Billy Joel Attempted Suicide Twice After Affair with Friend’s Wife

Billy Joel is opening up about a dark period in his life.

On Wednesday, June 4, the first part of the the “Vienna” singer’s new documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, premiered at Tribeca Festival in New York City.

During the first part of the documentary, Joel, 76, revealed that he underwent two suicide attempts — and fell into a coma — after he had an affair with his former bandmate’s wife.

In his early 20s, Joel — who was absent from the premiere — was in a band called Attila with his best friend Jon Small. At the time, he moved in with Small, Elizabeth Weber — who was Small’s wife at the time — and their son.

“Bill and I spent a lot of time together,” Elizabeth said in the documentary, adding that it was a “slow build.” Then, Small realized something was up and Joel came to him with the truth: “I’m in love with your wife.”

“I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,” the “Piano Man” singer said. “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 fight was the end of Attila — and the end of their friendship for a while. Meanwhile, Elizabeth took off, Joel started drinking and this marked the beginning of a spiral for the star. (Years later, Elizabeth and Joel reconnected and were married from 1973-1982.)

“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 in the documentary. “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 is going to be just like today is and today sucks. So, I just thought I’d end it all.”

A the time, Joel’s sister, Judy Molinari, was working as a medical assistant and she gave him sleeping pills to help him sleep.

“But Billy decided that he was going to take all of them… he was in a coma for days and days and days,” she said in the documentary, adding tearfully: “I went to go see him in the hospital, and he was laying there white as a sheet. I thought that I’d killed him.”

Joel acknowledged that he was “very selfish” at the time and remembered waking up in the hospital thinking he wanted to do it again — but this time “right.”

The next time, he drank a bottle of “lemon Pledge,” Molinari revealed, and Small took him to the hospital.

“Even though our friendship was blowing up, Jon saved my life,” Joel said.

Small added, “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.”

After the suicide attempts, the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” singer felt like a “lost soul” and checked himself into an “observation ward.” The experience was life-changing for Joel, who was released within a couple of weeks.

“I got out of the observation ward and I thought to myself, you can utilize all those emotions to channel that stuff into music,” he said.

Billy Joel: And So It Goes is slated to hit HBO in July.

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