Billy Joel says dad ‘knocked me out’ as a kid for playing song incorrectly

Billy Joel deeply dig into his complicated relationship with his late father, Howard Joel.

The singer of “Just The Way You Are”, 76, recalled a case in which he was overthrown by his father after putting his own turn on the “Sonata of Moonlight” of Beethoven during the practice of the child piano. Howard, a classic pianist accomplished in its own right, demanded that all the songs be interpreted because they were originally written.

“My father, Howard, he has never really shown the kindness, compassion and understanding of his talent,” said Billy’s sister Judy Molinari, in the first episode of the documentary HBO in two parts of the singer Billy Joel: And it’s okay. “He didn’t really see it. And with Howard, classical music, it had to be strict by the book. Exactly how, let’s say, Beethoven wrote it.”

And there have been serious consequences to play with source equipment.

“One thing I remember, I was supposed to play” Sonata in the moonlight “,” said Billy. “It was to be about eight years old. And Rock & Roll was there at that time.”

Thus, taking a page of the great rockers at the time, Billy played a more optimistic and noisy interpretation of the classical melody instead of its traditional dark tone. The move caught the attention of his father, who was far from being impressed by his point of view on the track.

“He was going down the stairs. Bam! I hit myself,” recalls Billy. “And I hit myself so hard, he knocked out. I was unconscious for a minute. And I remember wake up,” well, it drew his attention. “And it was my memory of his piano lessons.

The five -time winner of a Grammy admitted that he had never seen his parents having fun together during his childhood.

“I saw stuff with them when I was a little child who was not, not good,” he said. “Things were very tense between them.”

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He added that he and Judi were actually a little “relieved” when their parents finally divorced themselves in the 1950s “because then there were no more arguments or fights or these frightening things” go ahead.

Consequently, Billy noted that he had never really known his father – who returned to Europe after the divorce – and rather admired his maternal grandfather, Philip Nyman. “He was the dominant male figure in my life,” he said. “Brilliant man. He had a great influence on me.”

Billy would not reconnect to his father until he was at the beginning of the twenty, when he found Howard living in Vienna. The pair would later share the scene during the Billy concert in 1995 in Nuremberg.

The first episode of Billy Joel: And that’s okay is now streaming on HBO Max, with the second episode that should fall on July 25.