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Billy Joel has criticized an upcoming record called Billy & Me, which was made in front of his first manager, as “legally and technically wrong”.
Billy & Me, which was announced on Tuesday, is set up a talk Joel’s first manager Irwin Mazur, who discovered the singer in 1966, signed him in 1970 and managed his career until Joel signed with Columbia Records in 1972. His career began with his album Piano Man a year later.
Casting is now underway, with filmmaker John Ottman, who recently adapted Michael Jackson’s hit song, Michael, to direct.
However, Billy & Me does not have Joel’s approval, the rights to his music, or the rights to his life – the latter was a studio agreement to buy someone’s permission to edit his story without the threat of lawsuits.
In a statement to VarietyJoel’s representative said on Tuesday: “Starting in 2021, the parties involved have been informed that they do not have the life rights of Billy Joel and will not be able to obtain the musical rights necessary for this project.
“Billy Joel has not endorsed or supported the project in any way, and attempting to move forward without doing so would be both legally and technically incorrect.”
The screenwriter, Adam Ripp, responded to Joel in the Hollywood Reporter. “At no time did we claim that we controlled or owned the rights to Billy Joel’s original music, and this film was never made because of the use of his famous album,” he said. “The work was always designed as an introductory story that focuses on the people and relationships around Billy at this point in his life.”
Ripp said the production has the exclusive rights to Mazur’s life, as well as Joel’s old friend and former bandmate Jon Small, who was attached to the film as a consultant, co-executive producer and director of the second episode.
Small and Joel first met as teenagers and were in the 1960s group Hassles together, which produced Joel’s first music. After the band broke up, the two men formed the acid-rock band Attila, which Joel later called “psychedelic bullshit.”
Attila broke up in 1971 when it was revealed that Small’s wife, Elizabeth Weber, was having an affair with Joel. Weber left both men and Small rushed Joel to the hospital after he tried to kill himself in a moment of grief. Weber became Joel’s third manager, after Mazur and Jon Troy, and they married in 1973 but divorced in 1982.
Small became a well-known music video director, directing and producing videos for several of Joel’s songs including Uptown Girl and Piano Man, as well as his concert videos.
Small called Billy & Me: “an honest, heartfelt, and authentic portrayal of Billy’s childhood”, adding that it will be “grounded in reality, carefully crafted, and built with the insights of people who truly knew and loved Billy.”
“As someone who was there from the beginning, I can say that this script captures not only the music, but the relationships, struggles, humor, and intrigue that defined those years,” he said.
Ottmann, meanwhile, called Billy & Me “a deep and interesting story”.
“This is Billy’s formative years and his relationship with Irwin Mazur, the man who recognized Billy’s incredible talent even before Billy made it on his own,” he said. “Of course, the long hair, the cigarette smoke and the real look of the time make me a filmmaker, but what drew me to the material was the humanity at its core… It’s funny, sad, and ultimately very inspiring.”
