's really interesting and fun.

552
00:30:57,230 --> 00:30:59,899
And she said, "Honey,
you can change the hair.

553
00:30:59,983 --> 00:31:01,359
"You can change his shoes.

554
00:31:01,943 --> 00:31:05,446
But if he's got a good heart,
you should follow your heart."

555
00:31:05,822 --> 00:31:08,366
So we went out, like, on a real date

556
00:31:08,449 --> 00:31:10,869
to a Beach Boys concert.

557
00:31:10,952 --> 00:31:13,246
And, of course, Billy ended up on stage.

558
00:31:13,788 --> 00:31:14,873
There was something really sweet

559
00:31:14,956 --> 00:31:16,875
and old fashion-y about him.

560
00:31:16,958 --> 00:31:21,087
So that's how our friendship
turned into our romance.

561
00:31:22,589 --> 00:31:26,259
Whoa

562
00:31:26,342 --> 00:31:28,761
For the longest time

563
00:31:28,845 --> 00:31:29,971
You know, here I am dating

564
00:31:30,054 --> 00:31:32,724
this beautiful supermodel, and me?

565
00:31:32,807 --> 00:31:34,225
I'm from Hicksville.

566
00:31:34,309 --> 00:31:35,602
What am I doing with her?
What's she doing with me?

567
00:31:35,685 --> 00:31:38,104
But it was a very productive time for me.

568
00:31:38,187 --> 00:31:39,689
I wrote a lot of songs for her.

569
00:31:39,772 --> 00:31:41,482
She was a muse.

570
00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:44,068
It was like being
a teenager all over again,

571
00:31:44,152 --> 00:31:46,362
experiencing those same emotions

572
00:31:46,446 --> 00:31:48,531
that I had when I was first discovering

573
00:31:48,615 --> 00:31:50,241
romance and love.

574
00:31:50,325 --> 00:31:53,161
We're having the best time!

575
00:31:54,162 --> 00:31:58,291
Whoa

576
00:31:58,374 --> 00:32:01,044
For the longest time

577
00:32:01,127 --> 00:32:03,755
Whoa

578
00:32:03,838 --> 00:32:05,214
For the longest...

579
00:32:05,298 --> 00:32:07,383
I'm that voice

580
00:32:07,467 --> 00:32:10,929
You're hearing in the hall

581
00:32:11,012 --> 00:32:15,767
And the greatest miracle of all...

582
00:32:15,850 --> 00:32:16,893
It was fun to be having

583
00:32:16,976 --> 00:32:18,728
this whirlwind romance

584
00:32:18,811 --> 00:32:22,523
and having certain aspects
of that turn into music.

585
00:32:32,158 --> 00:32:35,954
Some people stay far away from the door

586
00:32:36,037 --> 00:32:40,333
If there's a chance of it opening up

587
00:32:41,751 --> 00:32:43,086
I wanted to do something simple

588
00:32:43,169 --> 00:32:44,337
and dumb and happy.

589
00:32:44,420 --> 00:32:45,797
And I did "An Innocent Man,"

590
00:32:46,255 --> 00:32:47,548
which is really an homage

591
00:32:47,632 --> 00:32:49,676
to all the music of my teenage years.

592
00:32:50,551 --> 00:32:54,263
Some people live with the fear of a touch

593
00:32:54,347 --> 00:32:58,685
And the anger of having been a fool...

594
00:32:58,768 --> 00:33:00,645
Like the song "Innocent Man"

595
00:33:00,728 --> 00:33:02,814
is done in the style of The Drifters.

596
00:33:02,897 --> 00:33:07,986
...cry, because I am an innocent man

597
00:33:08,069 --> 00:33:09,862
...with an uptown girl

598
00:33:09,946 --> 00:33:12,699
With "Uptown Girl,"
I wanted to recapture

599
00:33:12,782 --> 00:33:14,993
The Four Seasons with Frankie Valli.

600
00:33:15,076 --> 00:33:19,163
And when she's walkin' she's lookin'

601
00:33:19,247 --> 00:33:21,249
So fine

602
00:33:21,332 --> 00:33:23,418
We were all bar band guys,

603
00:33:23,501 --> 00:33:24,711
and it was kind of like

604
00:33:24,794 --> 00:33:26,838
the '50s and the '60s again,

605
00:33:26,921 --> 00:33:29,298
playing the music we grew up
learning how to play.

606
00:33:29,382 --> 00:33:32,260
Under the boardwalk

607
00:33:33,386 --> 00:33:37,390
Down by the sea, yeah

608
00:33:38,016 --> 00:33:39,517
Under the boardwalk

609
00:33:39,934 --> 00:33:41,269
Boardwalk

610
00:33:45,314 --> 00:33:47,984
We were having a blast
making those recordings.

611
00:33:48,067 --> 00:33:50,028
And all those songs for "An Innocent Man,"

612
00:33:50,111 --> 00:33:51,612
they came fast.

613
00:33:51,696 --> 00:33:52,780
I mean, just...

614
00:33:53,114 --> 00:33:55,158
This is how I'm feeling.
This is what I'm writing.

615
00:33:55,241 --> 00:33:56,284
This is what it is.

616
00:33:56,993 --> 00:33:58,745
I want the easy

617
00:33:59,871 --> 00:34:02,540
Easy, easy money

618
00:34:03,291 --> 00:34:04,375
Billy Joel is in the middle

619
00:34:04,459 --> 00:34:06,544
of a national tour that was sold out

620
00:34:06,627 --> 00:34:08,004
before he ever hit the road.

621
00:34:08,087 --> 00:34:10,298
Tell her about it

622
00:34:10,381 --> 00:34:11,966
On the tour,
there's a whole new audience.

623
00:34:12,050 --> 00:34:14,677
A lot younger kids who didn't know
anything about "Piano Man,"

624
00:34:14,761 --> 00:34:16,554
who don't even know "The Stranger,"

625
00:34:16,637 --> 00:34:19,307
who may only know
from the videos of "Pressure"

626
00:34:19,390 --> 00:34:21,100
and "Allentown" and the new videos

627
00:34:21,184 --> 00:34:22,602
we did on "An Innocent Man."

628
00:34:22,685 --> 00:34:25,063
They've just discovered me
through that, which is great.

629
00:34:25,146 --> 00:34:26,439
Billy's incredible, man.

630
00:34:26,522 --> 00:34:27,857
-How old are you?
-Sixteen.

631
00:34:28,316 --> 00:34:29,692
This was the early '80s

632
00:34:29,776 --> 00:34:31,652
when MTV came to be.

633
00:34:31,944 --> 00:34:33,362
MTV Music Television!

634
00:34:33,446 --> 00:34:36,074
Video music 24 hours a day!

635
00:34:36,407 --> 00:34:37,867
Billy didn't really enjoy

636
00:34:37,950 --> 00:34:39,202
having to do videos.

637
00:34:39,285 --> 00:34:43,122
He wanted his music to just paint the air

638
00:34:43,206 --> 00:34:46,084
and for people to use
their own imagination,

639
00:34:46,167 --> 00:34:47,376
which is limitless.

640
00:34:49,712 --> 00:34:51,172
Plus he didn't think he was

641
00:34:51,255 --> 00:34:54,425
a matinee idol type for these videos.

642
00:34:54,509 --> 00:34:56,344
We want to look good on camera, don't we?

643
00:34:57,136 --> 00:34:59,138
That's right, and Paula makes sure we do.

644
00:34:59,222 --> 00:35:00,807
But he realized
they were important.

645
00:35:00,890 --> 00:35:03,142
So these videos ended up

646
00:35:03,226 --> 00:35:05,228
being a big part of his career.

647
00:35:06,145 --> 00:35:10,066
This is not a video. This is
a mini major motion picture.

648
00:35:10,149 --> 00:35:11,859
It's a three minute movie.

649
00:35:11,943 --> 00:35:14,195
At that time, I had just started
doing music videos.

650
00:35:14,278 --> 00:35:16,405
I had my own little production company.

651
00:35:16,489 --> 00:35:18,491
So I call Billy
and I tell him what I'm doing.

652
00:35:18,908 --> 00:35:20,493
-Quiet!
-Rolling!

653
00:35:20,993 --> 00:35:23,621
The first one they wanted to do
was "Tell Her About It."

654
00:35:23,704 --> 00:35:26,040
And Dennis Arfa, Billy's agent,

655
00:35:26,124 --> 00:35:28,000
said, "I could get you
Rodney Dangerfield."

656
00:35:28,209 --> 00:35:30,169
Hi, this is Rodney Dangerfield.

657
00:35:30,253 --> 00:35:32,463
I'll be on MTV, the world premiere

658
00:35:32,547 --> 00:35:33,589
of the Billy Joel video.

659
00:35:33,673 --> 00:35:35,591
Listen, boy, I don't want

660
00:35:35,675 --> 00:35:37,844
To see you let a good thing slip away

661
00:35:37,927 --> 00:35:39,053
Slip away

662
00:35:39,137 --> 00:35:40,138
So we made "Tell Her About It."

663
00:35:40,471 --> 00:35:41,722
It came out great.

664
00:35:41,806 --> 00:35:42,849
They ended up doing

665
00:35:42,932 --> 00:35:45,059
some of the real standouts

666
00:35:45,143 --> 00:35:46,561
of that period.

667
00:35:47,228 --> 00:35:49,522
I had to wait forever

668
00:35:49,772 --> 00:35:52,608
But better late than never

669
00:35:52,692 --> 00:35:54,777
Hi, I'm Billy Joel, and you're watching me

670
00:35:54,861 --> 00:35:56,362
on MTV, Music Television.

671
00:35:58,114 --> 00:36:00,116
The next video was "Uptown Girl."

672
00:36:00,199 --> 00:36:01,826
Billy said so we'll get Christie.

673
00:36:01,909 --> 00:36:04,996
I go, yeah, but she's in the newspaper
with you every day.

674
00:36:05,079 --> 00:36:07,206
It only makes sense to be her, you know?

675
00:36:07,540 --> 00:36:09,041
So then I went to Christie.

676
00:36:09,125 --> 00:36:11,961
Christie goes, "You see this?
This is money."

677
00:36:12,044 --> 00:36:15,006
So I said, look, you're only
in it for a little bit.

678
00:36:15,089 --> 00:36:18,009
We'll get the hair and makeup
you want, whatever you want.

679
00:36:18,092 --> 00:36:19,427
Just tell Billy you want to do it.

680
00:36:19,510 --> 00:36:21,095
So she told Billy she wanted to do it.

681
00:36:21,179 --> 00:36:23,764
With an uptown girl

682
00:36:23,848 --> 00:36:27,268
You know I've seen her in her uptown world

683
00:36:27,351 --> 00:36:31,314
She's getting tired of her high class toys

684
00:36:31,397 --> 00:36:34,984
And all the presents from her uptown boys

685
00:36:35,067 --> 00:36:36,694
She's got a choice

686
00:36:36,777 --> 00:36:39,280
I felt comfortable
in the gas station outfit

687
00:36:39,363 --> 00:36:40,907
because I used to work at a gas station.

688
00:36:40,990 --> 00:36:42,491
...white-bred world

689
00:36:42,575 --> 00:36:46,287
As long as anyone with hot blood can

690
00:36:46,370 --> 00:36:49,916
And now she's looking for a downtown man

691
00:36:49,999 --> 00:36:51,334
That's what I am

692
00:36:52,001 --> 00:36:54,754
And when she's walkin'

693
00:36:54,837 --> 00:36:58,841
She's lookin' so fine

694
00:36:59,467 --> 00:37:02,220
And when she's talkin'

695
00:37:02,303 --> 00:37:06,474
She'll say that she's mine

696
00:37:06,933 --> 00:37:08,226
Billy said, "Well, I don't want to dance."

697
00:37:08,309 --> 00:37:09,477
I said, well, you're not dancing.

698
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:11,020
You're just going from A to B,

699
00:37:11,103 --> 00:37:13,272
and you're doing it
with some style, you know?

700
00:37:14,398 --> 00:37:17,652
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

701
00:37:17,735 --> 00:37:21,322
It was upspirited,
and it showed the celebrity power.

702
00:37:21,405 --> 00:37:23,699
Uptown girl

703
00:37:23,783 --> 00:37:26,702
She's my uptown girl

704
00:37:26,786 --> 00:37:29,622
You know, they were the most powerful

705
00:37:29,705 --> 00:37:31,916
celebrity couple at that time.

706
00:37:31,999 --> 00:37:35,127
I mean, the ultimate rock-pop star

707
00:37:35,211 --> 00:37:37,338
and the world's greatest model

708
00:37:37,421 --> 00:37:39,507
now in this celebrity video,

709
00:37:39,590 --> 00:37:42,426
which is still legendary to this day.

710
00:37:42,510 --> 00:37:46,055
...I'm in love with an uptown girl

711
00:37:46,138 --> 00:37:47,223
My uptown girl

712
00:37:47,306 --> 00:37:48,307
"Uptown Girl"

713
00:37:48,391 --> 00:37:50,559
was a monster worldwide record.

714
00:37:50,643 --> 00:37:53,312
-Are you the man singing "Uptown Girl?"
-That's me!

715
00:37:53,396 --> 00:37:58,693
Oh

716
00:37:59,151 --> 00:38:02,571
The momentum, the album had, like,
four hit singles on it.

717
00:38:03,155 --> 00:38:05,783
But again, it was battling the critics.

718
00:38:11,956 --> 00:38:13,541
Particularly in the early '80s,

719
00:38:13,624 --> 00:38:16,210
people if they felt something
wasn't, quote, rock and roll,

720
00:38:16,294 --> 00:38:18,838
you know, it came in for
a certain sort of criticism.

721
00:38:19,588 --> 00:38:20,840
All the rock critics

722
00:38:20,923 --> 00:38:25,136
were totally interested
in blues-based rock.

723
00:38:25,219 --> 00:38:27,805
Well, Billy Joel did not fit
into that mold.

724
00:38:27,888 --> 00:38:32,226
And, as such, awakened
their indifference or scorn.

725
00:38:32,310 --> 00:38:33,853
We had that in common with Bill.

726
00:38:34,228 --> 00:38:36,939
We got a lot of bad reviews.
And I took it personally.

727
00:38:37,023 --> 00:38:39,066
You know, it hurt.
I thought, who are these guys?

728
00:38:39,150 --> 00:38:40,609
You know? And they don't know me.

729
00:38:40,693 --> 00:38:43,321
I know that he hated the rock critics.

730
00:38:43,654 --> 00:38:45,614
I know it bugged the fuck out of him.

731
00:38:46,282 --> 00:38:48,034
Piss on a bunch of critics.

732
00:38:48,451 --> 00:38:51,329
Every critic that ever criticized Billy,

733
00:38:51,412 --> 00:38:52,830
where are they?

734
00:38:55,207 --> 00:38:58,544
Where are all these people
that knew so much

735
00:38:58,627 --> 00:39:00,921
about what we should be doing?

736
00:39:01,005 --> 00:39:05,092
Billy put so much
of himself in these songs.

737
00:39:05,176 --> 00:39:07,762
I mean, so many of them
are autobiographical

738
00:39:07,845 --> 00:39:10,973
that he is kind of spilling
his guts and his life

739
00:39:11,057 --> 00:39:13,225
and his soul, putting it out there,

740
00:39:13,309 --> 00:39:15,227
and then have somebody slap them down.

741
00:39:15,311 --> 00:39:17,396
You know, it's very painful.

742
00:39:17,772 --> 00:39:19,440
Though he's sold over 40 million albums,

743
00:39:19,523 --> 00:39:22,693
won five Grammys,
and seen over a dozen singles go gold,

744
00:39:22,777 --> 00:39:25,488
critical acclaim has, for
the most part, eluded Joel.

745
00:39:25,571 --> 00:39:27,239
Critics charge that his varied styles

746
00:39:27,323 --> 00:39:29,909
deprive him of an authentic
musical identity,

747
00:39:29,992 --> 00:39:32,661
and others label him
an unoriginal imitator.

748
00:39:32,745 --> 00:39:34,705
A musical chameleon of sorts.

749
00:39:34,789 --> 00:39:36,374
The charges have understandably left

750
00:39:36,457 --> 00:39:38,959
Billy Joel perhaps
a bit defensive overall.

751
00:39:39,043 --> 00:39:40,044
I don't think that's bad.

752
00:39:40,127 --> 00:39:41,295
To me, it means renaissance.

753
00:39:41,379 --> 00:39:42,630
I do change all the time.

754
00:39:42,713 --> 00:39:44,882
I'm interested in all kinds of music.

755
00:39:45,466 --> 00:39:47,927
If you aren't inclined to like Billy Joel,

756
00:39:48,010 --> 00:39:50,763
his versatility actually
becomes a liability.

757
00:39:51,514 --> 00:39:53,307
A lot of critics looked at Billy Joel

758
00:39:53,391 --> 00:39:54,850
as almost like a carpetbagger.

759
00:39:54,934 --> 00:39:57,520
This is a guy who doesn't
have his own identity.

760
00:39:57,603 --> 00:40:00,106
That he would do anything
to get on the radio.

761
00:40:00,189 --> 00:40:02,024
He would, you know, just chase any trend.

762
00:40:02,108 --> 00:40:04,777
And yeah, you know, he writes nice songs,

763
00:40:04,860 --> 00:40:07,822
but he's unoriginal and derivative.

764
00:40:08,155 --> 00:40:12,034
The critics didn't appreciate
Billy Joel's musicality.

765
00:40:12,118 --> 00:40:15,413
For that crowd, musicality is a bad word.

766
00:40:15,496 --> 00:40:19,208
But even with all of
the eclecticism of his influences,

767
00:40:19,291 --> 00:40:21,252
there is an authenticity about him.

768
00:40:21,335 --> 00:40:23,462
And people respond to that.

769
00:40:23,546 --> 00:40:24,839
They think they know him,

770
00:40:25,339 --> 00:40:28,467
and they respond
to what he says and feels.

771
00:40:29,552 --> 00:40:31,637
If you look at Billy Joel's songs,

772
00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:33,389
he doesn't beat around the bush.

773
00:40:33,472 --> 00:40:35,808
He doesn't write these obscure lyrics.

774
00:40:35,891 --> 00:40:39,437
He's very straightforward
and he's very openhearted,

775
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:41,772
and you know exactly
where he's coming from

776
00:40:41,856 --> 00:40:43,691
and what he's saying.

777
00:40:43,774 --> 00:40:46,610
I don't dwell in a lot
of metaphor and simile.

778
00:40:46,694 --> 00:40:50,614
I write like I talk,
and I write how I think.

779
00:40:51,031 --> 00:40:54,827
I think that's another reason that critics
sort of look down on him.

780
00:40:55,369 --> 00:40:58,414
But this is exactly what some
of the greatest songwriters

781
00:40:58,497 --> 00:41:00,332
of the popular era,

782
00:41:00,416 --> 00:41:02,626
you know, of the American Songbook did.

783
00:41:03,502 --> 00:41:06,464
He's one of the few
contemporary songwriters

784
00:41:06,547 --> 00:41:09,592
who can write a standard by those rules,

785
00:41:09,675 --> 00:41:12,052
you know, where there's verse,
chorus, verse, chorus,

786
00:41:12,136 --> 00:41:14,763
middle eight, key change, coda.

787
00:41:14,847 --> 00:41:16,599
That art is dying out.

788
00:41:16,682 --> 00:41:18,767
He's a structural songwriter,

789
00:41:18,851 --> 00:41:21,729
and that's really what I appreciate.

790
00:41:22,688 --> 00:41:25,441
I think it also is what makes songs last.

791
00:41:25,858 --> 00:41:27,651
Tell her about it

792
00:41:27,735 --> 00:41:30,279
Tell her everything you feel

793
00:41:30,362 --> 00:41:31,530
A lot of critics didn't like

794
00:41:31,614 --> 00:41:33,824
the "Innocent Man" album. Tough shit.

795
00:41:33,908 --> 00:41:36,785
It's like, I want to do
what I'm interested in.

796
00:41:36,869 --> 00:41:38,704
I want to do what I want to hear.

797
00:41:44,627 --> 00:41:47,796
The greatest rock and roll show ever!

798
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:49,798
Billy! Billy! Billy!

799
00:41:54,094 --> 00:41:56,430
I never saw him
on the cover of magazines

800
00:41:56,514 --> 00:41:58,557
with his arm around anybody until then.

801
00:41:58,641 --> 00:42:00,059
Then he's like, pff,

802
00:42:00,142 --> 00:42:01,852
the paparazzi couldn't get enough of them.

803
00:42:01,936 --> 00:42:03,103
It exploded.

804
00:42:03,187 --> 00:42:04,355
There you have it,

805
00:42:04,438 --> 00:42:06,106
the paparazzi of London.

806
00:42:06,857 --> 00:42:09,151
During the Christie years,
there was a super intensity.

807
00:42:09,235 --> 00:42:11,445
He became a celebrity.

808
00:42:11,529 --> 00:42:12,780
But I don't think I ever saw him

809
00:42:12,863 --> 00:42:14,865
being comfortable with any of it.

810
00:42:14,949 --> 00:42:16,700
Christie, can you look this way?

811
00:42:16,784 --> 00:42:18,118
She does. Look, look.

812
00:42:18,202 --> 00:42:21,830
Our first ever argument was because

813
00:42:21,914 --> 00:42:24,333
we got surrounded by paparazzis

814
00:42:24,416 --> 00:42:26,669
and Billy was really rude to them.

815
00:42:27,002 --> 00:42:28,754
And I said, it's so much easier

816
00:42:28,837 --> 00:42:30,297
just to give them a smile.

817
00:42:30,381 --> 00:42:31,882
Now they're going to probably
get a picture of you going

818
00:42:31,966 --> 00:42:35,344
grr, arr, ahh, you know,
and they'll run those.

819
00:42:35,427 --> 00:42:37,805
If you just see the camera, smile,

820
00:42:37,888 --> 00:42:40,683
they'll get their shot and leave us alone.

821
00:42:40,766 --> 00:42:42,351
And so we used to joke.

822
00:42:42,434 --> 00:42:44,562
Every time we'd see a camera,

823
00:42:44,812 --> 00:42:46,522
I'd strike a pose, and he'd go...

824
00:42:48,065 --> 00:42:51,026
We started doing this shtick everywhere.

825
00:42:51,110 --> 00:42:55,406
But she's always a woman to me

826
00:42:57,783 --> 00:43:04,081
Oh, and she never gives out

827
00:43:04,164 --> 00:43:05,624
You know, I remember they were going out,

828
00:43:05,708 --> 00:43:07,626
they were dating.
And I remember saying, like,

829
00:43:07,710 --> 00:43:09,253
you going to get married?

830
00:43:09,336 --> 00:43:11,380
And he goes, "You think I should?"

831
00:43:11,922 --> 00:43:15,676
I said, I think you should.
Yeah, I think you should.

832
00:43:18,429 --> 00:43:20,180
Pop-rock singer Billy Joel

833
00:43:20,264 --> 00:43:21,890
is tying the knot tonight in New York.

834
00:43:21,974 --> 00:43:24,310
His bride is fashion model
Christie Brinkley.

835
00:43:25,144 --> 00:43:27,646
Even though I'm in love...

836
00:43:27,730 --> 00:43:29,940
We wanted
to get married in the harbor

837
00:43:30,024 --> 00:43:33,736
with the New York skyline,
the Statue of Liberty.

838
00:43:33,819 --> 00:43:35,613
The wedding was great. We all went.

839
00:43:35,696 --> 00:43:38,532
Me, Steve, and Brian
were in the bridal party.

840
00:43:39,700 --> 00:43:42,036
He borrowed all my 45s
and gave them to the DJ,

841
00:43:42,119 --> 00:43:43,996
and we played all that kind of music.

842
00:43:44,580 --> 00:43:46,248
We had a lot of people.

843
00:43:46,332 --> 00:43:50,586
Record industry people,
some model industry people,

844
00:43:50,669 --> 00:43:54,381
the whole band was there, friends, family.

845
00:43:54,465 --> 00:43:56,634
It was really fun and glamorous.

846
00:43:57,259 --> 00:43:58,510
It was a big deal.

847
00:43:58,594 --> 00:44:01,305
It was like, this is fame.

848
00:44:04,892 --> 00:44:10,022
Didn't I say I wasn't ready for romance?

849
00:44:10,105 --> 00:44:11,482
Shoop, shoop-ahh

850
00:44:11,565 --> 00:44:14,943
Today is December 15th, 1985,

851
00:44:15,027 --> 00:44:18,822
and this is our new town of East Hampton.

852
00:44:19,406 --> 00:44:21,075
Isn't it beautiful?

853
00:44:21,784 --> 00:44:23,619
A slow dance

854
00:44:23,702 --> 00:44:24,995
Hello!

855
00:44:25,079 --> 00:44:28,082
This comes up our driveway now.

856
00:44:28,165 --> 00:44:30,376
...there and then

857
00:44:30,459 --> 00:44:33,754
Those first couple years,
it was just so much fun.

858
00:44:33,837 --> 00:44:35,005
It was so great.

859
00:44:35,089 --> 00:44:38,967
And here it comes! Oh, yay!

860
00:44:39,051 --> 00:44:40,344
Oh, yeah.

861
00:44:40,427 --> 00:44:44,014
...who's seen it all before?

862
00:44:44,765 --> 00:44:50,896
Now that you're here
it's not the same situation

863
00:44:51,647 --> 00:44:53,941
We made it back home!

864
00:44:54,024 --> 00:44:56,527
The sailors! Yay!

865
00:44:57,111 --> 00:45:00,364
Tomorrow

866
00:45:00,447 --> 00:45:04,993
Is a long time away

867
00:45:05,494 --> 00:45:08,288
This night

868
00:45:08,372 --> 00:45:15,379
Can last forever

869
00:45:21,677 --> 00:45:23,804
Someone's looking
a bit larger these days.

870
00:45:24,221 --> 00:45:27,516
Only four weeks to go now.

871
00:45:27,599 --> 00:45:29,518
Three and days.

872
00:45:29,601 --> 00:45:30,936
Three and a couple of days.

873
00:45:31,895 --> 00:45:33,897
Well, this is the 16th of December,

874
00:45:33,981 --> 00:45:39,361
so the next time we film,
maybe we'll tell the tale.

875
00:45:43,198 --> 00:45:44,783
Cover girl Christie Brinkley

876
00:45:44,867 --> 00:45:47,202
and singer Billy Joel
are now proud parents.

877
00:45:49,037 --> 00:45:52,624
Brinkley gave birth to a six
and a half pound baby girl

878
00:45:52,708 --> 00:45:55,002
last night at a Manhattan hospital.

879
00:45:58,172 --> 00:45:59,715
I don't think you really can grow up

880
00:45:59,798 --> 00:46:02,009
until you've had the experience
of being a parent

881
00:46:02,092 --> 00:46:03,302
and all of a sudden,

882
00:46:03,385 --> 00:46:05,596
the emphasis of everything isn't you.

883
00:46:05,679 --> 00:46:07,723
It gives you
a whole different perspective.

884
00:46:08,265 --> 00:46:09,767
Unconditional love.

885
00:46:09,850 --> 00:46:11,643
I never knew a feeling like that before,

886
00:46:11,727 --> 00:46:14,229
till I held this little child in my arms.

887
00:46:14,313 --> 00:46:16,023
This is more important than me.

888
00:46:16,106 --> 00:46:19,151
This is everything. This is the future.

889
00:46:19,234 --> 00:46:20,819
And I'm responsible for it.

890
00:46:21,570 --> 00:46:23,906
I better make sure I do the right thing.

891
00:46:23,989 --> 00:46:25,157
Here we go.

892
00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:29,077
This is the time to remember

893
00:46:29,161 --> 00:46:32,498
'Cause it will not last forever

894
00:46:32,581 --> 00:46:33,957
I didn't have a dad.

895
00:46:34,041 --> 00:46:36,043
I wanted to be the dad that I didn't have.

896
00:46:37,127 --> 00:46:38,295
It was very important to me.

897
00:46:39,797 --> 00:46:41,173
-Hi!
-Hi!

898
00:46:41,256 --> 00:46:43,425
I grew up in East Hampton.

899
00:46:43,509 --> 00:46:46,970
And I thought, wow,
my parents are really popular.

900
00:46:47,596 --> 00:46:51,433
I didn't know that my
parents were the celebrities.

901
00:46:51,517 --> 00:46:53,060
I thought I was the star

902
00:46:53,143 --> 00:46:55,729
because that's how
they treated me as a child.

903
00:46:55,813 --> 00:46:58,315
They were always filming me
and building me up

904
00:46:58,398 --> 00:47:02,152
and always making me the star
of their family musicals.

905
00:47:03,111 --> 00:47:06,824
Daddy, daddy, daddy, da

906
00:47:06,907 --> 00:47:10,118
-That's me.
-Daddy, daddy...

907
00:47:10,202 --> 00:47:12,538
Billy would sit down at the piano

908
00:47:12,621 --> 00:47:13,997
and start playing,

909
00:47:14,081 --> 00:47:17,167
and she would just tune in to the piano

910
00:47:17,251 --> 00:47:18,752
and then start singing.

911
00:47:18,836 --> 00:47:20,170
The Yanks are coming

912
00:47:20,254 --> 00:47:23,465
The drums rum-tumming everywhere

913
00:47:23,549 --> 00:47:24,800
Every day we would sing.

914
00:47:24,883 --> 00:47:27,469
And when my grandmother,
I call her Nanny Roz,

915
00:47:27,553 --> 00:47:29,888
was with us, she was always singing.

916
00:47:29,972 --> 00:47:33,350
She loved musical theater
with such a passion.

917
00:47:33,433 --> 00:47:36,436
There's a song
from the musical "Showboat:"

918
00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:38,772
Because he's just my Bill

919
00:47:38,856 --> 00:47:41,775
She named my father after that song.

920
00:47:42,442 --> 00:47:44,152
Roz was one of a kind.

921
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,031
When she and Billy would get together,

922
00:47:48,115 --> 00:47:52,202
they always loved singing
little songs from Broadway,

923
00:47:52,286 --> 00:47:55,122
and they would go in and out of accents.

924
00:47:55,205 --> 00:47:58,750
You never come to my house
anymore for coffee.

925
00:47:58,834 --> 00:48:01,962
They loved putting on a show together.

926
00:48:02,337 --> 00:48:05,507
One more for my baby

927
00:48:05,591 --> 00:48:09,511
And one more for the road

928
00:48:09,595 --> 00:48:12,264
My grandmother
was extremely extroverted,

929
00:48:12,347 --> 00:48:13,932
almost to a fault.

930
00:48:14,016 --> 00:48:16,768
Just such an endless well of emotion

931
00:48:16,852 --> 00:48:18,729
always bubbling up inside of her.

932
00:48:19,187 --> 00:48:21,231
She would just start singing something,

933
00:48:21,315 --> 00:48:23,400
and then she would become overcome

934
00:48:23,483 --> 00:48:26,069
with the emotion, she'd just start crying.

935
00:48:27,237 --> 00:48:28,530
She was unpredictable.

936
00:48:29,323 --> 00:48:31,283
Very erratic moods, oh, yes.

937
00:48:31,366 --> 00:48:32,910
You know, that was hard for him,

938
00:48:32,993 --> 00:48:35,162
to have his mom act erratically like that.

939
00:48:35,871 --> 00:48:38,749
But I think that he felt
an enormous amount of sympathy

940
00:48:38,832 --> 00:48:41,043
for her plight as a single mom.

941
00:48:42,753 --> 00:48:45,047
She was always there. Always.

942
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,051
She was the original motivator.

943
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:51,303
She was my champion.

944
00:48:53,972 --> 00:48:57,017
Through thick and thin, he loved her.

945
00:48:57,100 --> 00:49:00,395
And she was so proud
that he was so successful

946
00:49:00,479 --> 00:49:02,648
and traveling all over the world.

947
00:49:03,065 --> 00:49:06,193
There's Big Ben, Alexa.
See that big clock up there?

948
00:49:06,276 --> 00:49:09,655
Il Torcello. De prima capital
en de Venezia.

949
00:49:09,738 --> 00:49:11,907
And I loved being on the road.

950
00:49:11,990 --> 00:49:15,410
And I just loved being part
of that big road family.

951
00:49:15,911 --> 00:49:18,705
Volaré

952
00:49:19,623 --> 00:49:22,376
Oh-oh

953
00:49:23,210 --> 00:49:26,463
Cantaré

954
00:49:26,546 --> 00:49:29,383
Oh-oh-oh-oh

955
00:49:30,676 --> 00:49:33,595
So I did try to go as often as I could.

956
00:49:33,679 --> 00:49:36,848
And I felt it was
really important for Billy

957
00:49:36,932 --> 00:49:39,726
to have that time with Alexa.

958
00:49:40,602 --> 00:49:43,730
I am

959
00:49:43,814 --> 00:49:47,776
An innocent man

960
00:49:47,859 --> 00:49:51,613
Oh, yes, I am

961
00:49:52,155 --> 00:49:53,323
Do you feel like
your fans are really going

962
00:49:53,407 --> 00:49:54,783
to get everything that they're after?

963
00:49:54,866 --> 00:49:56,243
No, they're not going
to get everything that...

964
00:49:56,326 --> 00:49:57,953
She's got dressing room stuff.

965
00:49:58,036 --> 00:49:59,204
-You know, makeup things--
-Oh, yeah?

966
00:49:59,287 --> 00:50:00,747
And yeah.
Yeah, she's got some great stuff.

967
00:50:00,831 --> 00:50:03,208
People really connected
to them as a couple.

968
00:50:03,750 --> 00:50:05,794
I think it was fun for people to see

969
00:50:06,169 --> 00:50:08,046
that opposites can attract.

970
00:50:08,130 --> 00:50:10,382
-Hi, I'm John Malkovich.
-I'm Billy Joel.

971
00:50:10,465 --> 00:50:12,134
I have to tell you, I admire the fact

972
00:50:12,217 --> 00:50:13,719
that you're married to Cindy Crawford.

973
00:50:14,344 --> 00:50:15,929
No, I'm married to Christie Brinkley.

974
00:50:16,013 --> 00:50:17,848
You wish.

975
00:50:19,683 --> 00:50:21,351
I had put out "Nylon Curtain,"

976
00:50:21,435 --> 00:50:23,478
and then I had put out "An Innocent Man."

977
00:50:23,895 --> 00:50:25,689
I had a brand new baby daughter.

978
00:50:25,772 --> 00:50:28,358
I didn't want to be slaving away on my own

979
00:50:28,442 --> 00:50:30,360
in a room by myself,

980
00:50:30,444 --> 00:50:32,446
trying to come up with song after song.

981
00:50:32,946 --> 00:50:35,490
I wanted to be enjoying my family.

982
00:50:35,949 --> 00:50:38,660
So I kind of resisted it
for a couple of years.

983
00:50:39,703 --> 00:50:43,206
But I knew that eventually,
I had to get back to work.

984
00:50:51,381 --> 00:50:53,008
Do the harmony.

985
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:02,559
It was kind of a struggle to write.

986
00:51:03,435 --> 00:51:07,606
I didn't have the ambition
that I did on the previous albums.

987
00:51:07,689 --> 00:51:09,232
I can hear it on the album.

988
00:51:09,316 --> 00:51:11,526
I gotta come up with another section
for it though.

989
00:51:11,610 --> 00:51:12,944
Bridge or a...

990
00:51:13,028 --> 00:51:14,696
Writing a lot of times, I see

991
00:51:14,780 --> 00:51:16,823
the piano as this big black beast

992
00:51:16,907 --> 00:51:20,035
with 88 teeth trying to bite my hands off.

993
00:51:20,702 --> 00:51:22,537
And it won't come. And it won't come.

994
00:51:22,621 --> 00:51:24,122
And then when I start to get it,

995
00:51:24,581 --> 00:51:25,999
I better, you know,

996
00:51:26,374 --> 00:51:28,502
make sure that I stay there
until I get it.

997
00:51:29,252 --> 00:51:31,838
Because the dry feeling is the worst.

998
00:51:35,967 --> 00:51:37,469
I've always written alone.

999
00:51:37,552 --> 00:51:38,845
It's very lonely.

1000
00:51:39,596 --> 00:51:44,226
There's solitude that I have
to have when I'm writing.

1001
00:51:44,893 --> 00:51:46,394
Otherwise, I get distracted.

1002
00:51:46,478 --> 00:51:49,773
I have to completely be in my own cave,

1003
00:51:49,856 --> 00:51:51,191
like a caveman.

1004
00:51:51,274 --> 00:51:54,027
I get grouchy, I get cranky, I get moody,

1005
00:51:54,111 --> 00:51:57,072
I go through all kinds
of emotional feelings.

1006
00:51:57,155 --> 00:52:00,325
I feel completely isolated
from the rest of the world.

1007
00:52:00,408 --> 00:52:01,743
But it has to be like that

1008
00:52:01,827 --> 00:52:03,453
if I'm going to write on my own.

1009
00:52:03,537 --> 00:52:07,582
I just have to be able
to be completely in a vacuum.

1010
00:52:07,999 --> 00:52:09,709
So it is a lonely job.

1011
00:52:10,252 --> 00:52:12,212
To me, the main language is the music.

1012
00:52:12,295 --> 00:52:14,297
There's always a message in the music.

1013
00:52:14,381 --> 00:52:17,759
Even before the words.
There's something in there.

1014
00:52:18,969 --> 00:52:21,263
But the work is digging it out,

1015
00:52:21,346 --> 00:52:22,764
figuring out what that is.

1016
00:52:24,724 --> 00:52:27,227
Wow. Drums sound great in this room.

1017
00:52:27,894 --> 00:52:29,437
Yeah. You don't hear the drums?

1018
00:52:53,587 --> 00:52:55,463
-Did it sound good?
-It was incredible.

1019
00:52:55,547 --> 00:52:56,923
Hey, Lib, you can go home.

1020
00:52:57,007 --> 00:52:59,759
Sing. Come on. Sing.

1021
00:52:59,843 --> 00:53:01,761
When I'm blue

1022
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:05,557
When I'm lonely...

1023
00:53:06,057 --> 00:53:07,809
I was told by Phil Ramone,

1024
00:53:07,893 --> 00:53:09,561
who was a friend of Ray Charles,

1025
00:53:09,644 --> 00:53:12,022
that Ray wanted to do a song with me.

1026
00:53:12,105 --> 00:53:13,773
"Do you have anything in mind

1027
00:53:13,857 --> 00:53:16,693
that you could write for Ray and you?"

1028
00:53:16,776 --> 00:53:18,904
I mean, I idolized
Ray Charles all my life.

1029
00:53:18,987 --> 00:53:21,990
He's probably my
favorite singer of all time.

1030
00:53:22,073 --> 00:53:23,825
So I thought I'll write a song

1031
00:53:23,909 --> 00:53:25,660
about something we have in common.

1032
00:53:25,744 --> 00:53:28,455
What's been the most consistent thing

1033
00:53:28,538 --> 00:53:29,831
in our lives?

1034
00:53:30,290 --> 00:53:32,000
The piano.

1035
00:53:32,542 --> 00:53:35,128
So we flew out to Los Angeles
to do this session,

1036
00:53:35,212 --> 00:53:36,922
and in walked Ray Charles,

1037
00:53:37,005 --> 00:53:39,424
and I almost went into a freeze-up.

1038
00:53:39,507 --> 00:53:42,469
Oh, my God, he's really there.
That's really Ray Charles.

1039
00:53:42,802 --> 00:53:45,847
I got you singin' "I've come
far from the life..."

1040
00:53:45,931 --> 00:53:47,265
Well, I'm going to finish up the bridge.

1041
00:53:47,349 --> 00:53:48,516
You want me to keep on singin'?

1042
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:49,643
Yeah.

1043
00:53:49,726 --> 00:53:50,852
Phil Ramone suggested,

1044
00:53:50,936 --> 00:53:52,437
"Why don't you just both play the piano?"

1045
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:54,481
And it broke the ice immediately.

1046
00:54:10,247 --> 00:54:12,082
That's a bond between people.

1047
00:54:12,666 --> 00:54:14,584
It's a very emotional attachment

1048
00:54:14,668 --> 00:54:16,419
that we both have to this thing.

1049
00:54:17,504 --> 00:54:20,507
And now I'm going to sing
with Ray Charles!

1050
00:54:21,299 --> 00:54:23,051
I was so intimidated.

1051
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:28,139
She comes through

1052
00:54:28,223 --> 00:54:32,769
She's the only one who can

1053
00:54:32,852 --> 00:54:36,314
My Baby Grand

1054
00:54:36,398 --> 00:54:38,858
Is all I need

1055
00:54:38,942 --> 00:54:42,946
I love the extended metaphor of the piano

1056
00:54:43,029 --> 00:54:45,282
as a lifelong love affair.

1057
00:54:45,365 --> 00:54:47,367
I adore that song.

1058
00:54:47,450 --> 00:54:49,661
And then getting Ray Charles
to sing with him.

1059
00:54:49,744 --> 00:54:51,371
That's, that's genius.

1060
00:54:52,789 --> 00:54:54,582
All it takes

1061
00:54:55,959 --> 00:55:00,630
Is the power in my hands

1062
00:55:00,714 --> 00:55:04,175
And this Baby Grand

1063
00:55:04,259 --> 00:55:07,846
Is good to me

1064
00:55:10,807 --> 00:55:12,642
-That's the one.
-Oh, yeah, that's fine.

1065
00:55:12,726 --> 00:55:14,352
-That's soup.
-Soup!

1066
00:55:14,436 --> 00:55:17,522
Soup time. Soup time.

1067
00:55:17,605 --> 00:55:19,858
Soup du jour, oh, yeah it is.

1068
00:55:19,941 --> 00:55:21,359
That's what happens when you relax.

1069
00:55:21,443 --> 00:55:23,486
Yeah, that's right! No, that's it.

1070
00:55:23,570 --> 00:55:28,116
A-one, a-two a-one, two, three, four

1071
00:55:28,825 --> 00:55:30,910
After "The Bridge,"

1072
00:55:30,994 --> 00:55:32,662
we were touring all over the world.

1073
00:55:33,204 --> 00:55:36,541
Some love is just a lie of the heart

1074
00:55:37,417 --> 00:55:39,586
The cold remains of what began

1075
00:55:39,669 --> 00:55:41,838
With a passionate start

1076
00:55:43,673 --> 00:55:45,091
We were all over the place.

1077
00:55:45,175 --> 00:55:46,509
We played a lot of France.

1078
00:55:46,593 --> 00:55:48,553
-We were in Holland.
-Flew to London.

1079
00:55:48,636 --> 00:55:51,723
We played in Berlin in 1989.

1080
00:55:51,806 --> 00:55:53,224
-The wall came down.
-Right.

1081
00:55:53,308 --> 00:55:54,809
We were the first act to get there

1082
00:55:54,893 --> 00:55:56,853
when the reunification of Germany.

1083
00:55:56,936 --> 00:55:58,313
I had this whole speech.

1084
00:55:58,980 --> 00:56:00,774
My sense of it is that

1085
00:56:00,857 --> 00:56:03,109
you would always want
to go someplace unique,

1086
00:56:03,193 --> 00:56:05,653
where people couldn't
experience this kind of stuff.

1087
00:56:05,737 --> 00:56:07,572
And you would say yes to those things

1088
00:56:07,655 --> 00:56:10,367
that other guys wouldn't do, like Russia.

1089
00:56:10,450 --> 00:56:13,161
What's the maximum
benefit you would like

1090
00:56:13,244 --> 00:56:15,830
to achieve out of this entire
two-week experience?

1091
00:56:15,914 --> 00:56:17,123
Make a lot of friends,

1092
00:56:17,207 --> 00:56:19,834
hopefully make some people
happy with my music

1093
00:56:19,918 --> 00:56:22,253
and get something that can be continued.

1094
00:56:28,051 --> 00:56:31,763
Swing low

1095
00:56:31,846 --> 00:56:36,935
Sweet chariot

1096
00:56:37,018 --> 00:56:39,354
This guy just
invited us to his house.

1097
00:56:39,896 --> 00:56:41,815
-You have good music.
-Thank you.

1098
00:56:41,898 --> 00:56:45,610
Pop music is a universal language
among young people in any country.

1099
00:56:45,693 --> 00:56:47,320
You know, the politicians
don't seem to be able

1100
00:56:47,404 --> 00:56:48,738
to make any major breakthroughs.

1101
00:56:49,114 --> 00:56:50,990
I think sometimes
maybe it's up to the artists

1102
00:56:51,074 --> 00:56:52,450
to open up a dialogue.

1103
00:56:52,534 --> 00:56:54,035
Bye-bye. Thank you.

1104
00:56:55,412 --> 00:56:57,747
We had a great audience
who were all excited

1105
00:56:57,831 --> 00:56:58,957
to hear rock and roll.

1106
00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:00,125
They wanted to rock out.

1107
00:57:00,208 --> 00:57:02,085
That was like the spirit

1108
00:57:02,168 --> 00:57:03,670
of those people in Russia.

1109
00:57:03,753 --> 00:57:05,713
They wanted to hang out with us.

1110
00:57:05,797 --> 00:57:07,882
The vodka bottle would come on the table,

1111
00:57:07,966 --> 00:57:10,051
they'd take the top, throw the top off.

1112
00:57:10,135 --> 00:57:13,179
I remember they didn't have
screw-on tops on the vodka.

1113
00:57:13,263 --> 00:57:15,932
It was a thing you took off
and you threw it away.

1114
00:57:16,015 --> 00:57:18,351
And I would say to them,
don't you have a top

1115
00:57:18,435 --> 00:57:19,686
that you can put back?
And they said, "Why?"

1116
00:57:19,769 --> 00:57:20,895
"Why?"

1117
00:57:20,979 --> 00:57:22,397
-"What for?"
-What for?

1118
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:24,107
When I trashed the piano,

1119
00:57:24,190 --> 00:57:25,984
-the crowd loved it.
-Oh, yeah.

1120
00:57:26,067 --> 00:57:27,152
They'd never seen that before.

1121
00:57:27,235 --> 00:57:28,528
Rich Americans,

1122
00:57:28,611 --> 00:57:30,572
they smash their equipment.

1123
00:57:30,655 --> 00:57:31,823
Is he mad at us?

1124
00:57:31,906 --> 00:57:34,159
What are you going
to trash tonight?

1125
00:57:34,742 --> 00:57:36,161
Whoa

1126
00:57:50,717 --> 00:57:52,302
Da da!

1127
00:57:52,886 --> 00:57:55,930
It's Daddy, Alexa, in a helicopter!

1128
00:58:03,897 --> 00:58:05,565
It's Daddy!

1129
00:58:13,239 --> 00:58:15,325
I'm two days back from Leningrad.

1130
00:58:15,408 --> 00:58:16,826
How does it feel to be home?

1131
00:58:16,910 --> 00:58:20,538
I'm so glad I'm-a livin' in the USA

1132
00:58:21,289 --> 00:58:22,707
Whoa, yeah

1133
00:58:22,790 --> 00:58:26,836
I'm so glad livin' in the USA

1134
00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:28,296
Hully gully

1135
00:58:28,379 --> 00:58:29,672
Great to be back.

1136
00:58:30,590 --> 00:58:32,383
We're on the road again, folks.

1137
00:58:32,717 --> 00:58:34,302
This time, we're going up to Maine.

1138
00:58:34,844 --> 00:58:38,306
So far, we've gotten to here. Bantam Lake.

1139
00:58:39,265 --> 00:58:41,184
Christie, why don't you give
'em a look at Bantam Lake.

1140
00:58:41,601 --> 00:58:44,479
We actually set about

1141
00:58:44,562 --> 00:58:47,565
driving the coastline from Maine,

1142
00:58:47,982 --> 00:58:51,194
zigzagging in and out of the shoreline.

1143
00:58:52,362 --> 00:58:56,824
It was a magical trip
discovering little towns.

1144
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:00,912
Billy and My kind of town

1145
00:59:00,995 --> 00:59:03,122
Menemsha is

1146
00:59:03,206 --> 00:59:04,832
And it was funny
'cause every town

1147
00:59:04,916 --> 00:59:06,876
that we went in, the waiter

1148
00:59:06,960 --> 00:59:09,295
or the owner of the restaurant would go,

1149
00:59:09,379 --> 00:59:11,089
"Oh, yeah. You guys own

1150
00:59:11,172 --> 00:59:14,133
that huge property up the street."

1151
00:59:14,592 --> 00:59:16,302
We're like, no, no, we don't.

1152
00:59:16,678 --> 00:59:18,388
And then they would say, "Oh, yeah, yeah.

1153
00:59:18,471 --> 00:59:21,015
You bought a horse from me, you know."

1154
00:59:21,099 --> 00:59:23,476
We'd go, no, no, we didn't.

1155
00:59:23,893 --> 00:59:25,395
This is interesting. I'm kind of glad

1156
00:59:25,478 --> 00:59:26,729
we're going to stay in the area

1157
00:59:27,647 --> 00:59:29,023
instead of driving further down.

1158
00:59:29,107 --> 00:59:30,608
Because we're running out of daylight.

1159
00:59:30,692 --> 00:59:32,026
We were bumping into people,

1160
00:59:32,110 --> 00:59:33,778
and then it was like,
"Oh, yeah, you bought

1161
00:59:33,861 --> 00:59:35,655
this old hotel in,

1162
00:59:35,738 --> 00:59:37,198
you know, North Carolina," or something.

1163
00:59:37,282 --> 00:59:39,242
It's like, no, not us.

1164
00:59:41,077 --> 00:59:44,247
I started getting, like, a little feeling

1165
00:59:44,330 --> 00:59:47,166
that his manager was
buying things with his money.

1166
00:59:51,337 --> 00:59:53,798
I thought, wow, he's flying everywhere

1167
00:59:53,881 --> 00:59:56,092
on, like, a private jet.

1168
00:59:56,175 --> 00:59:59,345
He's buying racehorses galore.

1169
00:59:59,429 --> 01:00:02,432
And everybody thinks
we own property near them.

1170
01:00:03,182 --> 01:00:06,894
Well, I know you got your troubles

1171
01:00:06,978 --> 01:00:09,105
Something's not right here.

1172
01:00:09,188 --> 01:00:13,484
But I've got problems of my own

1173
01:00:13,568 --> 01:00:14,694
I said to Billy,

1174
01:00:14,777 --> 01:00:16,738
Frank Weber is ripping you off.

1175
01:00:17,113 --> 01:00:19,490
And he did not want to hear that.

1176
01:00:20,033 --> 01:00:22,619
I had an apartment in Manhattan,

1177
01:00:22,702 --> 01:00:25,163
and I went to look at a house

1178
01:00:25,246 --> 01:00:27,624
that needed to be renovated.

1179
01:00:27,707 --> 01:00:29,876
And I heard that there was issues

1180
01:00:29,959 --> 01:00:32,045
with the expense of that.

1181
01:00:32,128 --> 01:00:33,588
And people in the music business

1182
01:00:33,671 --> 01:00:34,964
that I knew were telling me,

1183
01:00:35,048 --> 01:00:36,591
"You shouldn't have a problem

1184
01:00:36,674 --> 01:00:38,635
coming up with the money to do this.

1185
01:00:38,718 --> 01:00:40,762
You just had all these hit records.

1186
01:00:40,845 --> 01:00:42,055
Where's all your money?"

1187
01:00:42,347 --> 01:00:43,848
And I didn't have an answer for that.

1188
01:00:43,931 --> 01:00:46,559
I really hadn't stayed on top of that.

1189
01:00:48,186 --> 01:00:51,981
Into each life must fall some rain

1190
01:00:52,065 --> 01:00:53,399
Billy called me and he goes,

1191
01:00:53,483 --> 01:00:54,901
"I don't have enough money
to pay for my house."

1192
01:00:54,984 --> 01:00:57,236
I go, oh, but Frank can pay for his house?

1193
01:00:57,320 --> 01:00:59,656
He goes, "Well, he doesn't
have the expenses I have."

1194
01:00:59,739 --> 01:01:01,783
I said, Billy, man, you're so naive.

1195
01:01:01,866 --> 01:01:06,037
We all walk in darkness sometimes

1196
01:01:06,788 --> 01:01:08,873
Frank had become
like a confidante,

1197
01:01:08,956 --> 01:01:11,000
a trusted advisor.

1198
01:01:12,502 --> 01:01:15,088
Billy told me that he doesn't have
a lot of money.

1199
01:01:15,171 --> 01:01:16,422
I mean, at this point in his career

1200
01:01:16,506 --> 01:01:17,799
for Billy Joel to say,
"I don't have money,"

1201
01:01:17,882 --> 01:01:18,966
is ridiculous.

1202
01:01:19,050 --> 01:01:20,385
Something is wrong.

1203
01:01:20,468 --> 01:01:21,761
You've had top ten records.

1204
01:01:21,844 --> 01:01:23,388
You have tours, which you should have

1205
01:01:23,471 --> 01:01:24,555
a lot of money.

1206
01:01:24,639 --> 01:01:25,973
Why don't you have a lot of money?

1207
01:01:26,057 --> 01:01:27,308
What is the problem?

1208
01:01:27,392 --> 01:01:28,726
And he said to me,

1209
01:01:29,227 --> 01:01:30,728
"Mind your own fucking business."

1210
01:01:30,812 --> 01:01:33,147
When I first said it to him, he said,

1211
01:01:33,231 --> 01:01:35,692
"Hey, I've known him
a hell of a lot longer

1212
01:01:35,775 --> 01:01:37,110
than I know you."

1213
01:01:37,777 --> 01:01:39,987
He felt like this was his family,

1214
01:01:40,071 --> 01:01:42,115
the family that he chose.

1215
01:01:44,701 --> 01:01:47,578
I said, look, I love you,
I'm trying to protect you.

1216
01:01:48,538 --> 01:01:50,415
I see people ripping you off.

1217
01:01:51,708 --> 01:01:53,376
Billy trusted him.

1218
01:01:53,710 --> 01:01:56,379
He trusted him more than he trusted me,

1219
01:01:56,462 --> 01:01:59,716
which of course hurt me to hear that.

1220
01:02:00,925 --> 01:02:02,719
And I said, why don't you get an auditor?

1221
01:02:02,802 --> 01:02:04,929
Get an auditor.
Not saying anything is wrong,

1222
01:02:05,012 --> 01:02:06,931
but you ought to have someone take a look.

1223
01:02:07,014 --> 01:02:09,142
So I had an audit authorized.

1224
01:02:09,225 --> 01:02:11,477
And after the audit, I found out

1225
01:02:12,186 --> 01:02:14,522
I didn't have anywhere near
the money I should have had.

1226
01:02:14,605 --> 01:02:16,315
It hit me like a ton of bricks.

1227
01:02:16,399 --> 01:02:19,986
I should have been worth this,
and I was worth this.

1228
01:02:20,528 --> 01:02:23,322
Yesterday,
Joel filed a $90 million lawsuit

1229
01:02:23,406 --> 01:02:26,033
against Frank Weber,
his manager since 1980.

1230
01:02:26,117 --> 01:02:28,161
An independent audit of Weber
and his company,

1231
01:02:28,244 --> 01:02:30,413
Frank Management, has found that, quote,

1232
01:02:30,496 --> 01:02:33,416
Weber used Billy as
his personal bank, unquote.

1233
01:02:33,499 --> 01:02:34,792
Now, it's bad enough that the manager

1234
01:02:34,876 --> 01:02:36,753
used to be Billy's brother-in-law,

1235
01:02:36,836 --> 01:02:39,922
but he's also the godfather
of Billy Joel's daughter.

1236
01:02:41,090 --> 01:02:43,676
I owed Uncle Sam five million dollars.

1237
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:45,678
I didn't have the money I thought I had.

1238
01:02:46,053 --> 01:02:47,722
And it was devastating.

1239
01:02:48,514 --> 01:02:50,933
Billy can have a blind loyalty,

1240
01:02:51,309 --> 01:02:53,436
and he had a blind loyalty to Frank.

1241
01:02:53,519 --> 01:02:56,314
And finally, that loyalty was broken.

1242
01:02:57,774 --> 01:02:59,567
It was an emotional shock.

1243
01:02:59,650 --> 01:03:02,653
If I can't trust this guy
to look after my best interests.

1244
01:03:02,737 --> 01:03:05,239
How stupid was I?

1245
01:03:05,323 --> 01:03:07,200
How naive could I have been?

1246
01:03:07,617 --> 01:03:09,660
It was a very depressing thing.

1247
01:03:09,744 --> 01:03:11,120
When I started working for Billy,

1248
01:03:11,204 --> 01:03:12,914
he didn't even own all of his copyrights.

1249
01:03:12,997 --> 01:03:15,666
Under my direction,
we reacquired all the rights

1250
01:03:15,750 --> 01:03:18,127
to his to his songs.

1251
01:03:18,878 --> 01:03:22,757
Frank Weber says he always acted
in Billy Joel's best interest

1252
01:03:22,840 --> 01:03:26,010
and was totally unprepared
when he was hit with a lawsuit.

1253
01:03:26,093 --> 01:03:30,932
Billy used to say that
he would take care of the music

1254
01:03:31,015 --> 01:03:32,892
and I would take care of the business.

1255
01:03:35,102 --> 01:03:36,771
Frank denies these charges

1256
01:03:36,854 --> 01:03:39,524
and counters that the investments
in question failed

1257
01:03:39,607 --> 01:03:42,026
because of the recession
and other factors.

1258
01:03:47,031 --> 01:03:50,576
That was a life-changing,
tragic event for my father.

1259
01:03:53,496 --> 01:03:57,792
Well, if money makes a rich man

1260
01:03:57,875 --> 01:03:59,710
When he betrayed his trust

1261
01:03:59,794 --> 01:04:01,379
and betrayed his friendship...

1262
01:04:01,462 --> 01:04:04,632
Then I might never make the grade

1263
01:04:04,715 --> 01:04:06,509
...I think that that
was absolutely devastating.

1264
01:04:06,592 --> 01:04:08,845
He had a great deal of pain about it.

1265
01:04:09,220 --> 01:04:13,349
I'll be a small time operator

1266
01:04:13,432 --> 01:04:15,184
When I found out that my money

1267
01:04:15,268 --> 01:04:16,727
was pretty well spent,

1268
01:04:17,395 --> 01:04:18,646
I was furious.

1269
01:04:19,689 --> 01:04:22,692
I realized I gotta start all over again.

1270
01:04:22,775 --> 01:04:25,695
I gotta go right back
to writing new songs,

1271
01:04:25,778 --> 01:04:28,698
recording the new songs,
and go out on the road

1272
01:04:28,781 --> 01:04:30,700
and try to make that money back.

1273
01:04:33,870 --> 01:04:35,371
You know, I got a family, I got a kid,

1274
01:04:35,454 --> 01:04:37,498
I got a wife, I got relatives,

1275
01:04:37,582 --> 01:04:39,250
I gotta take care of everybody.

1276
01:04:39,333 --> 01:04:40,710
Because I was taking care of everybody.

1277
01:04:41,586 --> 01:04:42,879
-You tired?
-I'm exhausted.

1278
01:04:42,962 --> 01:04:44,088
I haven't stopped.

1279
01:04:44,589 --> 01:04:47,174
...spender

1280
01:04:47,258 --> 01:04:49,385
I was worried about,
this is going to not be good

1281
01:04:49,468 --> 01:04:50,636
for my marriage.

1282
01:04:51,429 --> 01:04:53,014
This is not going to be good

1283
01:04:53,097 --> 01:04:54,932
for my relationship with my daughter.

1284
01:04:55,516 --> 01:04:57,435
I am bitter about it. And it gets me mad.

1285
01:04:57,518 --> 01:04:58,686
I want to be with them.

1286
01:04:58,769 --> 01:04:59,979
I don't want to be doing this

1287
01:05:00,062 --> 01:05:01,814
because of financial problems.

1288
01:05:03,983 --> 01:05:05,276
But I had no choice.

1289
01:05:06,569 --> 01:05:08,195
I had to go out and make a living.

1290
01:05:09,739 --> 01:05:13,993
I believe 'cause I've been there too

1291
01:05:14,327 --> 01:05:16,078
At this point in his career,

1292
01:05:16,162 --> 01:05:18,998
he was able to book multiple nights

1293
01:05:19,081 --> 01:05:22,460
at Madison Square Garden,
multiple nights in Boston.

1294
01:05:22,543 --> 01:05:27,506
So the possibility of earning it back

1295
01:05:28,299 --> 01:05:31,260
was probably a better idea

1296
01:05:31,344 --> 01:05:34,055
than trying to just keep fighting

1297
01:05:34,138 --> 01:05:37,975
and draining your energy
and dragging you down

1298
01:05:38,059 --> 01:05:39,393
and just...

1299
01:05:40,686 --> 01:05:42,688
So, the decision was made

1300
01:05:42,772 --> 01:05:46,359
to just roll up the sleeves
and get to work replenishing.

1301
01:05:50,237 --> 01:05:52,907
Long Island's own writer, composer,

1302
01:05:52,990 --> 01:05:54,158
singer, concert performer.

1303
01:05:54,241 --> 01:05:56,202
Billy Joel comin' to Yankee Stadium.

1304
01:05:56,285 --> 01:05:59,246
The guy gets bigger,
I think, every single album.

1305
01:05:59,330 --> 01:06:01,207
Probably because he stays a regular guy

1306
01:06:01,290 --> 01:06:03,250
despite all those incredible talents.

1307
01:06:03,334 --> 01:06:05,086
You like the way this feels
down at the end?

1308
01:06:05,169 --> 01:06:06,837
Doing a three song encore?

1309
01:06:06,921 --> 01:06:08,464
That's really good, man.

1310
01:06:11,467 --> 01:06:13,177
Rock and roll, Billy Joel!

1311
01:06:16,514 --> 01:06:18,975
Good times, bad times

1312
01:06:19,058 --> 01:06:20,601
You know I've had my share

1313
01:06:20,685 --> 01:06:23,521
I don't care what he sings,
I just want to see Billy Joel.

1314
01:06:23,604 --> 01:06:25,356
He's such an entertainer,
he gives the best concert,

1315
01:06:25,439 --> 01:06:26,732
-he's incredible.
-We drove all the way

1316
01:06:26,816 --> 01:06:28,025
from Ohio just to see

1317
01:06:28,109 --> 01:06:30,236
Billy Joel play "Piano Man" once.

1318
01:06:51,424 --> 01:06:55,302
Well, I'm on the downeaster "Alexa"

1319
01:06:56,429 --> 01:07:00,474
And I'm cruising
through Block Island Sound

1320
01:07:01,642 --> 01:07:06,188
I have charted a course to the vineyard

1321
01:07:06,897 --> 01:07:09,650
But tonight, I am Nantucket bound...

1322
01:07:09,734 --> 01:07:11,402
It happens to a lot of musicians.

1323
01:07:12,570 --> 01:07:14,280
I got bills to pay

1324
01:07:14,363 --> 01:07:16,991
And children who need clothes

1325
01:07:17,575 --> 01:07:19,410
We're not financially oriented.

1326
01:07:19,493 --> 01:07:21,996
It wasn't about the money.
It was about being a musician.

1327
01:07:22,079 --> 01:07:24,206
Like all the locals here

1328
01:07:24,290 --> 01:07:26,584
I've had to sell my home

1329
01:07:27,752 --> 01:07:28,919
Too proud to leave

1330
01:07:29,003 --> 01:07:31,505
I worked my fingers to the bone

1331
01:07:31,589 --> 01:07:35,968
So I could own my downeaster "Alexa"

1332
01:07:36,552 --> 01:07:38,471
I didn't like thinking as a businessman.

1333
01:07:38,554 --> 01:07:40,264
I wanted to be an artiste.

1334
01:07:40,347 --> 01:07:41,557
I just wanted to think about the music

1335
01:07:41,640 --> 01:07:43,309
and the creativity, bah bah bah.

1336
01:07:43,392 --> 01:07:44,560
And I'm above all that.

1337
01:07:44,894 --> 01:07:47,480
Well, bullshit.
I wasn't above all of that.

1338
01:07:47,563 --> 01:07:50,900
...and a good captain can't fall asleep

1339
01:07:52,651 --> 01:07:54,445
I needed to protect these songs.

1340
01:07:54,528 --> 01:07:55,780
These were my children.

1341
01:07:55,863 --> 01:07:56,947
They were orphans

1342
01:07:57,031 --> 01:07:59,784
until I asserted my parenthood of them.

1343
01:07:59,867 --> 01:08:02,161
...from the bell in Gardiner's Bay

1344
01:08:02,661 --> 01:08:06,707
So I took over my management,
and I never looked back.

1345
01:08:08,626 --> 01:08:12,379
But I got people back
on land who count on me

1346
01:08:12,463 --> 01:08:18,427
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

1347
01:08:22,098 --> 01:08:24,809
1989 has been a year
of great change for Billy Joel.

1348
01:08:24,892 --> 01:08:28,354
He turned 40, fired his manager,
added some new members to his band,

1349
01:08:28,437 --> 01:08:30,606
and recorded his first album
in three years.

1350
01:08:30,689 --> 01:08:31,857
It's called "Storm Front."

1351
01:08:41,033 --> 01:08:42,743
The flag is a hurricane flag.

1352
01:08:42,827 --> 01:08:45,121
It's a red flag with
a black square in the middle.

1353
01:08:45,204 --> 01:08:47,039
When you see that flag,
you don't go anywhere.

1354
01:08:47,123 --> 01:08:48,666
-Is it a warning?
-Yeah.

1355
01:08:49,166 --> 01:08:50,417
It means something's going to happen, man.

1356
01:08:50,501 --> 01:08:51,877
Means a storm front's coming.

1357
01:08:51,961 --> 01:08:55,297
And I am restless

1358
01:08:56,632 --> 01:08:59,426
For the open water

1359
01:09:01,053 --> 01:09:04,473
Red flags are flying

1360
01:09:05,808 --> 01:09:08,978
From the Coast Guard mast

1361
01:09:10,437 --> 01:09:11,856
They told me...

1362
01:09:11,939 --> 01:09:13,774
Name your favorite Billy Joel album.

1363
01:09:13,858 --> 01:09:15,276
That's tough.

1364
01:09:15,359 --> 01:09:17,194
But for me, "Storm Front."

1365
01:09:17,528 --> 01:09:18,904
People go, "Oh, man,
if you're a Billy Joel fan,

1366
01:09:18,988 --> 01:09:20,406
that was so late in his career."

1367
01:09:20,865 --> 01:09:24,994
How many other artists do you know
that late in their career

1368
01:09:25,452 --> 01:09:28,247
has an album that fucking moving?

1369
01:09:28,330 --> 01:09:30,624
There's a storm front coming

1370
01:09:33,210 --> 01:09:36,088
After being in the music business
for more than 16 years,

1371
01:09:36,172 --> 01:09:37,548
Joel says it's a challenge

1372
01:09:37,631 --> 01:09:39,466
to make every new album different.

1373
01:09:39,550 --> 01:09:42,887
This time, he tried to accomplish that
by working with a new producer:

1374
01:09:42,970 --> 01:09:44,763
Mick Jones of Foreigner.

1375
01:09:44,847 --> 01:09:47,224
On the radio

1376
01:09:47,308 --> 01:09:48,767
I never had a problem with Phil Ramone.

1377
01:09:48,851 --> 01:09:51,103
I just wanted somebody
who was a songwriter this time

1378
01:09:51,187 --> 01:09:52,563
and someone who also played an instrument,

1379
01:09:52,646 --> 01:09:53,856
which is Mick Jones.

1380
01:09:56,317 --> 01:09:59,612
I had been working with Phil Ramone
up until the late '80s,

1381
01:09:59,695 --> 01:10:03,991
and we were sort of falling into
what I thought was a rut.

1382
01:10:04,992 --> 01:10:08,120
And I recognized it's time for a change.

1383
01:10:10,039 --> 01:10:12,041
Phil was really hurt.
And I knew he was.

1384
01:10:12,124 --> 01:10:15,586
Because the relationship was so tight.

1385
01:10:15,836 --> 01:10:18,047
It was like a breakup.

1386
01:10:21,717 --> 01:10:24,053
Well, I'm shameless

1387
01:10:24,136 --> 01:10:26,931
The personnel you're working with,
they become like a family.

1388
01:10:27,306 --> 01:10:29,266
And it's hard to break out of a family.

1389
01:10:31,894 --> 01:10:35,481
It's not always easy when you get used
to doing things a certain way.

1390
01:10:35,564 --> 01:10:37,316
Well, I'm standing

1391
01:10:38,525 --> 01:10:41,362
Here for all the world to see

1392
01:10:41,445 --> 01:10:42,738
But it was something
that Billy had to do.

1393
01:10:42,821 --> 01:10:46,867
He had to change to stay current
and a different sound.

1394
01:10:46,951 --> 01:10:49,370
I just wanted you to wanted you to know

1395
01:10:49,453 --> 01:10:51,288
Shameless

1396
01:10:51,372 --> 01:10:53,999
Billy did that with every album,
he changed things.

1397
01:10:54,083 --> 01:10:57,002
But I mean you can see
the difference on the album.

1398
01:11:39,086 --> 01:11:42,548
Harry Truman, Doris Day,
Red China, Johnnie Ray

1399
01:11:42,631 --> 01:11:44,008
South Pacific, Walter Winchell

1400
01:11:44,300 --> 01:11:45,759
Joe DiMaggio

1401
01:11:45,843 --> 01:11:47,636
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon

1402
01:11:48,012 --> 01:11:49,305
Studebaker, television

1403
01:11:49,388 --> 01:11:53,225
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

1404
01:11:53,309 --> 01:11:55,853
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
was the first single

1405
01:11:55,936 --> 01:11:57,104
from the "Storm Front" album,

1406
01:11:57,187 --> 01:11:58,897
and it was a huge hit.

1407
01:11:59,440 --> 01:12:02,526
Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

1408
01:12:02,818 --> 01:12:06,071
Brando, The King and I
and The Catcher in the Rye

1409
01:12:06,155 --> 01:12:09,283
Eisenhower, vaccine,
England's got a new queen

1410
01:12:09,366 --> 01:12:12,703
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

1411
01:12:12,786 --> 01:12:14,955
We didn't start the fire

1412
01:12:15,664 --> 01:12:18,000
It was always burning since the world's...

1413
01:12:18,083 --> 01:12:19,293
When I was writing that song,

1414
01:12:19,376 --> 01:12:22,629
I was starting to come up with an idea
of headlines.

1415
01:12:22,713 --> 01:12:24,340
And I went year by year by year.

1416
01:12:24,423 --> 01:12:25,758
The headlines keep coming.

1417
01:12:25,841 --> 01:12:27,634
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov

1418
01:12:27,718 --> 01:12:29,178
Nasser and Prokofiev

1419
01:12:29,261 --> 01:12:32,264
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

1420
01:12:32,639 --> 01:12:35,893
There's a palpable sense of history
because of these headlines.

1421
01:12:35,976 --> 01:12:37,478
Dien Bien Phu Falls

1422
01:12:37,561 --> 01:12:39,146
"Rock Around the Clock"

1423
01:12:39,229 --> 01:12:40,773
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle

1424
01:12:40,856 --> 01:12:42,358
California baseball

1425
01:12:42,441 --> 01:12:45,736
Today at 41, the punk
who never finished high school

1426
01:12:45,819 --> 01:12:47,738
has a surprising new following:

1427
01:12:47,821 --> 01:12:48,864
school children.

1428
01:12:48,947 --> 01:12:50,949
We didn't start the fire

1429
01:12:51,367 --> 01:12:52,951
Some educators say Joel's song

1430
01:12:53,035 --> 01:12:55,704
is the greatest teaching tool
since Sesame Street.

1431
01:12:55,788 --> 01:12:59,625
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
just propelled Billy to probably,

1432
01:12:59,708 --> 01:13:02,086
at that time, the pinnacle of his career.

1433
01:13:02,961 --> 01:13:04,922
He's one of America's hugest stars:

1434
01:13:05,005 --> 01:13:06,256
-Billy Joel.
-Billy Joel.

1435
01:13:06,340 --> 01:13:07,383
-Billy Joel.
-Billy Joel.

1436
01:13:07,466 --> 01:13:09,593
Billy Joel.

1437
01:13:09,676 --> 01:13:12,262
We just started rehearsing for a tour,

1438
01:13:12,346 --> 01:13:15,349
which we'll do in,
beginning in December.

1439
01:13:15,432 --> 01:13:16,975
We're going to be out
for a long, long time.

1440
01:13:17,059 --> 01:13:19,770
I don't like the travel part.
I like to play.

1441
01:13:19,853 --> 01:13:22,481
When musicians are having
a good time playing together,

1442
01:13:22,564 --> 01:13:24,858
you remember why did I do this
in the first place.

1443
01:13:27,069 --> 01:13:28,487
You're on top of the world.

1444
01:13:38,539 --> 01:13:42,084
Call me a joker call me a fool

1445
01:13:42,167 --> 01:13:45,629
Right at this moment I'm totally cool

1446
01:13:45,712 --> 01:13:49,508
Clear as a crystal sharp as a knife

1447
01:13:49,591 --> 01:13:52,886
I feel like I'm in the prime of my life

1448
01:13:53,512 --> 01:13:56,765
"I Go to Extremes" was
kind of what was going on in his life,

1449
01:13:56,849 --> 01:14:00,769
because he was boomeranging
between being a family man

1450
01:14:00,853 --> 01:14:03,439
and tortured artist.

1451
01:14:03,522 --> 01:14:09,027
Darling, I don't know why I go to extremes

1452
01:14:09,403 --> 01:14:12,489
I don't know all that
he was going through during that time.

1453
01:14:12,573 --> 01:14:14,533
But I saw a struggling person.

1454
01:14:14,908 --> 01:14:16,743
But what musician doesn't feel safe

1455
01:14:16,827 --> 01:14:18,370
onstage or in their music?

1456
01:14:18,454 --> 01:14:20,164
I mean, that's the only thing
that won't stab you

1457
01:14:20,247 --> 01:14:21,707
in the back, you know?

1458
01:14:21,790 --> 01:14:24,168
I'm sure that that was his safe place.

1459
01:14:25,502 --> 01:14:31,341
Darling, I don't know why I go to extremes

1460
01:14:39,933 --> 01:14:43,061
It's kind of manic.
Why do I go to extremes?

1461
01:14:43,145 --> 01:14:46,106
Why am I always at the end of my tether?

1462
01:14:49,526 --> 01:14:50,861
It's not always pleasant.

1463
01:14:50,944 --> 01:14:53,238
You're being torn one way,
torn the other way.

1464
01:14:56,617 --> 01:14:58,785
And when you recognize that, you go,

1465
01:14:58,869 --> 01:15:00,329
I must be difficult to live with.

1466
01:15:03,582 --> 01:15:07,169
It kind of reminds me of my mom
because she was very up and down.

1467
01:15:07,252 --> 01:15:09,963
She was depressed then she was euphoric.

1468
01:15:10,464 --> 01:15:12,216
So, it probably runs in the family.

1469
01:15:34,905 --> 01:15:36,865
We were on the "Storm Front" tour.

1470
01:15:36,949 --> 01:15:39,743
And I've seen Billy lose it.

1471
01:15:39,826 --> 01:15:41,662
And this time, he really went...

1472
01:15:42,621 --> 01:15:44,081
just bad.

1473
01:15:45,415 --> 01:15:48,919
He would come into rehearsal
and sometimes be so out of it,

1474
01:15:49,002 --> 01:15:52,798
between what's going on
and trying to soothe the pain,

1475
01:15:52,881 --> 01:15:55,384
he would tell me to do
something on the drums

1476
01:15:55,467 --> 01:15:57,094
and then the next day come in

1477
01:15:57,177 --> 01:15:59,638
and ask me why I was doing what I'm doing.

1478
01:15:59,721 --> 01:16:00,973
And the rest of the band
would look at him and go,

1479
01:16:01,056 --> 01:16:02,641
"You told him to do that yesterday."

1480
01:16:02,724 --> 01:16:05,978
He goes, "I did?" He just didn't remember.

1481
01:16:07,896 --> 01:16:10,983
This is the period
where Billy was reeling.

1482
01:16:11,066 --> 01:16:13,944
You know, there was just
too much unraveling

1483
01:16:14,027 --> 01:16:15,237
in his life.

1484
01:16:16,280 --> 01:16:18,824
One night, I woke up in bed,

1485
01:16:18,907 --> 01:16:20,576
and I was like, where's Billy?

1486
01:16:21,451 --> 01:16:23,579
And I literally started calling

1487
01:16:23,662 --> 01:16:25,330
different bars out there

1488
01:16:25,872 --> 01:16:28,000
and found him.

1489
01:16:28,500 --> 01:16:30,294
They said, "Yeah, he's here."

1490
01:16:30,377 --> 01:16:32,254
And I said, okay, don't say anything.

1491
01:16:32,337 --> 01:16:36,133
I just wanted to make sure
he was someplace.

1492
01:16:37,551 --> 01:16:39,469
But a few incidents
like that were starting

1493
01:16:39,553 --> 01:16:41,263
to sort of seep in here and there

1494
01:16:41,346 --> 01:16:44,182
that I was aware of
that was disconcerting.

1495
01:16:44,266 --> 01:16:47,102
But he didn't really like
to talk about it.

1496
01:16:48,270 --> 01:16:53,483
He preferred to just
push it down deeper, away.

1497
01:16:59,656 --> 01:17:02,618
So many artists
struggle with addiction.

1498
01:17:03,201 --> 01:17:05,037
They just need that outlet.

1499
01:17:05,537 --> 01:17:07,748
That, and on top of the endless pressures

1500
01:17:07,831 --> 01:17:10,334
of being in the entertainment industry.

1501
01:17:10,417 --> 01:17:12,169
The pressure of being on stage.

1502
01:17:12,252 --> 01:17:16,048
The pressure of trying
to please everyone at once.

1503
01:17:16,131 --> 01:17:17,924
The pressure to keep his marriage together

1504
01:17:18,008 --> 01:17:20,844
with my mother or to stay going on tour.

1505
01:17:21,720 --> 01:17:24,598
I just think that he felt
the weight of the world

1506
01:17:24,681 --> 01:17:26,016
on his shoulders.

1507
01:17:26,099 --> 01:17:27,351
And it led him to drink.

1508
01:17:30,771 --> 01:17:32,731
So can you tell me what
you're working on now?

1509
01:17:33,940 --> 01:17:37,903
Yeah, I'm writing
and recording a new album

1510
01:17:37,986 --> 01:17:40,947
out here, actually, in
the east end of Long Island.

1511
01:17:42,741 --> 01:17:44,284
I have a little studio set up.

1512
01:17:44,826 --> 01:17:47,412
China, very rough mix, 12/16/92.

1513
01:17:47,954 --> 01:17:50,207
Ah, ah, ah, ah

1514
01:17:50,582 --> 01:17:52,584
Ah, ah, ah, ah

1515
01:17:53,001 --> 01:17:56,004
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

1516
01:17:56,088 --> 01:17:59,675
He wanted to do this on Shelter Island

1517
01:18:00,175 --> 01:18:03,220
because he felt so grounded
on the east end of Long Island.

1518
01:18:04,179 --> 01:18:05,597
I'm compiling recordings.

1519
01:18:05,681 --> 01:18:08,475
The working title for this thing now
is the Shelter Island Sessions.

1520
01:18:08,558 --> 01:18:12,771
Hey, hey

1521
01:18:14,272 --> 01:18:15,899
Advice is cheap...

1522
01:18:15,982 --> 01:18:18,402
His thoughts were like let's keep it

1523
01:18:18,485 --> 01:18:20,570
where it was born and raise it here.

1524
01:18:21,279 --> 01:18:23,740
Billy was going to produce it himself.

1525
01:18:23,824 --> 01:18:25,367
So now Billy's writing the songs,

1526
01:18:25,450 --> 01:18:26,743
writing the music, writing the words,

1527
01:18:26,827 --> 01:18:28,036
running the studio.

1528
01:18:29,121 --> 01:18:31,123
He couldn't do everything.
There's too many hats.

1529
01:18:31,748 --> 01:18:33,458
He said, "I have to get a producer."

1530
01:18:34,042 --> 01:18:37,462
So he calls up Danny Kortchmar.

1531
01:18:37,921 --> 01:18:41,425
We originally took the tapes
back to a different studio

1532
01:18:41,508 --> 01:18:42,592
so we could listen to them

1533
01:18:42,676 --> 01:18:44,428
and see what he had on tape.

1534
01:18:44,720 --> 01:18:45,929
He asked me, "What would you think?"

1535
01:18:46,012 --> 01:18:48,640
I said,
there's three things I really love.

1536
01:18:48,724 --> 01:18:51,351
I love the songwriter. He's fabulous.

1537
01:18:51,435 --> 01:18:53,103
I love the keyboard player.

1538
01:18:53,186 --> 01:18:54,521
And I love the singer.

1539
01:18:55,480 --> 01:18:56,606
Everyone else sucks.

1540
01:18:57,023 --> 01:19:00,569
Now, I felt that these guys
had gotten so complacent,

1541
01:19:00,652 --> 01:19:03,613
it just sounded like
they were phoning it in.

1542
01:19:05,198 --> 01:19:07,242
I said, just let me bring in my own guys.

1543
01:19:07,325 --> 01:19:08,910
And if it doesn't work out,
you can go back

1544
01:19:08,994 --> 01:19:10,162
to doing what you were doing.

1545
01:19:10,245 --> 01:19:11,496
No harm, no foul.

1546
01:19:12,330 --> 01:19:15,167
I don't want to shut myself
off from a novel idea

1547
01:19:15,250 --> 01:19:17,836
because I'm used to doing
things a certain way.

1548
01:19:18,754 --> 01:19:20,547
And I kind of liked what I was hearing.

1549
01:19:20,630 --> 01:19:23,925
But in the darkness

1550
01:19:24,009 --> 01:19:26,928
I see your light turned on

1551
01:19:27,012 --> 01:19:30,015
I hear Billy's back in the studio
with another band.

1552
01:19:30,098 --> 01:19:31,558
I said, I'll call Billy.

1553
01:19:31,641 --> 01:19:34,770
He says, "What do you want?"
I said, well, what's going on?

1554
01:19:34,853 --> 01:19:36,563
He goes, "What do you mean,
what's going on?

1555
01:19:36,646 --> 01:19:38,023
You called me. What's going on?"

1556
01:19:38,106 --> 01:19:39,316
I said, Billy, I know.

1557
01:19:39,399 --> 01:19:41,860
He said, "Lib, I have to try this.

1558
01:19:41,943 --> 01:19:42,986
"I just want to try it.

1559
01:19:43,069 --> 01:19:44,321
I'm going to do it for one song."

1560
01:19:45,572 --> 01:19:47,449
One song turned into two songs,

1561
01:19:47,532 --> 01:19:50,827
turned into three songs,
turned into the whole album.

1562
01:19:52,954 --> 01:19:55,207
It was time to turn the page.

1563
01:19:56,333 --> 01:19:58,585
Billy turns the page in a hard way.

1564
01:20:00,128 --> 01:20:01,838
He was my drummer for a long time.

1565
01:20:02,297 --> 01:20:04,132
It just wasn't working
with me and Liberty.

1566
01:20:04,216 --> 01:20:06,760
There were differences in tempo.

1567
01:20:07,427 --> 01:20:09,763
There were differences
in our personal lives.

1568
01:20:11,848 --> 01:20:14,392
And it was like a divorce.
And it was acrimonious.

1569
01:20:16,436 --> 01:20:18,730
There was tension created because of that.

1570
01:20:18,814 --> 01:20:20,148
There was a lot of friction.

1571
01:20:20,565 --> 01:20:22,108
There was a lot of hard feelings.

1572
01:20:26,029 --> 01:20:28,573
I can remember being upset about it.

1573
01:20:29,074 --> 01:20:31,201
I sent him a fax and I said, Billy,

1574
01:20:31,284 --> 01:20:32,869
I realize you've got to do
what you got to do.

1575
01:20:32,953 --> 01:20:34,204
Your name's on the record.

1576
01:20:34,287 --> 01:20:36,164
But if you ever need me,
if you need my help,

1577
01:20:36,248 --> 01:20:37,707
call me, I'll be there.

1578
01:20:37,791 --> 01:20:39,751
But if Danny Kortchmar needs my help,

1579
01:20:40,126 --> 01:20:41,461
tell him to kiss my ass.

1580
01:20:42,504 --> 01:20:44,297
Well, Billy took that fax
and just stuck it

1581
01:20:44,381 --> 01:20:47,133
on the wall at the, at the studio.

1582
01:20:47,759 --> 01:20:49,803
A lot of people are angry at me

1583
01:20:49,886 --> 01:20:52,305
because they think I did
something bad to Liberty.

1584
01:20:52,806 --> 01:20:55,016
And I'm not going to make
an excuse for it.

1585
01:20:55,517 --> 01:20:58,645
It wasn't working out with us,
and that's what happened.

1586
01:20:58,728 --> 01:21:01,481
I think Lib was kind of bitter about it.

1587
01:21:02,440 --> 01:21:04,943
But we made up, and we're friends again.

1588
01:21:07,028 --> 01:21:10,782
B, D, and F sharp in our right hand.

1589
01:21:14,160 --> 01:21:15,537
B, D, E.

1590
01:21:19,082 --> 01:21:20,500
Just to A, C sharp.

1591
01:21:20,584 --> 01:21:21,877
I knew he was brilliant,

1592
01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:24,462
but I had no idea what a badass he was

1593
01:21:24,546 --> 01:21:25,964
until I got in the studio with him.

1594
01:21:26,631 --> 01:21:28,633
His adaption of
European music into pop music

1595
01:21:28,717 --> 01:21:31,469
was something that
practically nobody was doing.

1596
01:21:31,553 --> 01:21:34,472
Everyone else is coming
from folk music, blues,

1597
01:21:34,556 --> 01:21:36,266
or pop music of the day.

1598
01:21:37,058 --> 01:21:39,978
He started using elements that
weren't being used that much.

1599
01:21:42,439 --> 01:21:45,025
G, D, F sharp on the right hand.

1600
01:21:46,735 --> 01:21:48,361
I saw a quote from Neil Diamond,

1601
01:21:48,445 --> 01:21:49,779
who I think is a terrific songwriter,

1602
01:21:49,863 --> 01:21:51,239
and he was talking about

1603
01:21:51,323 --> 01:21:53,783
how he's become comfortable
with his songwriting.

1604
01:21:53,867 --> 01:21:56,995
He said, "I forgave myself
for not being Beethoven."

1605
01:21:57,078 --> 01:21:59,789
And as soon as I read that,
I realized that's my problem.

1606
01:21:59,873 --> 01:22:03,668
I have not forgiven myself
for not being Beethoven.

1607
01:22:03,752 --> 01:22:06,004
And I would beat myself up because, to me,

1608
01:22:06,087 --> 01:22:08,465
Beethoven was the greatest
composer who ever lived.

1609
01:22:16,556 --> 01:22:19,643
My own history as a musician started

1610
01:22:19,726 --> 01:22:21,519
with me hearing classical music,

1611
01:22:21,603 --> 01:22:24,397
because my father was
a classically trained pianist,

1612
01:22:24,481 --> 01:22:27,400
and those were the radio
stations my mom listened to.

1613
01:22:27,484 --> 01:22:30,070
A lot of kids first started
listening to the radio,

1614
01:22:30,153 --> 01:22:31,488
they listened to pop music.

1615
01:22:31,863 --> 01:22:35,533
I heard Mozart, I heard Bach,
I heard Beethoven.

1616
01:22:35,617 --> 01:22:37,243
And it was entrancing.

1617
01:22:37,911 --> 01:22:40,580
I actually brought
that classical education

1618
01:22:40,664 --> 01:22:42,207
into my writing.

1619
01:22:42,290 --> 01:22:43,917
It was whether it could be played

1620
01:22:44,000 --> 01:22:47,128
as a piece on its own without words.

1621
01:22:47,212 --> 01:22:49,089
Take, for example, "Uptown Girl."

1622
01:22:49,172 --> 01:22:51,174
It could have been a Mozart piece.

1623
01:23:03,019 --> 01:23:06,272
And that's imbued a lot of my songs.

1624
01:23:06,356 --> 01:23:08,942
This night...

1625
01:23:09,025 --> 01:23:13,446
Like, "This Night" is actually
a direct lift from Beethoven.

1626
01:23:13,530 --> 01:23:15,031
It's from the "Pathétique."

1627
01:23:24,541 --> 01:23:26,710
It was Beethoven at his most melodic.

1628
01:23:31,464 --> 01:23:33,591
But I use his theme for the "Pathétique"

1629
01:23:33,675 --> 01:23:35,176
to have the chorus of "This Night."

1630
01:23:35,260 --> 01:23:36,302
But I gave him credit.

1631
01:23:36,386 --> 01:23:37,637
It says it on the back of the album:

1632
01:23:37,721 --> 01:23:38,888
"L.v. Beethoven."

1633
01:23:38,972 --> 01:23:40,432
People said, "He ripped off Beethoven!"

1634
01:23:40,515 --> 01:23:41,683
I didn't rip him off.

1635
01:23:41,766 --> 01:23:44,519
I didn't pay him,
but I didn't rip him off.

1636
01:23:45,603 --> 01:23:47,313
We go back a long time.

1637
01:23:47,397 --> 01:23:49,858
I played violin on "Downeaster 'Alexa.'"

1638
01:23:49,941 --> 01:23:53,903
And I noticed that he's
a real classical music lover.

1639
01:23:53,987 --> 01:23:56,614
He can play the piano,
he can do the orchestration.

1640
01:23:57,157 --> 01:24:00,410
What I admire is
his harmonic progressions.

1641
01:24:00,827 --> 01:24:02,287
Like "Allentown,"

1642
01:24:02,370 --> 01:24:05,957
it's full of little harmonic modulations.

1643
01:24:09,627 --> 01:24:13,548
I'm always fascinated how
he maneuvers the harmonies.

1644
01:24:13,631 --> 01:24:16,301
In classical music, it's the same thing.

1645
01:24:16,384 --> 01:24:18,720
All of us are standing
on the shoulders of giants.

1646
01:24:18,803 --> 01:24:21,306
Music doesn't just come out of the air.

1647
01:24:21,389 --> 01:24:23,266
It comes from work and study.

1648
01:24:23,349 --> 01:24:25,685
You take what's been done.

1649
01:24:25,769 --> 01:24:29,439
You hear it, you absorb it,
and then you execute it,

1650
01:24:29,522 --> 01:24:32,192
but you enhance it with your signature.

1651
01:24:32,275 --> 01:24:34,319
That's how music lives on.

1652
01:24:36,654 --> 01:24:38,239
I don't really know how to play it.

1653
01:24:42,452 --> 01:24:44,496
So this is the left hand arpeggiating.

1654
01:24:44,954 --> 01:24:46,748
Nobody grew up in a test tube.

1655
01:24:46,831 --> 01:24:48,458
We all grew up with influences,

1656
01:24:48,541 --> 01:24:52,587
and I'm probably stealing all the time
and not even aware of it.

1657
01:24:54,297 --> 01:24:57,675
G...

1658
01:24:57,759 --> 01:25:00,637
He has all this
harmonic stuff in his head.

1659
01:25:00,720 --> 01:25:03,389
Remember, he's just
following his instincts

1660
01:25:03,473 --> 01:25:05,350
when he sits at the piano, you know?

1661
01:25:05,433 --> 01:25:07,811
And his instincts have a lot
to do with classical music,

1662
01:25:07,894 --> 01:25:10,105
and also blues and rock and roll,
which he loved.

1663
01:25:11,564 --> 01:25:13,149
That album is a journey.

1664
01:25:13,233 --> 01:25:15,235
One song begat another song.

1665
01:25:15,693 --> 01:25:17,278
There's a song cycle here.

1666
01:25:18,696 --> 01:25:21,199
A lot of it was how I write.

1667
01:25:21,282 --> 01:25:24,619
There's this dream state I get into,

1668
01:25:24,702 --> 01:25:26,246
almost like a trance.

1669
01:25:26,329 --> 01:25:28,289
There's a flow to it like a river.

1670
01:25:30,041 --> 01:25:31,668
Oh, another thing I thought of:

1671
01:25:31,751 --> 01:25:33,962
when we do the stops...

1672
01:25:34,045 --> 01:25:35,880
Da da da da da

1673
01:25:37,549 --> 01:25:38,883
How do you pick up...

1674
01:25:39,634 --> 01:25:43,555
The song "The River of Dreams"
came to me in a dream.

1675
01:25:51,980 --> 01:25:54,774
I woke up hearing the rhythm,

1676
01:25:54,858 --> 01:25:56,860
hearing the call and response,

1677
01:25:56,943 --> 01:25:58,570
the gospel aspect of it.

1678
01:25:58,653 --> 01:26:00,321
I'm not a gospel artist,

1679
01:26:00,405 --> 01:26:02,490
but that was so different to me.

1680
01:26:06,452 --> 01:26:08,163
And I said, I'm not going to write this.

1681
01:26:08,246 --> 01:26:10,123
No, no, no. I rejected it immediately.

1682
01:26:10,206 --> 01:26:12,584
In the middle of the, I go walking in the

1683
01:26:13,918 --> 01:26:16,254
Call and response,
which they do in church.

1684
01:26:16,337 --> 01:26:18,381
And I went and took a shower.

1685
01:26:18,464 --> 01:26:20,842
And I'm soaping myself and I'm singing...

1686
01:26:20,925 --> 01:26:22,427
In the middle of the I...

1687
01:26:22,510 --> 01:26:24,762
And it would not go away.

1688
01:26:24,846 --> 01:26:27,098
It became part of my being.

1689
01:26:27,182 --> 01:26:29,017
It wouldn't leave me, and it was like,

1690
01:26:29,100 --> 01:26:32,228
you're going to have to write this
whether you want to or not.

1691
01:26:32,604 --> 01:26:35,982
When something is that powerful
and that evocative,

1692
01:26:36,316 --> 01:26:37,984
you should usually go with it.

1693
01:26:38,067 --> 01:26:39,235
It needs to be written.

1694
01:26:41,029 --> 01:26:43,198
In the middle of the night

1695
01:26:43,698 --> 01:26:45,825
I go walking in my sleep

1696
01:26:46,409 --> 01:26:49,037
Walking down to the banks

1697
01:26:49,120 --> 01:26:51,664
Of a river so deep

1698
01:26:51,748 --> 01:26:53,917
I must be looking for something

1699
01:26:54,459 --> 01:26:57,045
Something sacred I lost

1700
01:26:57,128 --> 01:26:59,714
But the river is wide

1701
01:26:59,797 --> 01:27:02,258
And it's too hard to cross

1702
01:27:02,342 --> 01:27:04,928
In the middle of the night

1703
01:27:05,011 --> 01:27:06,721
I go walking in my sleep

1704
01:27:06,804 --> 01:27:08,431
I was going through a catharsis.

1705
01:27:08,806 --> 01:27:11,434
I had to rediscover faith in humanity.

1706
01:27:11,517 --> 01:27:14,520
I needed to renew my faith in myself.

1707
01:27:14,604 --> 01:27:16,147
I needed to be redeemed.

1708
01:27:17,190 --> 01:27:19,108
Even though I know the river is wide

1709
01:27:19,192 --> 01:27:22,111
I walk down every evening
and I stand on the shore

1710
01:27:22,570 --> 01:27:24,530
I try to cross to the opposite side

1711
01:27:24,614 --> 01:27:27,784
So I can finally find out
what I've been looking for

1712
01:27:27,867 --> 01:27:30,286
In the middle of the night

1713
01:27:30,370 --> 01:27:31,996
I go walking in my sleep

1714
01:27:32,080 --> 01:27:33,373
I go walking in my sleep

1715
01:27:33,456 --> 01:27:34,832
Through the valley of fear

1716
01:27:34,916 --> 01:27:35,959
Valley of fear

1717
01:27:36,042 --> 01:27:37,377
To a river so deep

1718
01:27:37,460 --> 01:27:38,711
River so deep

1719
01:27:39,087 --> 01:27:40,964
I've been searching for something

1720
01:27:41,047 --> 01:27:43,758
-Taken out of my soul
-Taken out of my soul

1721
01:27:43,841 --> 01:27:45,551
Something I'd never lose

1722
01:27:45,635 --> 01:27:47,762
-Never lose
-Something somebody stole

1723
01:27:47,845 --> 01:27:49,847
By the time I got
to the end of the album,

1724
01:27:49,931 --> 01:27:51,224
I recognized that

1725
01:27:51,307 --> 01:27:53,643
the song form had come full circle.

1726
01:27:53,726 --> 01:27:56,145
I was tired of writing words.

1727
01:27:56,896 --> 01:27:58,815
Not that I was going to give up music

1728
01:27:58,898 --> 01:28:00,692
or that I was going to stop writing music.

1729
01:28:00,775 --> 01:28:02,694
But I've had my say.

1730
01:28:03,236 --> 01:28:07,156
This is pretty much it for my songwriting.

1731
01:28:08,324 --> 01:28:10,952
Sitting here in Avalon

1732
01:28:12,161 --> 01:28:15,665
Looking at the pouring rain

1733
01:28:15,748 --> 01:28:18,418
I was tired
of the tyranny of the rhyme.

1734
01:28:19,335 --> 01:28:22,130
...everybody's home again

1735
01:28:22,213 --> 01:28:25,049
I asked him why
he stopped writing pop songs,

1736
01:28:25,133 --> 01:28:28,219
and he said because it's the most awful,

1737
01:28:28,303 --> 01:28:32,223
excruciating experience
he will ever go through.

1738
01:28:32,307 --> 01:28:36,394
Because he's a perfectionist
and it was ruining his life.

1739
01:28:36,477 --> 01:28:42,150
These are the last words I have to say

1740
01:28:42,233 --> 01:28:44,485
Writing is a have-to kind of thing.

1741
01:28:44,569 --> 01:28:45,820
It's like being hungry.

1742
01:28:46,112 --> 01:28:49,115
If you don't have that in you,
you're just not going to write.

1743
01:28:50,074 --> 01:28:54,287
There will be other words some other day

1744
01:28:54,370 --> 01:28:57,957
I think by the time
he wrote "Famous Last Words,"

1745
01:28:58,041 --> 01:29:00,752
he was like, I don't want to
compete with myself anymore.

1746
01:29:00,835 --> 01:29:03,671
I don't want to be compared
to "Just The Way You Are"

1747
01:29:03,755 --> 01:29:05,673
or "The Stranger" or any of that.

1748
01:29:05,757 --> 01:29:07,800
I think there's a time when you have to be

1749
01:29:07,884 --> 01:29:09,344
a philosopher and say, oh,

1750
01:29:09,427 --> 01:29:12,430
now is the time to be silently stoic.

1751
01:29:12,513 --> 01:29:14,474
And I respect that.

1752
01:29:14,557 --> 01:29:18,936
These are the last words I have to say

1753
01:29:19,020 --> 01:29:20,146
I still feel like it was

1754
01:29:20,229 --> 01:29:21,856
the natural progression of things.

1755
01:29:22,815 --> 01:29:26,694
Say

1756
01:29:26,778 --> 01:29:28,363
So I kind of closed the book.

1757
01:29:31,657 --> 01:29:32,784
Thank you.

1758
01:29:33,951 --> 01:29:35,453
When Billy stopped writing,

1759
01:29:35,536 --> 01:29:38,122
he talked about how once he became famous,

1760
01:29:38,206 --> 01:29:39,457
everybody read too much

1761
01:29:39,540 --> 01:29:41,876
into whatever he had to say in his songs,

1762
01:29:41,959 --> 01:29:43,753
and everything got seen or heard

1763
01:29:43,836 --> 01:29:46,089
through the filter of his celebrity,

1764
01:29:46,172 --> 01:29:48,633
of his private life, his marriages.

1765
01:29:48,716 --> 01:29:51,469
And something snapped. Something broke.

1766
01:29:54,222 --> 01:29:56,641
I think some of it might
also have to do with fear.

1767
01:29:56,724 --> 01:29:59,143
He didn't want to be someone
doing lesser work

1768
01:29:59,227 --> 01:30:00,520
as he got older.

1769
01:30:03,439 --> 01:30:04,941
I think Billy wanted a certain type

1770
01:30:05,024 --> 01:30:07,318
of recognition that he had never gotten.

1771
01:30:07,402 --> 01:30:10,696
Kind of serious, literary, poetic.

1772
01:30:11,322 --> 01:30:14,742
The critical response to Billy
kind of improved over the years,

1773
01:30:14,826 --> 01:30:16,452
but I don't think it was
quite enough for him.

1774
01:30:18,162 --> 01:30:20,039
There's something a little sad about it.

1775
01:30:20,123 --> 01:30:21,874
You know, here's this person
who was like a fount

1776
01:30:21,958 --> 01:30:25,002
of creativity who's gone dry.

1777
01:30:25,086 --> 01:30:26,754
To see that person still around

1778
01:30:26,838 --> 01:30:28,840
as a very much functioning artist,

1779
01:30:28,923 --> 01:30:30,758
performing with as much, sort of,

1780
01:30:31,342 --> 01:30:34,095
vivacity as he had before,

1781
01:30:34,178 --> 01:30:37,682
but having stopped writing,
it's almost like a puzzle.

1782
01:30:39,559 --> 01:30:41,310
In the middle of the night

1783
01:30:41,394 --> 01:30:42,437
Middle of the night

1784
01:30:42,520 --> 01:30:43,771
I go walking in my sleep

1785
01:30:43,855 --> 01:30:45,022
I go walking in my sleep

1786
01:30:45,106 --> 01:30:47,483
Through the desert of truth

1787
01:30:47,567 --> 01:30:50,153
-To a river so deep
-River so deep

1788
01:30:50,236 --> 01:30:52,905
-We all end in the ocean
-End in the ocean

1789
01:30:52,989 --> 01:30:55,116
We all start in the streams...

1790
01:30:55,199 --> 01:30:56,784
After I wrote "River of Dreams,"

1791
01:30:56,868 --> 01:30:59,370
it was necessary for me
to stop writing songs.

1792
01:30:59,454 --> 01:31:01,539
But it was a hit. Go figure.

1793
01:31:01,622 --> 01:31:04,876
...the middle of the night

1794
01:31:04,959 --> 01:31:07,462
I go walking in the
in the middle of the...

1795
01:31:08,337 --> 01:31:10,298
Not only did
he make that money back,

1796
01:31:10,923 --> 01:31:12,884
he came back bigger and better...

1797
01:31:14,051 --> 01:31:15,970
maybe because of the adversity.

1798
01:31:16,053 --> 01:31:17,763
You knock me down, fuck you.

1799
01:31:17,847 --> 01:31:19,182
I'm coming back with a vengeance.

1800
01:31:31,277 --> 01:31:33,154
It has been three years
since his last tour,

1801
01:31:33,237 --> 01:31:35,531
but having a number-one album
to take to the road

1802
01:31:35,615 --> 01:31:37,783
makes getting on stage a whole lot easier.

1803
01:31:38,409 --> 01:31:40,453
With the crowd screaming for
more at the end of the night,

1804
01:31:40,536 --> 01:31:43,664
Billy ducks out the back door
and it's on to the next show.

1805
01:31:43,748 --> 01:31:45,124
And that next show is in Boston.

1806
01:31:45,208 --> 01:31:46,834
Then it's on to Philadelphia and New York.

1807
01:31:46,918 --> 01:31:49,337
The River of Dreams tour
will be on the road

1808
01:31:49,420 --> 01:31:50,880
for two years.

1809
01:31:50,963 --> 01:31:53,341
We were just wondering
how your daughter, Alexa,

1810
01:31:53,424 --> 01:31:56,302
and Christie handle you being
out on the road for so long.

1811
01:31:56,385 --> 01:31:57,929
Do they go along with you?

1812
01:31:58,012 --> 01:32:00,431
Well, from time
to time, they will join me.

1813
01:32:00,515 --> 01:32:03,392
The fact that Alexa
is in second grade now

1814
01:32:03,809 --> 01:32:06,687
tends to make it more difficult
for her to come out.

1815
01:32:06,771 --> 01:32:08,731
But it's one of the reasons
that I've referred to this

1816
01:32:08,814 --> 01:32:11,150
as the last long tour
that I'm going to do.

1817
01:32:11,692 --> 01:32:13,152
I really don't want to continue

1818
01:32:13,236 --> 01:32:15,404
to live a life of Willy Loman.

1819
01:32:15,488 --> 01:32:16,864
You want to watch your kid grow up.

1820
01:32:17,490 --> 01:32:19,283
Yeah. I don't want to become Uncle Daddy.

1821
01:32:19,825 --> 01:32:22,411
Our relationship went from lots of fun

1822
01:32:22,495 --> 01:32:25,540
and really totally enjoying
each other and everything

1823
01:32:25,623 --> 01:32:29,335
to his work consuming him.

1824
01:32:30,711 --> 01:32:33,297
And if I did go on the road,
I wasn't seeing him

1825
01:32:33,381 --> 01:32:36,592
because the unwind period after the show

1826
01:32:36,676 --> 01:32:40,471
was going on till late into the night.

1827
01:32:41,264 --> 01:32:43,015
And it's like, what am I even doing here?

1828
01:32:43,933 --> 01:32:45,893
And I just got like,
I don't know what to do.

1829
01:32:45,977 --> 01:32:50,648
But I can't be lonely, just me and Alexa

1830
01:32:50,731 --> 01:32:52,233
in this big old house

1831
01:32:52,316 --> 01:32:55,319
that was supposed to be so full of life

1832
01:32:55,403 --> 01:32:59,448
and love and music
and laughter and all of that.

1833
01:33:00,950 --> 01:33:04,036
Things were starting to deteriorate.

1834
01:33:05,454 --> 01:33:07,206
I was in a relationship with someone

1835
01:33:07,290 --> 01:33:09,000
who I cared deeply about,

1836
01:33:09,542 --> 01:33:12,670
but I was not able to be at home.

1837
01:33:12,753 --> 01:33:14,672
I was not able to be with my family.

1838
01:33:15,506 --> 01:33:17,425
It was a very sad time for me.

1839
01:33:18,009 --> 01:33:23,598
Goodnight, my angel,
time to close your eyes

1840
01:33:23,681 --> 01:33:28,811
And save these questions for another day

1841
01:33:28,894 --> 01:33:31,689
At that time, I think Alexa knew that

1842
01:33:31,772 --> 01:33:34,108
her parents were going to split up.

1843
01:33:34,191 --> 01:33:37,445
And for a child, that's
a very traumatic thing.

1844
01:33:37,528 --> 01:33:40,615
She needed to know
I would always be there.

1845
01:33:40,698 --> 01:33:46,203
I promised I would never leave you...

1846
01:33:46,287 --> 01:33:48,706
"Goodnight, My Angel," "Lullabye,"

1847
01:33:48,789 --> 01:33:51,667
I can't even really talk
about it without choking up.

1848
01:33:51,751 --> 01:33:55,713
Wherever you may go no matter where...

1849
01:33:55,796 --> 01:33:58,591
He wrote that song
saying no matter what,

1850
01:33:59,133 --> 01:34:00,468
I will never leave you.

1851
01:34:00,551 --> 01:34:01,886
...far away

1852
01:34:03,179 --> 01:34:04,930
Goodnight, my angel

1853
01:34:05,014 --> 01:34:08,434
Now it's time to sleep

1854
01:34:08,934 --> 01:34:14,231
And still so many things I want to say

1855
01:34:14,315 --> 01:34:15,900
I just remember that it was

1856
01:34:15,983 --> 01:34:19,528
a very emotionally tumultuous time.

1857
01:34:20,321 --> 01:34:23,741
When we went sailing on an emerald...

1858
01:34:23,824 --> 01:34:25,076
I don't think it's a secret

1859
01:34:25,159 --> 01:34:28,079
that his drinking got pretty bad,

1860
01:34:28,162 --> 01:34:30,081
and he couldn't really remember

1861
01:34:30,164 --> 01:34:31,791
what he did when he was drinking,

1862
01:34:31,874 --> 01:34:36,587
and so he didn't really know
how he could hurt people.

1863
01:34:37,296 --> 01:34:39,965
The water's dark and deep

1864
01:34:40,049 --> 01:34:42,176
Inside this ancient heart...

1865
01:34:42,259 --> 01:34:43,636
I would just pretend
that I was sleeping

1866
01:34:43,719 --> 01:34:45,096
when he'd come in, because I didn't want

1867
01:34:45,179 --> 01:34:46,555
to see him in that condition.

1868
01:34:46,639 --> 01:34:50,810
And one night,
we had an argument and I said,

1869
01:34:50,893 --> 01:34:53,145
I really can't take this anymore.

1870
01:34:53,813 --> 01:34:55,523
And I'm just going to take Alexa

1871
01:34:55,606 --> 01:34:57,441
back up to New York and leave.

1872
01:34:57,942 --> 01:35:00,903
And he said, "Yeah, fine. Go."

1873
01:35:04,490 --> 01:35:07,493
I realized love is not concrete.

1874
01:35:07,576 --> 01:35:09,412
You know, you feel like it is.

1875
01:35:09,495 --> 01:35:11,706
But there are things eating away at it.

1876
01:35:11,789 --> 01:35:15,084
And in the end, it all catches up.

1877
01:35:15,167 --> 01:35:16,585
And it's hard.

1878
01:35:17,586 --> 01:35:20,381
And I was so devastated.

1879
01:35:20,464 --> 01:35:22,842
Someday your child may cry

1880
01:35:22,925 --> 01:35:26,887
And if you sing this lullaby

1881
01:35:26,971 --> 01:35:30,808
Then in your heart there will always...

1882
01:35:30,891 --> 01:35:33,269
I tried. I wanted it to work.

1883
01:35:33,728 --> 01:35:37,898
I knew how lucky I was,
having music and all of that,

1884
01:35:38,691 --> 01:35:42,111
but... it just didn't work.

1885
01:35:43,946 --> 01:35:46,782
" playing)

1886
01:35:48,033 --> 01:35:50,369
Someday we'll all be gone

1887
01:35:50,453 --> 01:35:54,373
But lullabies go on and on

1888
01:35:54,457 --> 01:35:56,542
They never die

1889
01:35:56,625 --> 01:36:00,713
That's how you and I

1890
01:36:01,380 --> 01:36:04,592
Will be

1891
01:36:26,280 --> 01:36:29,408
In every heart

1892
01:36:29,492 --> 01:36:32,578
There is a room

1893
01:36:33,412 --> 01:36:38,417
A sanctuary safe and strong

1894
01:36:39,043 --> 01:36:42,046
To heal the wounds

1895
01:36:42,129 --> 01:36:45,800
From lovers past

1896
01:36:45,883 --> 01:36:51,430
Until a new one comes along

1897
01:36:51,514 --> 01:36:53,682
I would say
if there was a skeleton key

1898
01:36:53,766 --> 01:36:56,560
to unlocking what's behind the songs,

1899
01:36:56,644 --> 01:36:59,438
it would probably be
my relationships with others.

1900
01:36:59,980 --> 01:37:01,982
Everything I write is influenced

1901
01:37:02,066 --> 01:37:03,484
by someone else.

1902
01:37:04,610 --> 01:37:07,488
And still I feel

1903
01:37:07,571 --> 01:37:11,242
I said too much

1904
01:37:11,325 --> 01:37:13,452
You know, true love
isn't always floating

1905
01:37:13,536 --> 01:37:15,120
on clouds and ecstasy.

1906
01:37:15,204 --> 01:37:16,539
A lot of it's pain.

1907
01:37:17,832 --> 01:37:23,212
And every time I've held a rose

1908
01:37:23,295 --> 01:37:28,467
It seems I only felt the thorns

1909
01:37:29,009 --> 01:37:31,929
And so it goes

1910
01:37:32,012 --> 01:37:35,015
And so it goes

1911
01:37:35,099 --> 01:37:39,353
And so will you soon I suppose

1912
01:37:39,436 --> 01:37:41,063
It's so hard to write something

1913
01:37:41,146 --> 01:37:44,775
very simple and very profound.

1914
01:37:44,859 --> 01:37:47,528
It only happens once
in a lifetime, sometimes.

1915
01:37:48,779 --> 01:37:52,825
Then that would be my worst mistake

1916
01:37:52,908 --> 01:37:54,827
It's got discords in it.

1917
01:37:54,910 --> 01:37:57,580
It's got a sour note
in almost every chord.

1918
01:38:08,382 --> 01:38:10,634
It's a note that needs to be resolved.

1919
01:38:10,718 --> 01:38:13,888
It's a suspended chord.
And it builds tension.

1920
01:38:13,971 --> 01:38:18,559
That's if the choice were mine to make

1921
01:38:18,642 --> 01:38:21,228
It's sort of like the end of a romance.

1922
01:38:21,687 --> 01:38:25,816
No resolution, which is
terrifying to consider.

1923
01:38:26,483 --> 01:38:29,028
And you can have

1924
01:38:29,111 --> 01:38:32,698
This heart to break

1925
01:38:33,782 --> 01:38:34,950
That's why I wrote it.

1926
01:38:36,577 --> 01:38:38,078
Unresolved chords.

1927
01:38:38,162 --> 01:38:40,581
And so it goes

1928
01:38:40,664 --> 01:38:44,543
And so it goes

1929
01:38:44,627 --> 01:38:48,422
And you're the only one

1930
01:38:48,505 --> 01:38:52,426
Who knows

1931
01:38:54,219 --> 01:38:57,014
He is back.
The one and only Piano Man, Billy Joel,

1932
01:38:57,097 --> 01:38:59,141
has just kicked off his East Coast tour.

1933
01:38:59,224 --> 01:39:00,935
The first reaction
when you hear that an artist

1934
01:39:01,018 --> 01:39:03,687
is going back on the road is, oh,
he's promoting a new album.

1935
01:39:03,771 --> 01:39:05,189
This is a unique concept.

1936
01:39:05,272 --> 01:39:07,733
This is the first time we've gone on tour
without a new studio album.

1937
01:39:07,816 --> 01:39:09,109
So it's new for us too.

1938
01:39:11,528 --> 01:39:13,405
Between now and the end of the year,

1939
01:39:13,489 --> 01:39:16,116
he'll travel Europe, Asia, and the US,

1940
01:39:16,200 --> 01:39:18,077
nearly a hundred performances.

1941
01:39:18,160 --> 01:39:19,286
He is road weary,

1942
01:39:19,370 --> 01:39:21,538
but for those two hours he's onstage,

1943
01:39:21,622 --> 01:39:22,998
he still loves it.

1944
01:39:23,082 --> 01:39:24,583
Come out, Virginia

1945
01:39:24,667 --> 01:39:26,085
Don't let me wait

1946
01:39:26,168 --> 01:39:29,254
You Catholic girls start much too late

1947
01:39:29,338 --> 01:39:32,091
Sooner or later, it comes down to fate

1948
01:39:32,174 --> 01:39:34,718
I might as well be the one

1949
01:39:35,719 --> 01:39:37,763
Performing music,
you have to leave it

1950
01:39:37,846 --> 01:39:39,056
all on the stage.

1951
01:39:39,139 --> 01:39:40,724
You can't hold back.

1952
01:39:40,808 --> 01:39:42,893
And there's a euphoria to it.

1953
01:39:43,394 --> 01:39:45,980
I think I needed that
at that point in my life.

1954
01:39:46,063 --> 01:39:47,856
...have done

1955
01:39:48,399 --> 01:39:51,402
Only the good die young

1956
01:39:51,986 --> 01:39:54,029
That's what I said.

1957
01:39:55,155 --> 01:39:57,741
Only the good die young

1958
01:39:57,825 --> 01:40:00,244
Only the good die young

1959
01:40:00,327 --> 01:40:02,955
And that's when I started
doing the Elton tours.

1960
01:40:03,038 --> 01:40:04,665
Tonight, the Piano Man

1961
01:40:04,748 --> 01:40:06,250
met the Rocket Man onstage.

1962
01:40:06,625 --> 01:40:10,045
Thus, the stage was set for what some call
the tour of the century.

1963
01:40:11,714 --> 01:40:14,842
Friday night I crashed your party

1964
01:40:14,925 --> 01:40:18,137
Saturday I said I'm sorry

1965
01:40:18,220 --> 01:40:21,515
Sunday came and trashed me out...

1966
01:40:21,598 --> 01:40:23,559
Well, I was aware
that the perception was

1967
01:40:23,642 --> 01:40:25,144
that there was a rivalry.

1968
01:40:25,602 --> 01:40:27,021
I always got compared to Elton

1969
01:40:27,104 --> 01:40:29,023
because he hit big first.

1970
01:40:29,648 --> 01:40:31,608
And I did resent it at the time,

1971
01:40:32,234 --> 01:40:33,444
but I got over it.

1972
01:40:34,028 --> 01:40:35,904
You may be right

1973
01:40:37,156 --> 01:40:39,241
I may be crazy

1974
01:40:40,576 --> 01:40:43,078
There was a healthy competition
going on between the two of them.

1975
01:40:43,162 --> 01:40:45,122
They're different kinds of piano players,

1976
01:40:45,205 --> 01:40:48,167
so I thought they complemented
each other fantastically.

1977
01:40:49,960 --> 01:40:51,837
Don't try to save me

1978
01:40:52,379 --> 01:40:54,298
Our time touring with Elton,

1979
01:40:54,381 --> 01:40:57,468
it was like being in camp. It was fun!

1980
01:40:57,968 --> 01:41:01,346
And I enjoyed watching that camaraderie
between the two there.

1981
01:41:03,515 --> 01:41:04,850
Well, how many outfits backstage?

1982
01:41:04,933 --> 01:41:06,226
I got rid of a lot recently,

1983
01:41:06,310 --> 01:41:08,228
so I probably have about 20 outfits.

1984
01:41:08,312 --> 01:41:09,605
-Twenty!
-And I've got more coming.

1985
01:41:09,688 --> 01:41:10,856
And, now how many do you have?

1986
01:41:10,939 --> 01:41:12,107
This is it.

1987
01:41:14,151 --> 01:41:16,695
We enjoyed it and the audiences liked it,

1988
01:41:16,779 --> 01:41:18,906
and it got bigger and bigger and bigger,

1989
01:41:19,490 --> 01:41:22,242
where there's 50, 80,000 people.

1990
01:41:22,743 --> 01:41:25,788
And it went on for 16 years.

1991
01:41:25,871 --> 01:41:27,873
You may be right

1992
01:41:29,333 --> 01:41:33,212
I said a-one, two one, two, three, four

1993
01:41:46,683 --> 01:41:48,268
And we've been reading so much lately

1994
01:41:48,352 --> 01:41:51,105
that pop may be a thing
of the past for you,

1995
01:41:51,188 --> 01:41:53,524
and that classical music
is now the direction

1996
01:41:53,607 --> 01:41:54,983
that you're going in full time.

1997
01:41:55,067 --> 01:41:56,610
-Any truth to that?
-Yeah.

1998
01:41:56,693 --> 01:41:58,695
I'm not saying I'm, you know, good enough

1999
01:41:58,779 --> 01:42:01,031
to be a classical composer yet,
but I'm starting.

2000
01:42:01,115 --> 01:42:02,407
You know, I've been writing music

2001
01:42:02,491 --> 01:42:05,035
for this guy named Billy Joel
for all these years.

2002
01:42:05,119 --> 01:42:06,495
I'm kind of getting tired of him.

2003
01:42:08,080 --> 01:42:09,915
When I first started writing music,

2004
01:42:09,998 --> 01:42:12,000
classical music was the girl next door.

2005
01:42:12,084 --> 01:42:13,836
And then I was swept away

2006
01:42:13,919 --> 01:42:16,088
by this temptress of rock and roll,

2007
01:42:16,171 --> 01:42:18,549
you know, in black fishnet stockings

2008
01:42:18,632 --> 01:42:20,551
and smeared mascara who smoked cigarettes.

2009
01:42:20,634 --> 01:42:24,388
And that was a hot affair for,
you know, 25 years of my life.

2010
01:42:24,471 --> 01:42:27,641
And then all of a sudden, I discovered
the girl next door again.

2011
01:42:38,026 --> 01:42:40,821
The first piece that
I finished in its entirety

2012
01:42:40,904 --> 01:42:43,115
was called "Soliloquy on a Separation,"

2013
01:42:43,615 --> 01:42:46,118
which was about my daughter
visiting with me

2014
01:42:46,201 --> 01:42:48,537
after we got divorced and then leaving.

2015
01:42:48,620 --> 01:42:51,582
And those emotions I was having

2016
01:42:52,166 --> 01:42:54,626
weren't something I could
easily write with lyrics.

2017
01:42:55,085 --> 01:42:57,254
Like, I see my kid come, I see my kid go.

2018
01:42:57,337 --> 01:42:59,715
It hurts so bad to want to be a father

2019
01:42:59,798 --> 01:43:01,175
and not be able to be one.

2020
01:43:01,258 --> 01:43:04,720
And I wrote these chords:
"We say goodbye."

2021
01:43:06,513 --> 01:43:08,307
"And then I watch as you leave."

2022
01:43:12,060 --> 01:43:14,188
"And then I slowly return..."

2023
01:43:15,147 --> 01:43:16,523
"...to this quiet house."

2024
01:43:16,607 --> 01:43:18,317
And I said, why do I have to say that?

2025
01:43:19,067 --> 01:43:20,694
The music is saying it.

2026
01:43:23,739 --> 01:43:25,073
Maybe at that point in my life,

2027
01:43:25,157 --> 01:43:28,035
I was ready to express myself
purely with music.

2028
01:43:29,286 --> 01:43:31,997
But I realized when I had
been writing these pieces,

2029
01:43:32,080 --> 01:43:33,832
I'm not the guy to play this stuff.

2030
01:43:34,208 --> 01:43:36,668
I can play bits of it in increments,

2031
01:43:36,752 --> 01:43:38,170
and I can compose well enough

2032
01:43:38,253 --> 01:43:39,755
to have somebody do the notation.

2033
01:43:39,838 --> 01:43:43,217
But I can't play the bravura
the way it should be played.

2034
01:43:44,760 --> 01:43:46,970
Hyung-ki, that's his expertise,

2035
01:43:47,054 --> 01:43:50,098
is Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Tchaikovsky.

2036
01:43:50,182 --> 01:43:52,142
And this is the guy
who I want to play my stuff.

2037
01:43:53,810 --> 01:43:55,938
Do you want the first time to be

2038
01:43:56,021 --> 01:43:58,732
like a suggestion or you want, you want...

2039
01:43:59,942 --> 01:44:01,985
-No, it can be stronger.
-It can be stronger, right?

2040
01:44:02,527 --> 01:44:04,154
So it's already present.

2041
01:44:06,365 --> 01:44:10,494
He lost the ability to read music

2042
01:44:10,577 --> 01:44:11,828
and to notate.

2043
01:44:11,912 --> 01:44:13,497
And so everything he does from ear,

2044
01:44:13,580 --> 01:44:15,499
which is absolutely mind boggling to me.

2045
01:44:15,582 --> 01:44:16,708
It's incredible.

2046
01:44:18,418 --> 01:44:20,587
A lot of people who are his fans

2047
01:44:20,671 --> 01:44:21,713
don't actually understand.

2048
01:44:21,797 --> 01:44:23,173
Wait a minute. He's the Piano Man.

2049
01:44:23,257 --> 01:44:25,550
He's a great pianist.
What does he need you for?

2050
01:44:25,634 --> 01:44:27,803
And of course, he's a fantastic pianist.

2051
01:44:27,886 --> 01:44:31,223
But it's a bit like asking
a ballet dancer to breakdance,

2052
01:44:31,306 --> 01:44:32,933
or vice versa.

2053
01:44:33,016 --> 01:44:35,644
I mean, they're both brilliant
in their field and virtuosic,

2054
01:44:36,019 --> 01:44:38,397
but one can't necessarily do the other.

2055
01:44:39,273 --> 01:44:40,482
And then it has to go...

2056
01:44:40,565 --> 01:44:42,109
And then that F would open it up there.

2057
01:44:46,363 --> 01:44:47,739
He hears a certain way.

2058
01:44:47,823 --> 01:44:50,951
Classical music is something
that really is

2059
01:44:51,034 --> 01:44:52,327
very close to his heart.

2060
01:44:52,411 --> 01:44:53,453
And you feel it.

2061
01:44:54,454 --> 01:44:58,709
We worked on these ten piano pieces
which would eventually become

2062
01:44:58,792 --> 01:45:00,627
the album "Fantasies & Delusions."

2063
01:45:01,044 --> 01:45:02,963
The reason I named it
"Fantasies & Delusions,"

2064
01:45:03,046 --> 01:45:04,631
because I recognized

2065
01:45:04,715 --> 01:45:07,384
I'm delusional to think
I'm a classical composer.

2066
01:45:07,884 --> 01:45:09,886
You know, I'm a rock
and roll piano player.

2067
01:45:09,970 --> 01:45:11,847
It's a fantasy. It's a delusion.

2068
01:45:11,930 --> 01:45:13,307
Let's call it what it is.

2069
01:45:14,641 --> 01:45:16,643
The album has some amazing moments.

2070
01:45:16,727 --> 01:45:18,562
I mean, this is from "Innamorato."

2071
01:45:38,832 --> 01:45:40,917
There's an inherent
lyric in that, which is...

2072
01:45:42,085 --> 01:45:43,378
..."You are my heart's desire."

2073
01:45:52,637 --> 01:45:53,972
And I keep repeating it.

2074
01:45:56,683 --> 01:45:57,976
It's an obsession.

2075
01:46:00,854 --> 01:46:02,522
One, two, three, four.

2076
01:46:09,780 --> 01:46:12,282
This album stands out in many ways.

2077
01:46:12,366 --> 01:46:13,658
It was certainly number one

2078
01:46:13,742 --> 01:46:16,370
on the classical Billboard
charts for 18 weeks.

2079
01:46:16,453 --> 01:46:18,497
I think it's one of the most successful

2080
01:46:18,580 --> 01:46:20,749
classical albums of all time as well.

2081
01:46:27,255 --> 01:46:30,967
I knew I was going to get savaged
by the classical critics,

2082
01:46:31,468 --> 01:46:34,763
but I was trying to convey what I loved,

2083
01:46:34,846 --> 01:46:37,516
which is the romantic piano music.

2084
01:46:48,193 --> 01:46:51,822
I think, in a way, that album for me
is an homage to Dad.

2085
01:46:52,531 --> 01:46:53,990
It's an homage to our father.

2086
01:46:54,074 --> 01:46:56,910
I don't know if Bill sees it that way,
but maybe it's subconscious.

2087
01:47:04,709 --> 01:47:07,295
He was still alive when I did
"Fantasies & Delusions."

2088
01:47:12,843 --> 01:47:14,010
But I never heard what he, like,

2089
01:47:14,094 --> 01:47:16,471
what he thought about my piano pieces.

2090
01:47:23,728 --> 01:47:27,607
I know that my father has
a lot of abandonment issues.

2091
01:47:27,691 --> 01:47:29,985
His father left when he was seven.

2092
01:47:30,610 --> 01:47:32,154
He never got over that.

2093
01:47:32,696 --> 01:47:37,325
It was a very impactful moment in his life

2094
01:47:37,409 --> 01:47:40,579
when he tracked him down,
but he had to find him.

2095
01:47:40,662 --> 01:47:42,289
You know, I think it broke
his heart a little bit

2096
01:47:42,372 --> 01:47:44,416
that his father didn't come to him.

2097
01:47:44,499 --> 01:47:46,501
He had to go to Vienna.

2098
01:47:51,798 --> 01:47:54,593
He was always looking
for that deeper connection.

2099
01:47:55,343 --> 01:47:57,137
If anything, I think he found it more

2100
01:47:57,220 --> 01:48:00,098
through his brother, Alex,
who's a conductor.

2101
01:48:07,647 --> 01:48:09,274
And I think it meant a lot

2102
01:48:09,357 --> 01:48:13,945
to be able to finally connect
with that part of his family.

2103
01:48:14,029 --> 01:48:15,906
It's a shame
Dad didn't become a musician.

2104
01:48:15,989 --> 01:48:17,949
I could have seen him being very happy

2105
01:48:18,033 --> 01:48:19,242
just working in a little opera house.

2106
01:48:19,326 --> 01:48:20,410
I think the same thing.

2107
01:48:20,494 --> 01:48:21,661
He used to play all the operas to me

2108
01:48:21,745 --> 01:48:23,955
on the piano
before we used to go see them.

2109
01:48:24,039 --> 01:48:25,415
I know he loved music.

2110
01:48:25,499 --> 01:48:28,376
He really and truly loved music,

2111
01:48:28,460 --> 01:48:31,546
but he hated his own musicianship.

2112
01:48:31,630 --> 01:48:34,382
We had a piano in the back room,
and he'd go in and he played.

2113
01:48:34,466 --> 01:48:37,219
He's probably playing a Chopin piece
or a Beethoven sonata,

2114
01:48:37,802 --> 01:48:41,431
and he'd come out of the room
all dark and pissed off

2115
01:48:41,515 --> 01:48:42,933
and, "Ah, I suck."

2116
01:48:43,433 --> 01:48:45,101
-To me, it sounded great.
-Yeah.

2117
01:48:45,185 --> 01:48:47,938
I thought, wow, if I can play
like that, I'd be so happy.

2118
01:48:48,021 --> 01:48:50,941
But he was never content
with what he was playing.

2119
01:48:51,483 --> 01:48:54,110
And I, I said to myself when I was a kid,

2120
01:48:54,194 --> 01:48:55,737
I don't want to be like that.

2121
01:48:55,820 --> 01:48:58,114
I don't want to have that kind
of relationship with music.

2122
01:48:58,615 --> 01:49:02,577
So I never tried to become
a concert pianist.

2123
01:49:02,869 --> 01:49:05,705
I went kind of in a different
direction where I was,

2124
01:49:05,789 --> 01:49:07,582
I wanted to create my own music.

2125
01:49:08,083 --> 01:49:10,669
He was very proud of you. He really was.

2126
01:49:11,169 --> 01:49:12,671
Dad was incredibly proud of Bill

2127
01:49:12,754 --> 01:49:14,506
and everything he's achieved and, uh...

2128
01:49:14,589 --> 01:49:17,217
Do you think Bill knows
that his father was proud of him?

2129
01:49:19,052 --> 01:49:20,637
I don't think so, you know.

2130
01:49:23,139 --> 01:49:24,808
I've told him, but he doesn't believe me.

2131
01:49:27,936 --> 01:49:31,314
I think my dad was the missing link
in a lot of things.

2132
01:49:35,443 --> 01:49:36,778
And when he passed away,

2133
01:49:36,861 --> 01:49:38,238
I kind of freaked out a little bit.

2134
01:49:38,321 --> 01:49:41,157
Wow, he's gone,
and I'll never get to know him.

2135
01:49:45,078 --> 01:49:47,330
But I had no animosity towards him.

2136
01:49:47,872 --> 01:49:49,708
I just had a sense of loss.

2137
01:49:53,670 --> 01:49:57,257
And I think he wanted to say
"I love you" to me,

2138
01:49:57,882 --> 01:49:59,175
but I never heard it.

2139
01:50:02,262 --> 01:50:05,807
When Howard was dying,
we stood at his bedside.

2140
01:50:05,890 --> 01:50:08,602
And I remember Billy and Howard
looking at each other,

2141
01:50:09,227 --> 01:50:12,772
and there's just a blank look
on each of their faces.

2142
01:50:13,440 --> 01:50:15,483
No emotions, no anything.

2143
01:50:18,820 --> 01:50:21,823
I'm sure it made a terrible void
in my brother's life,

2144
01:50:21,906 --> 01:50:24,200
and it left a hole in his heart.

2145
01:50:26,661 --> 01:50:28,288
My mom used to tell me,

2146
01:50:28,913 --> 01:50:31,374
"The quality of mercy is not strained."

2147
01:50:31,458 --> 01:50:33,710
I didn't understand it when I was little,

2148
01:50:34,294 --> 01:50:36,129
but I understood it when I was growing up.

2149
01:50:37,380 --> 01:50:39,591
So I forgave him a long time ago

2150
01:50:41,259 --> 01:50:45,096
You have to be able
to forgive to heal yourself.

2151
01:50:51,561 --> 01:50:53,188
After "Fantasies & Delusions,"

2152
01:50:53,271 --> 01:50:55,440
I felt like, okay, I've done it.

2153
01:50:56,566 --> 01:50:59,194
Not just with classical music,
but popular music.

2154
01:51:00,028 --> 01:51:02,155
I mean, I had been performing

2155
01:51:02,238 --> 01:51:04,616
and been a rockstar for a long time.

2156
01:51:05,909 --> 01:51:08,787
And I thought, what else is there for me?

2157
01:51:12,374 --> 01:51:14,959
I was feeling that
I was missing something.

2158
01:51:19,297 --> 01:51:21,257
The Daily News is reporting

2159
01:51:21,341 --> 01:51:25,303
that the singer just got engaged
to his girlfriend Katie Lee.

2160
01:51:28,890 --> 01:51:31,685
In terms of long-term relationships,

2161
01:51:32,060 --> 01:51:34,688
I was gun shy about making a commitment.

2162
01:51:34,771 --> 01:51:36,606
But it was kind of fresh,

2163
01:51:36,690 --> 01:51:39,442
and I think all the rules
went out the window.

2164
01:51:42,195 --> 01:51:43,947
When you fall in love, you fall.

2165
01:51:44,030 --> 01:51:46,783
It's not like you're flying.
You're falling.

2166
01:51:51,037 --> 01:51:52,497
When we first got together,

2167
01:51:52,580 --> 01:51:55,625
Bill wanted to take a break from touring.

2168
01:51:55,709 --> 01:51:58,420
And so, I just took him
for his word at that

2169
01:51:58,503 --> 01:51:59,879
and I thought that's what he wanted.

2170
01:52:01,631 --> 01:52:03,466
He would say a lot, like,

2171
01:52:03,550 --> 01:52:05,427
I'm just tired of being Billy Joel,

2172
01:52:05,885 --> 01:52:07,637
tired of playing these same songs.

2173
01:52:07,721 --> 01:52:10,682
And I think that that dissatisfaction

2174
01:52:10,765 --> 01:52:12,976
with the thing that he loved so much,

2175
01:52:13,059 --> 01:52:14,602
I think that was tough for him.

2176
01:52:16,438 --> 01:52:18,606
When you don't have anything new to offer,

2177
01:52:18,690 --> 01:52:20,358
you don't have anything to hide behind.

2178
01:52:21,401 --> 01:52:23,570
And I think that exposed him to the world

2179
01:52:23,653 --> 01:52:26,448
and made his difficulties more acute.

2180
01:52:27,490 --> 01:52:30,577
At that time in his life,
he was drinking a lot.

2181
01:52:31,161 --> 01:52:32,912
And over the years,

2182
01:52:32,996 --> 01:52:34,956
he had sort of a series of calamities.

2183
01:52:35,623 --> 01:52:38,126
He was making a mess of it in public.

2184
01:52:38,209 --> 01:52:39,252
And when that happens,

2185
01:52:39,335 --> 01:52:41,254
the public chorus can turn on you.

2186
01:52:41,337 --> 01:52:43,256
We begin with Billy Joel's car accident

2187
01:52:43,339 --> 01:52:45,175
in Long Island,
New York, just this morning.

2188
01:52:45,258 --> 01:52:46,676
The singing superstar is recovering

2189
01:52:46,760 --> 01:52:48,136
from a big scare.

2190
01:52:48,219 --> 01:52:49,763
You know, along with fame

2191
01:52:49,846 --> 01:52:52,974
comes a lot of gossip, rumors.

2192
01:52:53,057 --> 01:52:55,351
I didn't like the tabloid kind of press.

2193
01:52:55,435 --> 01:52:58,146
Him being here in one
of the biggest media centers

2194
01:52:58,229 --> 01:53:00,231
in the world was difficult for him,

2195
01:53:00,982 --> 01:53:02,817
because there was a lot of scrutiny.

2196
01:53:03,651 --> 01:53:04,986
They love to capitalize

2197
01:53:05,069 --> 01:53:07,739
on the mistakes that we have all made.

2198
01:53:07,822 --> 01:53:09,783
And Billy Joel's got another smash hit,

2199
01:53:09,866 --> 01:53:11,284
but not one he wanted.

2200
01:53:11,367 --> 01:53:13,995
The singer crashed his car
into a house yesterday,

2201
01:53:14,078 --> 01:53:15,455
his third wreck in two years.

2202
01:53:15,538 --> 01:53:16,748
The question this morning, obviously,

2203
01:53:16,831 --> 01:53:18,166
Eric, is: did someone put more than bread

2204
01:53:18,249 --> 01:53:20,043
in Billy Joel's jar last night?

2205
01:53:20,126 --> 01:53:21,669
For example, there's this rumor

2206
01:53:22,003 --> 01:53:24,047
that I have all these DUIs.

2207
01:53:24,506 --> 01:53:25,548
That never happened,

2208
01:53:25,632 --> 01:53:28,384
but people keep repeating the myth.

2209
01:53:28,468 --> 01:53:29,969
Oh, he's got so many DUIs.

2210
01:53:30,053 --> 01:53:32,680
I never had a DUI, so fuck you.

2211
01:53:34,891 --> 01:53:36,434
There was kind of a fallow period

2212
01:53:36,518 --> 01:53:38,019
where he wasn't writing and didn't have

2213
01:53:38,102 --> 01:53:39,437
much of a profile.

2214
01:53:39,521 --> 01:53:41,564
He became the butt of jokes.

2215
01:53:41,648 --> 01:53:43,441
I can drive these streets blind.

2216
01:53:43,525 --> 01:53:44,818
Watch out!

2217
01:53:44,901 --> 01:53:46,486
When I say that he was a punchline,

2218
01:53:46,569 --> 01:53:49,739
they treated him as an unserious person.

2219
01:53:49,823 --> 01:53:50,907
That was close.

2220
01:53:50,990 --> 01:53:52,325
Almost gave me a heart attack

2221
01:53:52,408 --> 01:53:53,910
ack-ack-ack-ack-ack.

2222
01:53:53,993 --> 01:53:55,286
Well, the press can be mean,

2223
01:53:55,370 --> 01:53:57,080
so having that much attention

2224
01:53:57,163 --> 01:53:58,915
paid to you is not easy.

2225
01:54:00,458 --> 01:54:03,253
It's really hard for me
to talk about that time.

2226
01:54:03,837 --> 01:54:06,422
I felt like he needed to be creating,

2227
01:54:06,506 --> 01:54:09,384
he needed to be making music, performing,

2228
01:54:09,467 --> 01:54:12,428
to turn down that anxiety

2229
01:54:12,512 --> 01:54:15,348
of not having an artistic outlet.

2230
01:54:17,058 --> 01:54:20,395
And there were struggles with addiction.

2231
01:54:20,645 --> 01:54:22,981
It was really hard to navigate that

2232
01:54:23,064 --> 01:54:25,316
because I had no experience with it.

2233
01:54:26,025 --> 01:54:29,320
But he went to Betty Ford for rehab.

2234
01:54:30,321 --> 01:54:32,824
She kind of gave me an ultimatum.

2235
01:54:32,907 --> 01:54:34,742
Either you do something
about your drinking,

2236
01:54:34,826 --> 01:54:37,537
or this isn't going to work out.

2237
01:54:40,415 --> 01:54:43,877
When he first got home from Betty Ford,

2238
01:54:43,960 --> 01:54:46,629
it was a really fragile time
for both of us.

2239
01:54:48,006 --> 01:54:49,173
I always wondered about

2240
01:54:49,257 --> 01:54:50,925
that particular period of time with him,

2241
01:54:51,009 --> 01:54:55,054
because at that point Billy was sober.

2242
01:54:55,680 --> 01:54:57,432
I always felt that he was rediscovering

2243
01:54:57,515 --> 01:54:58,850
a different part of himself.

2244
01:54:59,434 --> 01:55:01,811
And when you rediscover
a new part of yourself,

2245
01:55:01,895 --> 01:55:03,146
you change.

2246
01:55:06,107 --> 01:55:08,568
He had experienced everything.

2247
01:55:08,651 --> 01:55:11,029
He had lived this huge life.

2248
01:55:11,112 --> 01:55:16,200
But I was young and had not
experienced anything.

2249
01:55:16,492 --> 01:55:18,828
So I always wanted to go out,

2250
01:55:18,912 --> 01:55:22,081
and Bill wanted to be at home.

2251
01:55:23,499 --> 01:55:24,792
At that point,

2252
01:55:24,876 --> 01:55:27,170
yeah, the relationship wasn't doing well.

2253
01:55:27,253 --> 01:55:29,547
Our own Katie Lee is going to show you--

2254
01:55:29,631 --> 01:55:32,550
She became very career oriented,

2255
01:55:32,634 --> 01:55:33,801
and she wanted to be in the city,

2256
01:55:33,885 --> 01:55:35,678
she wanted to socialize.

2257
01:55:36,638 --> 01:55:38,014
There's a theory that she was having

2258
01:55:38,097 --> 01:55:39,515
an affair with some guy.

2259
01:55:39,599 --> 01:55:40,642
That's a bunch of bullshit.

2260
01:55:41,643 --> 01:55:43,519
We just drifted apart from each other.

2261
01:55:45,104 --> 01:55:47,690
I wanted to be doing
all of the things together.

2262
01:55:47,774 --> 01:55:50,401
But I think that that's where
our age came into play.

2263
01:55:52,278 --> 01:55:53,988
Also, I think that there was, maybe,

2264
01:55:54,072 --> 01:55:55,490
always a little bit of resentment

2265
01:55:55,573 --> 01:55:59,327
that I had really pushed him
to go to Betty Ford.

2266
01:56:00,203 --> 01:56:02,455
With rehab, you
don't go for somebody else.

2267
01:56:02,538 --> 01:56:03,915
You have to go for yourself.

2268
01:56:04,749 --> 01:56:08,211
You have to want to do it.
I didn't want to do it.

2269
01:56:11,172 --> 01:56:12,966
It was hard on our relationship,

2270
01:56:13,049 --> 01:56:14,509
and in a lot of ways,

2271
01:56:14,592 --> 01:56:16,260
it was hard to recover from that.

2272
01:56:17,845 --> 01:56:19,514
I don't think either one of us wanted it

2273
01:56:19,597 --> 01:56:22,392
to not work out,
but it just became obvious

2274
01:56:22,475 --> 01:56:23,810
that it wasn't working.

2275
01:56:24,227 --> 01:56:27,021
And I remember one night we had dinner,

2276
01:56:27,105 --> 01:56:29,816
and I said, Bill, I'm unhappy.

2277
01:56:30,191 --> 01:56:32,568
And he said, "Do you want
to get a divorce?"

2278
01:56:32,652 --> 01:56:35,530
And I said, yeah. And he said, "Okay."

2279
01:56:36,072 --> 01:56:37,198
And that was it.

2280
01:56:40,451 --> 01:56:43,162
I was going
through another divorce.

2281
01:56:43,246 --> 01:56:45,790
Three times. A three-time loser.

2282
01:56:46,541 --> 01:56:51,254
And the fear of being
alone again, dying alone...

2283
01:56:52,588 --> 01:56:55,675
not having that person
in my life anymore...

2284
01:56:57,010 --> 01:56:58,594
and getting old.

2285
01:57:02,306 --> 01:57:04,308
So, I was drinking again,

2286
01:57:04,392 --> 01:57:06,102
just to kind of ease +that pain.

2287
01:57:06,644 --> 01:57:09,230
So it was... Yeah,
it was kind of a lost time.

2288
01:57:11,107 --> 01:57:12,692
We were having dinner one night.

2289
01:57:12,775 --> 01:57:15,069
Billy was just basically devastated.

2290
01:57:15,153 --> 01:57:16,904
Tears coming down his eyes and said,

2291
01:57:16,988 --> 01:57:19,866
"I got a half a billion dollars,
and I have nobody to love."

2292
01:57:20,742 --> 01:57:23,494
And it just hurts you, tears your guts out

2293
01:57:23,578 --> 01:57:25,455
to watch somebody fall down that hole.

2294
01:57:28,166 --> 01:57:30,752
And that time period coincided

2295
01:57:30,835 --> 01:57:32,545
with working with Elton again.

2296
01:57:32,628 --> 01:57:35,548
The Billy Joel/Elton John
concert was canceled.

2297
01:57:35,923 --> 01:57:38,634
Joel and John canceled their show
in Detroit last night.

2298
01:57:38,718 --> 01:57:40,136
He canceled Thursday's concert.

2299
01:57:40,219 --> 01:57:42,221
Of course, everyone was
worried about Billy Joel.

2300
01:57:43,723 --> 01:57:47,810
The story I remember is Elton John
accusing Billy Joel of drinking too much,

2301
01:57:47,894 --> 01:57:50,146
which Billy Joel did not care for

2302
01:57:50,229 --> 01:57:51,439
when he read that.

2303
01:57:52,648 --> 01:57:54,442
Billy wasn't really
open to hear about it

2304
01:57:54,525 --> 01:57:55,818
and certainly not publicly.

2305
01:57:56,444 --> 01:57:59,781
And it led to certain questions

2306
01:57:59,864 --> 01:58:02,408
about where he's going in his career.

2307
01:58:02,492 --> 01:58:04,911
I think he didn't want his demons

2308
01:58:04,994 --> 01:58:06,454
and his issues out there.

2309
01:58:06,537 --> 01:58:08,039
So that kind of pissed him off.

2310
01:58:08,956 --> 01:58:14,170
Elton had made a comment
that he thought I needed real rehab.

2311
01:58:14,253 --> 01:58:16,506
He chalked it up to, "Oh, he's a drunk."

2312
01:58:16,589 --> 01:58:18,758
And that really hurt me.
I said, wait a minute.

2313
01:58:18,841 --> 01:58:20,510
Don't you know me better than that?

2314
01:58:21,010 --> 01:58:23,346
And there was bad blood
for a little while.

2315
01:58:25,556 --> 01:58:28,476
There was a dovetailing of things

2316
01:58:28,559 --> 01:58:30,144
that happened during that time.

2317
01:58:31,562 --> 01:58:33,314
I felt like I was clobbered.

2318
01:58:41,155 --> 01:58:44,450
So, yeah. That was rock bottom.

2319
01:58:48,704 --> 01:58:50,498
I was disillusioned

2320
01:58:50,873 --> 01:58:53,501
with what I thought
it was all supposed to mean.

2321
01:58:54,377 --> 01:58:57,046
It's like all signs
were pointing to me: Enough!

2322
01:58:57,547 --> 01:59:00,216
And I wrote this letter to the band:

2323
01:59:00,299 --> 01:59:01,509
I don't want to do this anymore.

2324
01:59:01,592 --> 01:59:02,969
I'm going to, I'm going to stop.

2325
01:59:18,776 --> 01:59:20,903
I think he was trying
to save his own life.

2326
01:59:21,529 --> 01:59:24,991
It's hard to have control over yourself
when you work that hard.

2327
01:59:25,867 --> 01:59:28,161
To survive, you need to leave that behind.

2328
01:59:31,914 --> 01:59:35,084
He had spoken about
taking time off for years,

2329
01:59:35,168 --> 01:59:37,837
but this was really a goodbye.

2330
01:59:38,254 --> 01:59:40,756
He became very uncommunicative.

2331
01:59:40,840 --> 01:59:42,967
I didn't talk to him a lot
during that period of time.

2332
01:59:43,050 --> 01:59:45,678
And I have to say
that I was worried about him,

2333
01:59:46,137 --> 01:59:49,724
because I believed that Billy,
without this outlet,

2334
01:59:50,516 --> 01:59:53,060
that he wouldn't have
anything to live for.

2335
01:59:54,187 --> 01:59:57,106
And I thought that the...

2336
01:59:57,190 --> 01:59:58,649
I honestly thought that that was...

2337
01:59:58,733 --> 02:00:00,943
that the clock was ticking.

2338
02:00:22,882 --> 02:00:25,801
In the beginning

2339
02:00:27,094 --> 02:00:31,098
There was the cold and the night...

2340
02:00:31,807 --> 02:00:34,769
When I was 18, I got my first boat.

2341
02:00:35,269 --> 02:00:36,938
It was about 18 feet long.

2342
02:00:37,355 --> 02:00:40,858
Rowing it was a heart attack,
and it leaked like a sieve.

2343
02:00:42,109 --> 02:00:43,486
But it was my boat.

2344
02:00:44,612 --> 02:00:47,031
Being on the water,
it means a lot of things.

2345
02:00:47,114 --> 02:00:49,367
Part of it is freedom.

2346
02:00:49,450 --> 02:00:52,995
You've left the land,
and you are on your own.

2347
02:00:53,996 --> 02:00:55,456
You're navigating.

2348
02:00:56,040 --> 02:00:58,542
You're controlling where you're going.

2349
02:00:58,626 --> 02:01:01,671
Too many kingdoms

2350
02:01:02,797 --> 02:01:05,299
Too many flags...

2351
02:01:05,383 --> 02:01:07,593
So you've gotta always be in control.

2352
02:01:08,094 --> 02:01:11,389
And there's something
exhilarating about that.

2353
02:01:11,472 --> 02:01:15,434
So many wounds to be healed

2354
02:01:15,518 --> 02:01:18,354
Time is relentless...

2355
02:01:18,437 --> 02:01:21,107
I am in control.
I am the captain of my ship,

2356
02:01:21,190 --> 02:01:23,401
against all the forces of nature.

2357
02:01:23,859 --> 02:01:25,611
And it's a, it's a strong feeling.

2358
02:01:25,695 --> 02:01:26,737
It's very powerful.

2359
02:01:26,821 --> 02:01:29,156
It's been a long time

2360
02:01:29,240 --> 02:01:33,452
And now I'm with you

2361
02:01:33,536 --> 02:01:36,956
After two thousand years...

2362
02:01:37,039 --> 02:01:39,834
It's similar to music. It's healing.

2363
02:01:42,128 --> 02:01:44,338
I've made a lot of mistakes in my life.

2364
02:01:45,381 --> 02:01:47,883
But I've grown from them.
I've learned from them.

2365
02:01:49,260 --> 02:01:51,679
And even after everything
I've gone through...

2366
02:01:51,762 --> 02:01:53,931
Okay, so when you get home--

2367
02:01:54,015 --> 02:01:55,099
...I still believe in love.

2368
02:01:55,182 --> 02:01:56,475
I still believe in relationships.

2369
02:01:57,226 --> 02:01:59,645
And it's always a big factor in my life.

2370
02:02:00,479 --> 02:02:02,606
I probably am a romantic at heart.

2371
02:02:06,402 --> 02:02:07,695
When you meet someone

2372
02:02:07,778 --> 02:02:09,780
who captures your imagination,

2373
02:02:09,864 --> 02:02:12,408
it renews, it revitalizes.

2374
02:02:19,540 --> 02:02:21,917
I remember the first time I met Alexis,

2375
02:02:22,001 --> 02:02:23,461
we went to my house, and I wanted

2376
02:02:23,544 --> 02:02:25,004
to play the piano for her.

2377
02:02:25,713 --> 02:02:27,631
It's a form of communication for me.

2378
02:02:28,424 --> 02:02:30,217
There's a scene in a movie called

2379
02:02:30,301 --> 02:02:33,387
"The Seven Year Itch" with Tom Ewell,

2380
02:02:33,471 --> 02:02:36,015
and he wants to impress Marilyn Monroe.

2381
02:02:36,515 --> 02:02:38,642
So he plays Rachmaninoff.

2382
02:02:38,726 --> 02:02:41,187
You came. I'm so glad.

2383
02:02:49,362 --> 02:02:51,030
And he's got the ascot on

2384
02:02:51,113 --> 02:02:52,615
and he's puffing on a cigarette.

2385
02:02:52,698 --> 02:02:55,534
Don't stop. Don't ever stop.

2386
02:02:55,618 --> 02:02:57,119
So I'm playing that,
and she's completely

2387
02:02:57,203 --> 02:02:58,579
unimpressed with it. Totally.

2388
02:02:58,662 --> 02:03:01,123
She couldn't care less what I'm playing

2389
02:03:01,207 --> 02:03:04,543
and I'm thinking,
oh, okay, this isn't working.

2390
02:03:04,627 --> 02:03:07,338
She was very unimpressed with
the whole Billy Joel thing,

2391
02:03:07,421 --> 02:03:10,591
which impressed me
because I thought, okay.

2392
02:03:11,300 --> 02:03:13,594
Maybe she's just here
because she likes me,

2393
02:03:13,677 --> 02:03:15,096
not the Billy Joel guy.

2394
02:03:17,932 --> 02:03:21,811
We stayed in touch
after I met him originally.

2395
02:03:21,894 --> 02:03:24,772
We would speak on the phone,
we would exchange emails,

2396
02:03:24,855 --> 02:03:27,483
and we got to know each other really well.

2397
02:03:27,566 --> 02:03:29,693
And I felt really comfortable with him.

2398
02:03:30,528 --> 02:03:31,779
I don't know if I was open

2399
02:03:31,862 --> 02:03:34,073
to starting a new relationship.

2400
02:03:34,156 --> 02:03:35,908
I thought that wasn't going
to be possible.

2401
02:03:36,450 --> 02:03:38,327
How am I going to be able
to do that again?

2402
02:03:38,411 --> 02:03:40,079
I can't go through that again.

2403
02:03:40,162 --> 02:03:41,914
But all of a sudden, something happened.

2404
02:03:41,997 --> 02:03:44,583
Something popped. And I was open to it.

2405
02:03:48,045 --> 02:03:49,797
When Alexis and I got together,

2406
02:03:49,880 --> 02:03:51,132
she was still working.

2407
02:03:51,215 --> 02:03:53,259
She was in charge of a whole section

2408
02:03:53,342 --> 02:03:54,718
of a financial company,

2409
02:03:54,802 --> 02:03:56,429
and she was successful at it.

2410
02:03:56,762 --> 02:03:59,974
And I wasn't really thinking
about working anymore,

2411
02:04:00,057 --> 02:04:01,934
so I was home a lot.

2412
02:04:02,017 --> 02:04:03,269
And when she got home,

2413
02:04:03,352 --> 02:04:05,563
there I was cooking and serving dinner.

2414
02:04:05,646 --> 02:04:08,816
He makes a mean salmon teriyaki.

2415
02:04:08,899 --> 02:04:10,443
He would have it marinating
all day for me,

2416
02:04:10,526 --> 02:04:12,027
and have it ready with my vegetables,

2417
02:04:12,111 --> 02:04:13,487
and I would come home

2418
02:04:13,571 --> 02:04:15,614
to my salmon, my vegetables,
and glass of wine.

2419
02:04:15,698 --> 02:04:16,866
So it was wonderful.

2420
02:04:27,376 --> 02:04:28,419
I hadn't really thought

2421
02:04:28,502 --> 02:04:29,628
about having children again.

2422
02:04:30,004 --> 02:04:31,672
I thought I was too old.

2423
02:04:34,592 --> 02:04:36,260
Look at you, big girl.

2424
02:04:36,343 --> 02:04:38,554
But having these little kids

2425
02:04:38,637 --> 02:04:41,557
at this time in my life is such a joy.

2426
02:04:41,640 --> 02:04:43,309
I have time to be with them.

2427
02:04:43,934 --> 02:04:46,103
I don't have to be recording.
I don't have to be writing.

2428
02:04:46,187 --> 02:04:48,355
I can just hang out with my children.

2429
02:04:48,439 --> 02:04:50,107
Can you say, "I love you, Daddy"?

2430
02:04:50,191 --> 02:04:53,235
Love you, Daddy!

2431
02:04:54,278 --> 02:04:55,905
Bill's number one saying is,

2432
02:04:55,988 --> 02:04:57,156
"I'm going to be the best dad I can be,

2433
02:04:57,239 --> 02:04:58,616
because I didn't have a dad."

2434
02:04:59,033 --> 02:05:03,954
And after years of learning
and personal growth,

2435
02:05:04,038 --> 02:05:07,124
my kids have the most
amazing version of him.

2436
02:05:07,541 --> 02:05:08,626
They're really lucky.

2437
02:05:09,418 --> 02:05:11,045
And I wanted to make sure

2438
02:05:11,128 --> 02:05:13,464
that they got everything
they needed from me.

2439
02:05:13,923 --> 02:05:16,592
So I kind of knuckled down

2440
02:05:16,675 --> 02:05:19,178
and took fatherhood very, very seriously.

2441
02:05:19,762 --> 02:05:22,389
I felt like, oh,
these are things I missed.

2442
02:05:23,349 --> 02:05:25,059
I want to make sure they don't miss it.

2443
02:05:30,064 --> 02:05:31,982
I didn't know if they were
going to be musical or not,

2444
02:05:32,066 --> 02:05:34,902
but there must be something
to the genetic aspect of it.

2445
02:05:36,403 --> 02:05:39,198
My parents had this
incredible musical ability.

2446
02:05:43,786 --> 02:05:45,663
And my brother has it.

2447
02:05:52,461 --> 02:05:54,630
My eldest daughter Alexa has it.

2448
02:05:54,713 --> 02:05:57,258
Just in a New York

2449
02:05:57,341 --> 02:06:02,012
State of mind

2450
02:06:02,096 --> 02:06:04,473
Yeah

2451
02:06:04,557 --> 02:06:06,225
Della has it.

2452
02:06:06,308 --> 02:06:08,644
Keep it to yourself it's my life

2453
02:06:09,144 --> 02:06:11,605
She can pick out
melodies on a piano

2454
02:06:11,689 --> 02:06:13,857
without even knowing
how to play the piano.

2455
02:06:15,526 --> 02:06:18,404
And I see it in my youngest, in Remy.

2456
02:06:18,487 --> 02:06:21,115
She's picking out melodies. She's singing.

2457
02:06:22,074 --> 02:06:23,659
It's part of the DNA.

2458
02:06:24,618 --> 02:06:25,744
It's history.

2459
02:06:27,580 --> 02:06:28,747
And it goes on.

2460
02:06:31,208 --> 02:06:32,418
In the beginning,

2461
02:06:32,501 --> 02:06:33,961
we had a couple years together

2462
02:06:34,044 --> 02:06:35,296
before we had kids,

2463
02:06:35,379 --> 02:06:38,257
and he had completely stopped doing shows.

2464
02:06:38,924 --> 02:06:40,968
We traveled everywhere.

2465
02:06:41,302 --> 02:06:43,304
We did a motorcycle trip from Maine

2466
02:06:43,387 --> 02:06:44,847
back down to Long Island.

2467
02:06:44,930 --> 02:06:46,807
We were on boats 24/7.

2468
02:06:46,890 --> 02:06:48,892
We were in Europe. We had so much fun.

2469
02:06:49,810 --> 02:06:51,604
I was pretty much retiring.

2470
02:06:51,937 --> 02:06:54,023
I just... I didn't want to do it anymore.

2471
02:06:54,106 --> 02:06:56,650
I thought that part of my life was over.

2472
02:06:57,109 --> 02:06:59,945
I think that he was enjoying

2473
02:07:00,029 --> 02:07:02,615
not going on the road and not working.

2474
02:07:03,115 --> 02:07:05,075
But then everything changed.

2475
02:07:06,201 --> 02:07:09,872
Sixty-six million Americans
are bracing for impact.

2476
02:07:09,955 --> 02:07:11,498
The weather is intensifying,

2477
02:07:11,582 --> 02:07:13,000
and it's just going to get worse.

2478
02:07:13,083 --> 02:07:14,585
Oh, my God.

2479
02:07:17,421 --> 02:07:18,922
Sandy may go down

2480
02:07:19,006 --> 02:07:21,759
as one of the costliest storms in history.

2481
02:07:22,635 --> 02:07:24,386
Sandy destroyed a good amount

2482
02:07:24,470 --> 02:07:26,180
of the south shore of Long Island.

2483
02:07:26,805 --> 02:07:28,807
I was here during the storm,

2484
02:07:28,891 --> 02:07:32,227
and I saw boats being torn off moorings,

2485
02:07:32,311 --> 02:07:33,562
crashing onto the shore.

2486
02:07:33,646 --> 02:07:35,272
Houses being flooded.

2487
02:07:35,356 --> 02:07:36,565
It was scary.

2488
02:07:37,775 --> 02:07:41,070
I'm a Long Islander.
And these are my roots.

2489
02:07:41,737 --> 02:07:42,946
This is my home.

2490
02:07:43,739 --> 02:07:45,991
And it was hurtful to see the damage

2491
02:07:46,450 --> 02:07:48,619
and how those lives were wrecked.

2492
02:07:50,829 --> 02:07:52,247
They were putting together
a benefit concert

2493
02:07:52,331 --> 02:07:55,000
for the recovery effort,
and they called me.

2494
02:07:57,711 --> 02:07:59,004
I said yes, even though

2495
02:07:59,088 --> 02:08:00,964
I wasn't really performing at the time.

2496
02:08:01,048 --> 02:08:02,508
How do you want the vocal?

2497
02:08:03,300 --> 02:08:04,968
This was something I could do.

2498
02:08:05,886 --> 02:08:07,096
I couldn't be a first responder,

2499
02:08:07,179 --> 02:08:08,847
I could be a second responder.

2500
02:08:08,931 --> 02:08:12,142
Live from Madison
Square Garden, 12/12/12:

2501
02:08:12,226 --> 02:08:13,852
The Concert for Sandy Relief.

2502
02:08:14,395 --> 02:08:16,855
That was quite the hallway.
Everybody was there, right?

2503
02:08:16,939 --> 02:08:21,902
I mean, McCartney, Daltrey
and Townshend, Keith Richards.

2504
02:08:23,195 --> 02:08:24,697
When we did 12/12/12,

2505
02:08:24,822 --> 02:08:26,949
Billy hadn't done any shows
in several years

2506
02:08:27,032 --> 02:08:29,284
and, at the time, hadn't seemed interested

2507
02:08:29,368 --> 02:08:30,411
in really doing any.

2508
02:08:30,953 --> 02:08:32,746
We got the spirit here tonight.

2509
02:08:33,247 --> 02:08:34,289
We're going to be okay.

2510
02:08:34,373 --> 02:08:35,791
We're going to get through all this.

2511
02:08:35,874 --> 02:08:37,167
We're going to be alright.

2512
02:08:37,251 --> 02:08:40,170
He came out on stage very nervous.

2513
02:08:40,879 --> 02:08:42,965
We hadn't played in a very long time.

2514
02:08:43,048 --> 02:08:44,800
And he was going to do four songs.

2515
02:08:46,260 --> 02:08:49,722
Anthony works in the grocery store

2516
02:08:49,805 --> 02:08:52,015
Savin' his pennies for someday...

2517
02:08:52,099 --> 02:08:53,851
But his voice was pure,

2518
02:08:53,934 --> 02:08:55,269
the band was great.

2519
02:08:55,352 --> 02:08:56,645
...note on the door

2520
02:08:56,729 --> 02:08:59,940
Said, "Sonny, move out to the country"

2521
02:09:00,023 --> 02:09:02,818
Ah, but workin' too hard
can give you a heart attack

2522
02:09:03,068 --> 02:09:04,278
Ack, ack, ack, ack, ack

2523
02:09:04,361 --> 02:09:06,572
You oughta know by now

2524
02:09:07,072 --> 02:09:09,908
He just came in, and his voice
sounded like a million bucks.

2525
02:09:09,992 --> 02:09:11,660
He had all of this energy

2526
02:09:11,744 --> 02:09:13,912
that I think he wasn't
even sure that he had.

2527
02:09:14,455 --> 02:09:17,750
And it seems such a waste of time

2528
02:09:18,584 --> 02:09:21,336
If that's what it's all about

2529
02:09:21,420 --> 02:09:24,089
Mama, if that's movin' up

2530
02:09:24,173 --> 02:09:28,302
Then I'm movin' out

2531
02:09:28,969 --> 02:09:30,429
We knew at that moment

2532
02:09:30,512 --> 02:09:33,015
that guy had everything back.

2533
02:09:33,098 --> 02:09:35,058
Like, nothing had left.

2534
02:09:35,142 --> 02:09:38,437
Sergeant O'Leary is walkin' the beat

2535
02:09:38,520 --> 02:09:41,064
At night he becomes a bartender

2536
02:09:41,148 --> 02:09:43,025
Billy gets up there and blows it away.

2537
02:09:43,108 --> 02:09:44,735
...down on Sullivan...

2538
02:09:44,818 --> 02:09:46,987
And I'm watching television
saying, oh, my God.

2539
02:09:47,154 --> 02:09:50,407
These songs are not just dead songs
that are in amber.

2540
02:09:50,491 --> 02:09:51,617
These songs are alive.

2541
02:09:51,700 --> 02:09:52,826
They still come across.

2542
02:09:53,160 --> 02:09:55,871
You oughta know by now

2543
02:09:55,954 --> 02:09:59,792
You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime

2544
02:10:00,209 --> 02:10:02,961
Is that all you get with your money?

2545
02:10:03,420 --> 02:10:07,758
And if that's what you have in mind, yeah

2546
02:10:07,841 --> 02:10:10,761
If that's what you're all about

2547
02:10:10,844 --> 02:10:13,347
Good luck movin' up

2548
02:10:13,430 --> 02:10:17,601
'Cause I'm moving out

2549
02:10:29,738 --> 02:10:31,865
During the 12/12/12
concert, you know,

2550
02:10:31,949 --> 02:10:34,535
which I watched while looking
at my social media feed.

2551
02:10:34,618 --> 02:10:36,286
And they were just having a ball

2552
02:10:36,370 --> 02:10:39,248
ripping on all these, like,
classic rockers on stage.

2553
02:10:39,331 --> 02:10:41,041
You know, these guys look old.

2554
02:10:41,124 --> 02:10:44,002
They're over the hill.
We're sick of all these songs.

2555
02:10:44,336 --> 02:10:45,838
The one person they liked...

2556
02:10:47,256 --> 02:10:48,382
...Billy Joel.

2557
02:10:51,552 --> 02:10:53,929
You look at a lot of artists
from his generation,

2558
02:10:54,012 --> 02:10:56,139
they're trying to look like
they did in the 70s.

2559
02:10:56,223 --> 02:10:59,226
The songs that they wrote work better

2560
02:10:59,309 --> 02:11:01,979
if you imagine
a younger person singing them,

2561
02:11:02,062 --> 02:11:03,689
and I don't think
that's true of Billy Joel.

2562
02:11:03,772 --> 02:11:06,650
Some folks like to get away

2563
02:11:06,733 --> 02:11:11,446
Take a holiday from the neighborhood

2564
02:11:11,530 --> 02:11:12,906
I actually think
that there's a lot of songs

2565
02:11:12,990 --> 02:11:14,950
in his catalog that make more sense

2566
02:11:15,033 --> 02:11:16,743
for him to sing as an older man.

2567
02:11:16,827 --> 02:11:18,662
They have a certain gravitas to them

2568
02:11:18,745 --> 02:11:20,706
that his age enhances.

2569
02:11:20,789 --> 02:11:23,917
But I'm taking a Greyhound

2570
02:11:24,001 --> 02:11:27,212
On the Hudson River line

2571
02:11:30,424 --> 02:11:33,552
I'm in a New York state of mind

2572
02:11:33,635 --> 02:11:36,179
For years, there were critics
that didn't like him.

2573
02:11:36,263 --> 02:11:37,431
Then there were people that liked him

2574
02:11:37,514 --> 02:11:39,308
only ironically, you know, as like,

2575
02:11:39,391 --> 02:11:41,018
"Hey, Billy Joel, Long Island."

2576
02:11:41,101 --> 02:11:42,895
Suddenly, it seemed like
there was an explosion

2577
02:11:42,978 --> 02:11:44,646
of unironic appreciation.

2578
02:11:44,730 --> 02:11:47,232
The songs themselves were
standing the test of time.

2579
02:11:47,316 --> 02:11:48,942
He, as the guy who had written the songs,

2580
02:11:49,026 --> 02:11:51,069
was now getting not even grudging respect,

2581
02:11:51,153 --> 02:11:52,195
like actual respect.

2582
02:11:52,279 --> 02:11:55,032
People were talking about him
as an American treasure

2583
02:11:55,115 --> 02:11:57,618
as opposed to a celebrity
that was a punchline.

2584
02:11:57,701 --> 02:11:59,828
That was when his sort
of renaissance began

2585
02:11:59,912 --> 02:12:01,538
in the world of popular music.

2586
02:12:02,623 --> 02:12:06,084
And I don't want to waste more time

2587
02:12:09,338 --> 02:12:13,467
Just in a New York state of mind

2588
02:12:30,484 --> 02:12:32,110
When I look back to that time,

2589
02:12:32,611 --> 02:12:33,862
I was very humbled.

2590
02:12:34,696 --> 02:12:36,698
And I think it made me realize

2591
02:12:36,782 --> 02:12:38,617
there's still some gas in the tank.

2592
02:12:39,576 --> 02:12:41,495
Maybe I shouldn't throw this away.

2593
02:12:46,959 --> 02:12:48,669
Good evening, New York City!

2594
02:12:49,962 --> 02:12:52,756
First night of our
Madison Square Garden run here.

2595
02:12:54,508 --> 02:12:57,177
I have no idea
how long this is going to go.

2596
02:12:59,638 --> 02:13:02,516
My booking agent, Dennis,
came to me with the concept:

2597
02:13:02,599 --> 02:13:06,520
what about doing a residency
at Madison Square Garden?

2598
02:13:07,312 --> 02:13:10,983
Seen the lights go out on Broadway

2599
02:13:13,819 --> 02:13:17,406
I saw the Empire State laid low

2600
02:13:17,489 --> 02:13:21,576
I said okay, maybe that'll last six gigs
or something like that.

2601
02:13:21,660 --> 02:13:23,870
I thought it was just going to go
ehh, womp,

2602
02:13:23,954 --> 02:13:25,831
and then we'd run out of ticket buyers.

2603
02:13:26,873 --> 02:13:30,752
To watch the island bridges blow

2604
02:13:31,336 --> 02:13:33,547
But the demand
for tickets never dropped off.

2605
02:13:33,630 --> 02:13:36,508
They turned our power down

2606
02:13:37,592 --> 02:13:39,219
They drove us underground...

2607
02:13:39,302 --> 02:13:40,512
It got bigger and bigger and bigger.

2608
02:13:40,595 --> 02:13:47,019
But we went right on with the show

2609
02:13:49,271 --> 02:13:52,733
The first time I played
the Garden was 1978.

2610
02:13:52,816 --> 02:13:54,693
And now, almost 40 years later,

2611
02:13:54,776 --> 02:13:56,653
it felt like I had come full circle.

2612
02:13:57,279 --> 02:14:00,574
I've seen the lights go out on Broadway

2613
02:14:01,116 --> 02:14:04,745
And I'm playing with these guys
who I've been with for years and years.

2614
02:14:05,328 --> 02:14:07,914
They really are my extended family.

2615
02:14:08,749 --> 02:14:11,793
And we were like the house band
at Madison Square Garden.

2616
02:14:12,294 --> 02:14:15,213
Maybe the best-known venue in the world
for rock and roll.

2617
02:14:15,589 --> 02:14:16,965
This is a dream come true.

2618
02:14:18,050 --> 02:14:20,469
...on 42nd Street

2619
02:14:22,846 --> 02:14:24,848
New generations of people

2620
02:14:24,931 --> 02:14:26,892
were the ones filling out the audience.

2621
02:14:26,975 --> 02:14:28,477
I was seeing that every night.

2622
02:14:28,560 --> 02:14:30,437
And they were making a lot of noise.

2623
02:14:31,354 --> 02:14:33,190
They love to sing his songs.

2624
02:14:33,273 --> 02:14:34,274
And that's what it's all about,

2625
02:14:34,357 --> 02:14:36,485
is that collective experience
of people coming together.

2626
02:14:42,115 --> 02:14:46,161
Billy Joel is unmistakably New York.

2627
02:14:46,912 --> 02:14:50,123
I've seen the lights go out on Broadway...

2628
02:14:50,207 --> 02:14:53,210
So how come if this guy is unmistakably

2629
02:14:53,293 --> 02:14:55,462
from one pinpoint on the planet,

2630
02:14:55,545 --> 02:14:58,381
why do we feel that
he belongs to all of us?

2631
02:14:59,299 --> 02:15:01,301
He was born to do this.

2632
02:15:01,384 --> 02:15:04,221
He's so good, I don't even know
if he knows how good he is.

2633
02:15:05,013 --> 02:15:07,349
And as big as he is,

2634
02:15:07,432 --> 02:15:11,144
he comes off as an everyday,
around-the-way guy.

2635
02:15:11,895 --> 02:15:14,481
He's like us. He sings
from that point of view.

2636
02:15:14,564 --> 02:15:16,108
You feel that truth.

2637
02:15:16,191 --> 02:15:18,527
You feel that honesty. Powerful.

2638
02:15:18,610 --> 02:15:20,112
Long Island loves Billy Joel.

2639
02:15:20,195 --> 02:15:23,657
This is my 123rd Billy Joel show.

2640
02:15:23,740 --> 02:15:26,409
His music has become
a part of our everyday lives.

2641
02:15:26,493 --> 02:15:29,996
I want to see Billy Joel
every month at Madison Square Garden.

2642
02:15:30,080 --> 02:15:32,582
They say he's the soundtrack
of our lives, and it's true.

2643
02:15:32,666 --> 02:15:36,128
I saw him play at Yankee Stadium in 1990,

2644
02:15:36,211 --> 02:15:37,796
and it blew my lights off.

2645
02:15:37,879 --> 02:15:39,297
His music just rocks.

2646
02:15:39,381 --> 02:15:43,176
There are not many who remember

2647
02:15:43,260 --> 02:15:45,887
Tonight, we're going to commemorate

2648
02:15:45,971 --> 02:15:49,224
the 100th consecutive sellout

2649
02:15:49,307 --> 02:15:52,686
of the Madison Square Garden residency.

2650
02:15:53,270 --> 02:15:56,148
...to tell the world about

2651
02:15:56,898 --> 02:16:00,193
The way the lights went out

2652
02:16:00,777 --> 02:16:02,737
And keep the memory

2653
02:16:03,405 --> 02:16:09,244
Alive

2654
02:16:09,327 --> 02:16:11,037
It lasted for 10 years.

2655
02:16:14,332 --> 02:16:18,170
It gave me a whole new appreciation
of what I did and the power of music.

2656
02:16:52,370 --> 02:16:53,830
Check how much film I got left.

2657
02:16:53,914 --> 02:16:56,082
Sorry, fellas. Hold on one second.

2658
02:16:58,543 --> 02:16:59,753
Take two.

2659
02:17:20,148 --> 02:17:23,568
It's nine o'clock on a Saturday

2660
02:17:25,070 --> 02:17:27,489
The regular crowd shuffles in

2661
02:17:28,365 --> 02:17:32,035
There's an old man sitting next to me

2662
02:17:32,452 --> 02:17:36,122
Making love to his tonic and gin

2663
02:17:44,506 --> 02:17:48,468
He says, "Son, can you play me a memory?

2664
02:17:48,843 --> 02:17:51,972
"I'm not really sure how it goes

2665
02:17:52,514 --> 02:17:54,391
"But it's sad and it's sweet

2666
02:17:54,474 --> 02:17:56,685
"And I knew it complete

2667
02:17:56,768 --> 02:18:00,438
When I wore a younger man's clothes"

2668
02:18:00,522 --> 02:18:04,567
Oh, la da da didi da

2669
02:18:05,902 --> 02:18:11,866
La da didi da da dum

2670
02:18:12,867 --> 02:18:15,537
I don't know what I would've been
had I not been a musician.

2671
02:18:16,246 --> 02:18:18,540
I don't know where I
would've been in this life

2672
02:18:18,873 --> 02:18:21,126
had it not been for the piano.

2673
02:18:21,209 --> 02:18:22,877
And he's quick with a joke

2674
02:18:22,961 --> 02:18:25,130
Or to light up your smoke

2675
02:18:25,213 --> 02:18:29,092
But there's someplace that he'd rather be

2676
02:18:29,175 --> 02:18:33,013
He says, "Bill, I believe
this is killing me"

2677
02:18:33,096 --> 02:18:35,765
As the smile ran away from his face...

2678
02:18:35,849 --> 02:18:38,810
We're now 50 years
into Billy Joel's music

2679
02:18:38,893 --> 02:18:41,062
being a huge part of American culture.

2680
02:18:43,231 --> 02:18:46,109
Why are these songs
still speaking to people?

2681
02:18:46,735 --> 02:18:48,695
Don't take any shit from anybody.

2682
02:18:48,778 --> 02:18:51,114
He is this guy who by any measure

2683
02:18:51,197 --> 02:18:53,658
has achieved all of the dreams

2684
02:18:53,742 --> 02:18:55,201
that any singer/songwriter would want.

2685
02:18:55,285 --> 02:18:56,953
A dream of mine.

2686
02:18:57,996 --> 02:19:01,207
And yet, the overriding theme of his songs

2687
02:19:01,291 --> 02:19:04,419
is sort of this, like,
existential dissatisfaction.

2688
02:19:04,919 --> 02:19:08,631
Well, we're all
in the mood for a melody...

2689
02:19:08,715 --> 02:19:10,592
There's something at his core

2690
02:19:10,675 --> 02:19:12,635
that's still searching for something.

2691
02:19:12,719 --> 02:19:15,638
And that's the human condition.

2692
02:19:15,722 --> 02:19:16,931
So, to me,

2693
02:19:17,015 --> 02:19:18,558
I think that's why
people connect with him,

2694
02:19:18,641 --> 02:19:20,310
still, after all this time.

2695
02:19:20,393 --> 02:19:23,271
Paul is the real estate novelist

2696
02:19:24,147 --> 02:19:27,067
Who never had time for a wife...

2697
02:19:29,069 --> 02:19:34,240
You can hear all of the complexities
of his life in those songs.

2698
02:19:34,741 --> 02:19:36,284
You know, I think the songs are

2699
02:19:36,368 --> 02:19:38,536
the best expression of Billy.

2700
02:19:38,912 --> 02:19:40,663
And in Billy's case, I think

2701
02:19:40,747 --> 02:19:42,707
that's where he wanted things to end up.

2702
02:19:45,752 --> 02:19:49,923
And the piano, it sounds
like a carnival...

2703
02:19:50,298 --> 02:19:52,967
The main thing that
he would always say to me is,

2704
02:19:53,051 --> 02:19:55,345
"If you do what you love
then you'll love what you do."

2705
02:19:56,221 --> 02:19:58,515
And that that's really the secret to life.

2706
02:19:58,932 --> 02:20:01,351
And I think for him,
through all the sadness

2707
02:20:01,434 --> 02:20:04,145
and all the struggles
that he went through,

2708
02:20:04,229 --> 02:20:06,314
he was still doing what he loved.

2709
02:20:06,398 --> 02:20:08,233
Are you not entertained?

2710
02:20:08,942 --> 02:20:12,654
And that's really what kept him going
and kept the music coming.

2711
02:20:14,948 --> 02:20:18,451
Sing us a song you're the piano man...

2712
02:20:18,535 --> 02:20:19,953
I think music saved my life.

2713
02:20:20,036 --> 02:20:22,038
...song tonight

2714
02:20:22,122 --> 02:20:24,749
Well, we're all in the mood for a...

2715
02:20:24,833 --> 02:20:26,668
It gave me a reason to live.

2716
02:20:27,043 --> 02:20:30,130
And you've got us feelin' alright

2717
02:21:04,330 --> 02:21:06,249
My hope was that my music would continue

2718
02:21:06,332 --> 02:21:07,459
to resonate.

2719
02:21:11,045 --> 02:21:12,297
And I'm glad it has.

2720
02:21:14,007 --> 02:21:16,092
There'll be a part of me that goes on.

2721
02:21:18,094 --> 02:21:19,387
You created something.

2722
02:21:19,929 --> 02:21:21,931
You made a mark on your time.

2723
02:21:23,766 --> 02:21:25,685
I don't know why
that's so important to me.

2724
02:21:27,020 --> 02:21:28,396
It just is.

2725
02:21:32,901 --> 02:21:34,736
But I'm not finished.

2726
02:21:35,236 --> 02:21:37,071
I'm as lost as everybody else.

2727
02:21:38,114 --> 02:21:40,241
I'm still looking. I'm still searching.

2728
02:21:42,619 --> 02:21:44,579
I may not ever figure it all out,

2729
02:21:45,371 --> 02:21:46,456
but I'm trying.

2730
02:22:07,644 --> 02:22:10,980
Slow down you crazy child

2731
02:22:11,064 --> 02:22:14,317
You're so ambitious for a juvenile

2732
02:22:14,400 --> 02:22:16,319
But then if you're so smart

2733
02:22:16,402 --> 02:22:19,739
Tell me why are you still so afraid?

2734
02:22:20,156 --> 02:22:21,741
Mm

2735
02:22:23,117 --> 02:22:25,703
Where's the fire what's the hurry about?

2736
02:22:25,787 --> 02:22:29,499
You'd better cool it off
before you burn it out

2737
02:22:29,582 --> 02:22:31,417
You've got so much to do

2738
02:22:31,501 --> 02:22:35,129
And only so many hours in a day

2739
02:22:35,213 --> 02:22:38,007
Hey

2740
02:22:38,091 --> 02:22:40,927
But you know that when the truth is told

2741
02:22:41,010 --> 02:22:42,762
That you can get what you want

2742
02:22:42,845 --> 02:22:44,639
Or you can just get old

2743
02:22:44,722 --> 02:22:46,558
You're gonna kick off

2744
02:22:46,641 --> 02:22:50,562
Before you even get halfway through

2745
02:22:50,645 --> 02:22:54,440
Ooh, when will you realize

2746
02:22:55,275 --> 02:22:58,194
Vienna waits for you?

2747
02:23:01,281 --> 02:23:04,033
Slow down you're doin' fine

2748
02:23:04,117 --> 02:23:06,578
You can't be everything you wanna be

2749
02:23:06,661 --> 02:23:08,079
Before your time

2750
02:23:08,162 --> 02:23:10,081
Although it's so romantic

2751
02:23:10,164 --> 02:23:13,459
On the borderline tonight

2752
02:23:13,960 --> 02:23:15,461
Tonight

2753
02:23:16,796 --> 02:23:19,424
Too bad but it's the life you lead

2754
02:23:19,507 --> 02:23:21,342
You're so ahead of yourself

2755
02:23:21,426 --> 02:23:23,219
That you forgot what you need

2756
02:23:23,303 --> 02:23:25,138
Though you can see when you're wrong

2757
02:23:25,221 --> 02:23:28,391
You know you can't always
see when you're right

2758
02:23:29,100 --> 02:23:31,603
You're right

2759
02:23:31,686 --> 02:23:35,064
You've got your passion
you've got your pride

2760
02:23:35,148 --> 02:23:38,651
But don't you know that
only fools are satisfied?

2761
02:23:39,861 --> 02:23:41,487
Dream on but don't imagine

2762
02:23:41,571 --> 02:23:43,948
They'll all come true

2763
02:23:44,449 --> 02:23:45,992
Ooh

2764
02:23:46,117 --> 02:23:48,828
When will you realize

2765
02:23:49,162 --> 02:23:52,874
Vienna waits for you?

2766
02:23:54,959 --> 02:23:58,004
And you know that when the truth is told

2767
02:23:58,087 --> 02:23:59,839
That you can get what you want

2768
02:24:00,131 --> 02:24:01,799
Or you could just get old

2769
02:24:02,175 --> 02:24:03,635
You're gonna kick off

2770
02:24:03,718 --> 02:24:07,680
Before you even get halfway through

2771
02:24:07,764 --> 02:24:09,307
Ooh

2772
02:24:09,390 --> 02:24:11,851
Why don't you realize

2773
02:24:12,393 --> 02:24:15,271
Vienna waits for you?

2774
02:24:16,898 --> 02:24:19,442
When will you realize

2775
02:24:20,234 --> 02:24:23,988
Vienna waits for you?