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A new biopic about Billy Joel has been announced, but the project is not endorsed in any way by the 77-year-old artist.
According to film industry website Variety, Billy & Me will tell Joel's story pre-fame, through the eyes of the star's first manager, Irwin Mazur, who discovered Joel in 1966, signed him in 1970, and brokered his deal with Columbia Records in 1972.
Editor/director John Ottoman, who won an Oscar for his editing on Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, will direct the film... but unlike with the Queen film, he won't have access to Joel's music.
"Since 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project," a representative of the Bronx-born singer/songwriter declared in a statement. "Billy Joel has not authorized or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided."
The film may cover Joel's time in Attila, the heavy psych / heavy metal duo he formed in 1969 with his drummer Jon Small, as Small will act as a consultant, co-executive producer and second unit director.
Joel and Small formed the band - named after the infamously bloodthirsty Attila The Hun - in the image of Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer: their unique spin on the hard rock format was that they planned to operate without a guitarist, with Joel feeding his Hammond organ through a wall of amplifiers.
"We wanted to be a heavy band and we decided we were going to get heavy…somehow," he told biographer Fred Schruers in 2014.
"We were going to destroy the world with amplification," he had informed DJ Dan Neer in 1985. "We had about a dozen gigs and nobody could stay in the room when we were playing. It was too loud. We drove people literally out of clubs.
"We were so loud. You could see blood coming out of people’s ears. It was just horrible."
Of the new film, Small says, "This is the most honest, heartfelt, and authentic portrayal of Billy’s early life and rise to becoming one of the greatest musical voices of our time. Billy & Me is grounded in truth, shaped with care, and built with the insight of people who genuinely know and love Billy. As someone who was there from the very beginning, I can say this script captures not just the music, but the friendships, struggles, humor, and creative spark that defined those years.
"Too often, stories about artists get lost in exaggeration or mythmaking," he adds. "Billy & Me reflects the real history with integrity and respect. I first met Billy when he was 16 years old, and after reading the script, I felt the filmmakers truly understood who he was before the world knew his name."
