(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 8 November 2025 16:40, UK
While it’s common for us to reflect on the careers of rock stars and discuss all of the feuds they had with their contemporaries, we often forget how some formed alliances that felt like inseparable relationships. Even though Billy Joel had a number of frequent collaborators over the years, the strongest bonds that he seemed to form were with his fellow songwriters.
Joel isn’t exactly known for having had many hit singles in collaboration with other artists, although has in the past released material alongside Ray Charles and Tony Bennett, as well as performed alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen. As a gifted pianist and vocalist, one might expect that he would have been in much higher demand for duets, but given how much of a perfectionist he is also known to be, it isn’t so surprising that he spent the majority of his career choosing to work on his own terms.
However, that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a gregarious individual at the height of his career, and he managed to forge many special relationships with those whose talents he admired from afar rather than those he worked alongside. Joel was also known for being vocal in his support for other acts, and on a number of occasions has lobbied for his favourite artists to be nominated as inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Having previously contacted the voting committee to advocate for the inclusion of Joe Cocker and Cyndi Lauper, Joel claimed in a 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times that he was overjoyed at the fact that an artist he truly admired had finally been put forward as a potential inductee after several decades of being dismissed.
“I just wanted to put in my two cents of supporting Warren Zevon to be included,” Joel revealed to the newspaper. “If anyone deserves to be, he does. He was a real original, and I don’t know if that’s appreciated enough.” He went on to recall how he’d first witnessed Zevon performing in 1974 at a club in Philadelphia, stating that he was a sublime performer who he felt an immediate connection with on a musical level.
“The first minute I saw him, I was knocked out,” Joel continued. “He was like the crazy brother I never had. He was fearless, and it stuck with me. I never thought he got the attention he deserved.” While Zevon is often regarded as a ‘songwriter’s songwriter’, having been lauded by the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young during his career, it’s usually only for his best-known song, ‘Werewolves of London’, that he tends to be recognised by the wider public, and given how influential his songwriting has been, Joel is certainly right to judge him as being underrated.
While Joel’s protestations never led to Zevon receiving an official induction as a performer that year, his induction in the ‘Musical Influence’ category in 2025 alongside Salt-N-Pepa is perhaps the start of Zevon getting the recognition he deserves, despite it unfortunately coming 22 years after his passing. Given the kinship that Joel felt for his fellow pianist, he’ll no doubt be delighted to hear that Zevon is getting his flowers.
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