Billy Joel Says He Was ‘Looking Forward’ to Fatherhood ‘All My Life’ (Exclusive)

Billy Joel grew up knowing that fatherhood would be one of the most important chapters of his life.

The legendary musician had a complicated relationship with his own father, Howard — and knew that when it came time, he wanted to do things differently.

“It means a lot to me, and I think that’s maybe part of the father thing,” Joel, 76, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “I didn’t have a dad, so it was very important for me to be a dad.”

Joel shares daughter Alexa Ray, 39, with ex-wife Christie Brinkley, and is dad to daughters Della, 9, and Remy, 7, with his wife Alexis, whom he married in 2015.

“I love all of my girls. And poetic justice, I had all girls, of course, but I’m really enjoying this a lot,” he says. “It’s something I was looking forward to all my life, and here I am.”

As chronicled in the new HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes (all episodes streaming July 25), the “Piano Man” singer spent much of his life grappling with the fact that Howard left Joel, his mother Rosalind and sister Judy when the star was just 8 years old. When he reached his early 20s, Joel went searching for Howard and eventually found him in Vienna, where he was living with a new family. 

Joel says in the film that he “would’ve liked” Howard, who died in 2011, to “have been proud of me… but we never really made a strong connection… It’s disappointing.”

Documentary codirector Susan Lacy “pointed out that a lot of things I was searching for in my life were my father. I said, ‘You know what? I think that’s true. I was looking for my dad,’” Joel tells PEOPLE. “There was some self-revelatory stuff.”

The five-time Grammy winner opens up in the film about his decision to welcome his younger daughters, saying he initially thought he was “too old” to have any more children.

“Having these little kids at this time in my life is such a joy,” he says in the doc. “I have time to be with them… I wanted to make sure that they got everything they needed from me, so I kind of knuckled down and took fatherhood very, very seriously.”

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Wife Alexis, 43, meanwhile, says in the film that her daughters “have the most amazing version” of Joel, “after years of learning and personal growth.”

Alexa also praised Joel in a sweet Father’s Day tribute post, writing, in part, “Thanks for giving me all the love, wisdom, melodies, heart and soul I could ever ask for.”

Part one of And So It Goes is now streaming on HBO Max, and the second part will air this Friday, July 25. The documentary is a revelatory glimpse at the private life of one of music’s most enduring stars — and the moments that shaped him.

“I hope fans walk away realizing how f—ing human he is, and I hope they come back listening to these songs again with a deeper affection,” Joel’s longtime friend and lighting designer Steve Cohen tells PEOPLE. “I hope that you walk away from this thing going, ‘I now justify my fandom. I know why this guy is as good and why I respond to it, because that’s the kind of guy I can relate to his life. I can relate to those emotions.'”

For more on Billy Joel, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.