“You can have all the money in the world, you can have mansions, you can have properties, you can have yachts, you can have limousines, you can have motorcycles,” Billy Joel informed his official biographer Fred Schruers. However with out love “it doesn’t mean a goddamn thing.”
Despite the fact that Joel has reached the higher echelons of standing, wealth and movie star, the singer admits that the one factor he struggles with is love. Nevertheless, he was superb at spinning his heartache into chart-topping hits, and regardless of his romantic failures, Joel stays hopeful.
“You just need one — one person out of millions — to know and accept and love you for being, well, just the way you are,” he told Schruers. “I see old folks walking down the street who look like they’ve been together 50 years, and there’s something very touching about it — that they’ve lasted so long. I used to wonder: How come I don’t have that? I can dream about it, think about it, write music and lyrics and sing about it. I can even try to achieve it again, and often have.”
Three divorces later, Joel determined to stroll down the aisle as soon as once more in 2015 to his fourth spouse, former hedge fund supervisor, Alexis Roderick.
But regardless of having his coronary heart damaged, Joel has managed to be on good terms with every of his ex-wives: Elizabeth Weber (married from 1973-1982), Christie Brinkley (married from 1985-1994) and Katie Lee (2004-2010).
Listed here are the love tales behind a few of Joel’s well-known tunes:
“Just the Way You Are,” “She’s Got a Way” and “She’s Always a Woman” had been impressed by Elizabeth Weber
Elizabeth Weber and Billy Joel
Picture: David Mcgough/DMI/The LIFE Image Assortment by way of Getty Pictures
Falling in love with and marrying his first spouse, Weber, was arguably the most costly relationship Joel ever had. Joel met Weber when she was married to his bandmate Jon Small in 1970. Her independence and straight-talking model made Joel smitten from the beginning. The 2 started having an affair, however Weber ended up leaving each males, inflicting Joel, then aged 21, to grow to be suicidal; he even wound up in a psychological establishment for a number of weeks, based on the New York Times.
Ultimately, Joel bought again with Weber. She satisfied him to let her handle him, and the couple married in 1973. Whereas Joel was head over heels in love with Weber and wrote the songs “She’s Got a Way” and “She’s At all times a Lady” for her, Weber had no disgrace in immediately asking him if she’d obtain earnings on the backend for being his muse. One 12 months, for Weber’s birthday, Joel wrote her the track “Just the Way You Are,” and after he performed it for her she stated, “Do I get the publishing, too?”
Earlier than the couple divorced in 1982, Joel made the grave mistake of permitting Weber’s brother, Frank, additionally work for him. Later, the singer found Frank that had secretly stolen tens of hundreds of thousands from him, inflicting Joel to sue Weber for $30 million in compensatory damages and $60 million in punitive damages, based on the Los Angeles Times.
“I hooked up with the Borgias!” Joel stated in his official biography. “What a family to pick.”
Supermodel Christie Brinkley impressed “This Is the Time” and the album ‘An Harmless Man’
Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel in 1990.
Picture: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Assortment by way of Getty Pictures
After his divorce from Weber, Joel went to St. Bart’s for a vacation getaway. He started taking part in at a piano bar, and it was there he met supermodels Elle MacPherson, Christie Brinkley and an up-and-coming singer, Whitney Houston.
When 33-year-old Joel returned to his Central Park penthouse in New York, he was shocked to see that MacPherson, who was simply 19, and Brinkley, 28, had been competing for his affections. Joel could not imagine his luck, and though he briefly dated MacPherson, it was Brinkley who in the end gained his coronary heart.
The couple married in 1985 and Joel’s album An Harmless Man was impressed by his relationship with Brinkley. He additionally wrote “This Is the Time” for her — a track that imagines a pair reminiscing about their finest days collectively.
Nevertheless, Joel and Brinkley’s marriage had main challenges. As a result of the Piano Man had suffered an enormous monetary setback from his authorized battle with Frank, he was pressured to go on tour nonstop, which created distance between him and his supermodel spouse. After rumors unfold that Joel was dishonest, which Joel denied, the wedding fell aside, and the couple known as it quits in 1994.
“Uptown Lady” and “And So It Goes” had been impressed by Elle MacPherson
Brinkley famously appeared because the love curiosity in Joel’s “Uptown Lady” music video, so everybody naturally assumed the track was impressed by her. However in truth, the track was about Joel’s love affair with MacPherson — after which some.
Initially, the track was known as “Uptown Women,” which encompassed his expertise relationship not solely MacPherson and Brinkley but additionally one other girl who preceded them. Ultimately, he made the track singular, and by the point the music video rolled round, he was relationship Brinkley. The remainder is historical past.
Expressing his insecurities about relationship a a lot youthful (and taller) girl who was on the point of superstardom and whom he believed would in the end go away him, Joel wrote “And So It Goes” for MacPherson.
“I remember somebody got a shot of us walking down a beach at Coney Island,” Joel stated. “… Elle was so tall that I looked like Bubbles the Chimp next to her, and I realized this was just not going to work.”
Joel’s relationships might need been expensive on a number of ranges, however the iconic singer was capable of flip his heartache into a few of his largest hits.
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