Billy Joel Announces Death of Early Bandmate Jon Small
What's happening
Billy Joel has announced the death of Jon Small, an early bandmate who played with the future Piano Man in the 1960s rock groups the Hassles and Attila. Small's passing marks the end of a complicated chapter in Joel's life, one that included a painful personal rift.
Who's involved
Billy Joel is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist nicknamed the Piano Man, one of the world's best-selling music artists with over 160 million records sold worldwide. Jon Small was a member of the Hassles, a 1960s rock group notable for recording Billy Joel's first releases, and later played with Joel in the band Attila.
Why it matters
Small's death closes a significant chapter in Joel's early career, before his explosive solo success that began in the 1970s. The loss also underscores the lasting human cost of personal betrayals in close creative partnerships, even after decades of separation.
The story
Billy Joel has announced the death of Jon Small, a bandmate from the earliest stages of his music career. Small and Joel played together in two 1960s rock bands: the Hassles, which recorded the first releases to feature Billy Joel, and later in Attila. According to Rolling Stone, their friendship was temporarily derailed when Joel had an affair with Small's wife, a betrayal that left deep wounds between the two musicians.
The Hassles were active during the 1960s and released two full-length albums along with a number of singles, establishing themselves as a notable fixture in the rock music scene of that era. Small was instrumental in Joel's earliest recordings, part of a formative period before Joel's emergence as a solo superstar. After the Hassles, Small and Joel continued to work together in Attila, but the personal crisis would soon disrupt their professional partnership entirely.
The affair between Joel and Small's wife created a rift that temporarily ended their friendship, marking a pivotal and painful moment in Joel's early life. While Joel would go on to achieve extraordinary success as a solo artist—releasing 12 entirely self-written studio albums from 1971 to 1993 and earning the nickname "the Piano Man" after his 1973 signature song of the same name—Small remained a figure from an era before that meteoric rise.
Small's death represents the loss of someone who was present at the very beginning of one of music's most successful careers. Though their friendship was strained by personal tragedy, Small's contributions to Joel's earliest musical work remain part of the permanent record of his development as an artist. The announcement serves as a reminder of the complex relationships that often underpin creative partnerships, and the ways personal conflicts can reshape professional trajectories.