{"id":593993,"date":"2026-05-20T08:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593993\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:23:08","slug":"billy-joel-condemns-upcoming-biopic-about-his-early-life-as-legally-and-professionally-misguided-billy-joel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593993\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel condemns upcoming biopic about his early life as \u2018legally and professionally misguided\u2019 | Billy Joel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Joel has condemned an upcoming biopic titled Billy & Me, told through the eyes of his first manager, as \u201clegally and professionally misguided\u201d.<\/p>\n

Billy & Me, which was announced on Tuesday, is set to tell the story<\/a> of Joel\u2019s first manager Irwin Mazur, who discovered the singer in 1966, signed him in 1970 and oversaw his career up until Joel signed with Columbia Records in 1972. His career took off with his album Piano Man one year later.<\/p>\n

Casting is now under way, with film-maker John Ottman, who recently edited the hit Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, set to direct.<\/p>\n

However, Billy & Me does not have Joel\u2019s approval, rights to his music, or his life rights \u2013 the latter essentially being an agreement studios strike to buy a person\u2019s permission to adapt their personal story without the threat of lawsuits.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Variety<\/a>, Joel\u2019s representative said on Tuesday: \u201cSince 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel\u2019s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project.<\/p>\n

\u201cBilly Joel has not authorised or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s screenwriter, Adam Ripp, responded to Joel in the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. \u201cAt no point have we ever claimed to control or possess rights to Billy Joel\u2019s original songs, nor has this film ever been conceived around the use of his hit catalog,\u201d he said. \u201cThe project was always designed as an intimate origin story focused on the people and relationships surrounding Billy during this specific period of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ripp said the production holds the exclusive life rights for Mazur, as well as Joel\u2019s longtime friend and former bandmate Jon Small, who is attached to the film as a consultant, co-executive producer and second unit director.<\/p>\n

Small and Joel first met as teenagers and were in the 1960s band the Hassles together, which put out Joel\u2019s first recordings. After the band broke up, the two men formed the acid-rock band Attila, which Joel later described as \u201cpsychedelic bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attila broke up in 1971 when it was revealed Small\u2019s wife, Elizabeth Weber, was having an affair with Joel. Weber left both men and Small rushed Joel to hospital after a suicide attempt during a subsequent depressive period. Weber became Joel\u2019s third manager, after Mazur and Jon Troy, and they married in 1973 but split in 1982.<\/p>\n

Small went on to become an acclaimed music video director, directing and producing videos for several of Joel\u2019s hits including Uptown Girl and Piano Man, as well as his concert films.<\/p>\n

Small has called Billy & Me: \u201cthe most honest, heartfelt, and authentic portrayal of Billy\u2019s early life\u201d, adding that it would be \u201cgrounded in truth, shaped with care, and built with the insight of people who genuinely know and love Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who was there from the very beginning, I can say this script captures not just the music, but the friendships, struggles, humor, and creative spark that defined those years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ottmann, meanwhile, called Billy & Me \u201ca deeply emotional and fun story\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the formative years of Billy and his relationship with Irwin Mazur, the man who recognised Billy\u2019s amazing talent even before Billy did himself,\u201d he said. \u201cSure, the long hair, cigarette smoke and authentic look of the period turns me on as a film-maker, but what truly drew me to the material was the humanity at its core \u2026 It\u2019s funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately very inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Joel has condemned an upcoming biopic titled Billy & Me, told through the eyes of his first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-593993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}