Not long after Weber took off, Joel overdosed on Nembutal, then called Small to apologize. He was 21, broke, friendless, loveless and “crashing at my mom’s place again, which is abject failure.” When Small discovered the affair, Weber left them both, disappearing for weeks. Almost like a European-type - not a typical American girl.” intelligent and not afraid to speak her mind, but could also be seductive. “She wasn’t like a lot of the other girls I knew at that time who had taken home ec and cooking classes,” he told Schruers.
Elizabeth Weber was married to Small, and they had a baby son, Sean - but Joel was knocked out. Joel met his first wife in 1970, through his friend and bandmate Jon Small.
The Shark Billy Joel and Elizabeth Weber WireImage His three tortured marriages - and the music they’ve inspired - are testament to that. I can even try to achieve it again, and often have.” I 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 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. “You just need one - one person out of millions - to know and accept and love you for being, well, just the way you are. “None of those people in the arena screaming your name really know you,” Joel tells author Fred Schruers in the new book “Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography.” (Joel, who sat for 100 hours of interviews, eventually withdrew from the project over fears it would be too revelatory.) Yet he’s always felt a failure where it most counts: love. A Hicksville native, he has been considered the poet laureate of Long Island for decades. In 2013, he was among the recipients at the Kennedy Center Honors. He has sold more than 150 million albums and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His monthly shows gross him more than $2 million each. Today, at 65, Billy Joel is in the midst of an unprecedented residency at Madison Square Garden. Legendary Village Voice critic Robert Christgau derided him as “a force of nature and bad taste.” He has spent much of his life in battle: against his ex-wives, against booze, bad managers and bankruptcy, and against critics who’ve considered him too uncool for rock ’n’ roll. One of a kind.For someone who hasn’t really released new music in more than 20 years, Billy Joel is having an epic third act. "My best friend, Billy Joe Royal, died this morning. Since then he has toured with other performers from his era, including B.J. His most recent project, "His First Gospel Album," was released in 2009. He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1988. His final chart single was 1992's "I'm Okay (And Gettin' Better)," which peaked at number 51 on the Country Airplay chart. His career continued with 14 singles that hit the country charts, including "Tell It Like It Is," which peaked at number two in 1989. He was poised for a comeback in 1985 with his first release for Atlantic Records, "Burned like a Rocket." The track was climbing the country singles chart when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, and "radio dropped it like a hot potato," Royal said in a 2010 interview, according to Billboard. Royal left Columbia to record music on smaller labels in the 1970s before releasing a self-titled album in 1980 with Mercury Records. Subsequent hits included "I Knew You When" and "Cherry Hill Park," his final top 40 on the pop charts in 1969, according to Billboard.
His early hits bore traces of pop and R&B, including 1965's "Down in the Boondocks," which launched his career, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Top 100. There, he became friends with Roy Orbison and learned from guest performers at the club, including Sam Cooke, Fats Domino and The Isley Brothers, according to his biography. He performed on local radio shows before moving to Savannah to perform with the house band at the Bamboo Ranch. Royal was born in 1942 in Valdosta, Georgia, and raised north of Atlanta. There was "never a nicer guy on the planet than Billy," he said. Royal died in his sleep Tuesday in his home in Morehead City, North Carolina, friend and tour partner Ronnie McDowell said. McDowell, a childhood friend, said the two were scheduled to start touring after Thanksgiving. Musician Billy Joe Royal, the voice of 1960's pop hits including "Down in the Boondocks" who resurfaced as a country star in the 1980's, died at age 73.
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