Sir Elton John has had his fair share of celebrity feuds in his time, from Madonna to Billy Joel, who has now revealed why there was ‘bad blood’.
The Rocket Man and Piano Man hitmakers once toured together, but the aftermath left a rift between them, which took years to heal.
Billy, 76, revealed in his documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, which aired its second part on Friday, that he was ‘really hurt’ by comments made by Sir Elton.
The duo had been on their Face to Face tour, which they kicked off in 1994,when Sir Elton addressed several cancellations in an interview with Rolling Stone.
‘Elton had made a comment that he thought I needed real rehab,’ Billy said in the documentary of the fallout.
‘He chalked it up to, “Oh, he’s a drunk.” And that really hurt me,’ he explained.
At the time, Sir Elton had given some ‘tough love’ and said: ‘He’s going to hate me for this, but every time he goes to rehab they’ve been light.’
Billy was struggling with alcoholism and has previously admitted it destroyed his decade-long marriage to Christie Brinkley, 71.
The couple officially divorced around the same time the Face to Face tour began, having tied the knot in 1985.
‘I said “wait a minute? Don’t you know me better than that?” And there was bad blood for a little while,’ Billy continued. ‘There was a dovetailing of things that happened during that time.’
He said he felt ‘clobbered’ after the comments and hit rock bottom afterwards, with his relationship with Sir Elton suffering.
‘I was disillusioned with what I thought it was all supposed to mean,’ he said. ‘It was like all the signs were pointing to me: Enough. And I wrote this letter to the band. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m gonna stop.”‘
It was then in 2005 that Billy went to rehab at The Betty Ford Clinic after the insistence of then-wife Katie Lee, who he split with four years later.
They resumed the Face to Face tour throughout the 00s with a brief leg in 2009 before wrapping again in 2010 with Billy claiming touring together restrained his setlist.
Billy recently confirmed he had completely given up alcohol, blaming his addiction for his health diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).
He was forced to cancel all his scheduled concerts earlier this month after the condition appeared to have been exacerbated by performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance.
‘Nobody knows [what causes it]. They don’t know,’ the Uptown Girl chart-topper shared on Bill Maher’s Club Random Podcast.
Billy added: ‘I thought it must be from drinking. I don’t anymore, but I used to like a fish.’
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2023, he shared of his addiction: ‘It wasn’t a big AA kick. I just got to a point where I’d had enough. I didn’t enjoy being completely inebriated, and it probably created more problems in my life than I needed.’
As for his relationship with Sir Elton, the pair patched things up while on stage at the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2013.
While accepting the Johnny Mercer award, the Tiny Dancer icon extended an olive branch and said: ‘Mr. Joel, I haven’t seen you tonight, but I love you dearly.’
Responding to his old friend, when Billy took the stage, he said: ‘Is Elton still here? By the way, we’re ok. Call me, it’s the same phone number.’
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