Billy Joel's best friend and bandmate Jon Small dead as Piano Man hitmaker pays tribute

Billy Joel's former bandmate and longtime best friend Jon Small has died.The Piano Man hitmaker, 77, confirmed the news on Monday in a social media post, simply writing, 'RIP Jon Small'.According to TMZ, Small was in his late 70s and an official cause of death has not yet been revealed.Small and Joel's relationship dates back to the early 1960s, when they were both members of the rock band The Hassles.The pair then broke off from The Hassles to form their own hard rock duo called Attila.However, their musical partnership and friendship came crashing down when Joel had an affair with Small's then-wife Elizabeth Weber while he was living with the couple and their young son. Billy Joel's former bandmate and longtime best friend Jon Small has died; pictured together in 1970'I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,' Joel explained in the 2025 HBO documentary.'I was just in love with a woman and I got punched in the nose - which I deserved. Jon was very upset. I was very upset.'The fallout ended Attila, shattered Joel's friendship with Small, and left the future Piano Man broken and alone after Weber took off - though they would eventually reunite. 'I had no place to live. I was sleeping in laundromats and I was depressed, I think to the point of almost being psychotic,' he said.'So I figured, "That’s it. I don’t want to live anymore." I was just in a lot of pain and it was sort of like, why hang out? Tomorrow’s going to be just like today, and today sucks. So I just thought I’d end it all.'At the height of his breakdown, Joel turned to his sister, Judy Molinari, who was working as a medical assistant at the time.Hoping to help him rest, she gave him some sleeping pills, never expecting what would happen next.'But Billy decided that he was going to take all of them… he was in a coma for days and days and days,' she recalled in the documentary. The Piano Man hitmaker, 77, confirmed the news on Monday in a social media post, simply writing, 'RIP Jon Small'Molinari revealed that Joel’s second attempt involved drinking a bottle of Lemon Pledge furniture polish.It was Small, despite their fractured friendship, who rushed him to the hospital.'Even though our friendship was blowing up, Jon saved my life,' Joel said.Small later reflected on why the betrayal may have hit Joel so hard.'He never really said anything to me. The only practical answer I can give as to why Billy took it so hard was because he loved me that much and that it killed him to hurt me that much. Eventually I forgave him.'The pair would then work together for many years after that, with Small producing many of Joel's biggest music videos and concert films. He also directed the video for Joel's 1986 hit, Baby Grand. As for Joel and Weber, they married in 1973 before eventually divorcing in 1982. Joel famously had an affair with Small's then-wife Elizabeth Weber and then later married her in 1973; pictured together in 1979 Weber, who split with Joel in 1982, said that never considered him a 'homewrecker'; pictured in 2025Weber would late defend Joel in a 2025 interview, telling Us Weekly that she never considered the hitmaker to be a 'homewrecker'.She also admitted that her marriage to Small wasn't good, which led her into Joel's arms. 'We didn’t have a deep connection, Jon and I. Almost in a way, my life began again when my son was born,' she explained.'Sean just lit up every room. He was an adorable, precocious child. So I really never thought of Bill as a homewrecker because there wasn’t much home to wreck.'Joel's illustrious career as a musician began back in the mid-1960s, which led to the release of debut studio album, Cold Spring Harbor (1971).But it failed to gain any real traction until the success of his follow-up, Piano Man (1973), that peaked at number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Adult Contemporary singles chart. Joel and Small made amends and went on to collaborate together for many yearsJoel became a million seller with the release of Streetlife Serenade (1974), but his commercial breakout making him a bonafide star came with the release of The Stranger (1977), which featured the hit singles Movin' Out (Anthony's Song), Just The Way You Are, She's Always a Woman, The Stranger, and Only The Good Die Young. The Stranger album, which was the first Joel's to be produced by Phil Ramone, went on to spend six weeks at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, en route to selling more than 10 million copies worldwide.Maintaining his momentum, Joel dropped 52nd Street (1978) the following year, and it would end making his first number one album of his career, with the support of such hit singles as My Life, Big Shot, Until The Night and Honesty.With over 160 million records sold worldwide, Joel is one of the world's best-selling musical artists, and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States.