Billy Joel has spent a lot of his life in some sort of battle: against ex-wives, against alcohol, against bad managers and bankruptcy, and also against the critics who deemed him not cool enough for rock ’n’ roll. These days, despite his decades-long success in the music industry, the 71-year-old five-time Grammy-winning musician has always felt a sort of failure where it most counts: the love department.
Billy Joel. Photo by Globe Photos / Mediapunch / Shutterstock
“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,” Joel told his biographer Fred Schruers for the book “Billy Joel.” He 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.”
His three painful marriages — and the songs they inspired — are a testament to that.