I just finished the 5-hour Billy Joel documentary, “And So it Goes.” I’m left with the sadness of what a serious drinking problem does to a person and also amazement at what can be accomplished even in the heights of alcoholism.
I was not the person who talked about how I drank all night and could still ace a college exam at 8 a.m. Friends of mine drank tons through law school and still graduated with honors. Billy Joel put out album after album after album while drinking for years, and after identifying early on in 1977 that he had a drinking problem he still went on to release 13 studio albums, seven live albums, 19 compilation albums and 82 singles. But he is also on his fourth marriage. The first three ended due to his drinking.
The documentary was mostly about the progression of his music. Behind the scenes we witness the progression of his drinking, but very little screen time was spent on the consequences. The audience had to read between the lines. What we did learn is that he grew up with an alcoholic mother and he struggled with mental health issues. His father abandoned the family when he was eight years old. He’d later find his father in Vienna living with a second family — a betrayal he struggled with for years.
A startling piece of the documentary was the news of his two suicide attempts. In his early 20s, he had fallen in love with his best friend’s wife. After admitting this to his friend, the relationship blew up. This loss led to the suicide attempts and an entry into a deep period of depression. He ended up marrying Elizabeth Weber (his friend’s now ex-wife) in 1973 and she became his business manager. This was the same year that his big hit “Piano Man” came out. They divorced in 1982 after Billy ended up in the hospital due to a serious motorcycle accident. She tells the camera tearfully she could not stay with him because of his drinking and reckless behavior.
Themes of betrayal and mistrust were pervasive throughout. He hired his first wife’s brother to manage his finances, only to find out years later that he had gone through $90 million and Billy was broke. This was at the same time he married the supermodel Christie Brinkley. There were several heartbreaking interviews with his previous wives discussing the tribulations of their relationships. Scattered throughout were great takes with Paul McCartney, Sting, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Pink and Don Henley discussing the impact of Billy’s music on them.
After watching the documentary I googled whether or not Billy was still drinking and it said that he may have stopped two years ago. This is such a profound example of the power of alcoholism and denial. While listening to Billy discuss his drinking, he sounded like so many other people I’ve worked with over the years. “I never got a DUI,” he says at one point, even though he had gotten in several car crashes and a serious motorcycle accident. “I don’t like being told what to do,” he says in another scene, and I think about all the alcoholics I’ve treated over the years who have gone to their death defending their drinking.
I hope Billy Joel can stay sober. He is an American icon and an incredible talent. He is now married to his fourth wife and has two children ages 10 and 8. He has been diagnosed with an illness called normal pressure hydrocephalus, which has an unknown origin. He has said that “it could be from the fact I drank like a fish for years.” I hope sobriety can be the beginning of him finding some peace.
Movie Night Sobees Score: 3.5 out of 5
Billy Joel: And So It Goes | Official Trailer | HBO Max
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