BILLY JOEL BANDMATE JON SMALL DIES

Jon Small, a drummer who played in Billy Joel's early bands the Hassles and Attila and later became an accomplished music video director, has died. Joel announced Small's passing on Instagram. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, 9 September in Great Neck, New York. No cause of death has been disclosed.

Small and Joel formed the Hassles as teenagers in New York during the 1960s, releasing two albums before departing to form the hard rock duo Attila, whose self-titled album was released in 1970. The band dissolved in 1971 after Joel began a relationship with Small's wife, Elizabeth Weber. In the 2025 HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, Small and Joel discussed the affair at length. Small stated in the documentary that Joel told him directly: "I'm in love with your wife." Joel said he felt "very, very guilty" and described himself as a "homewrecker", noting that Small and Weber had a child together. Joel revealed in the documentary that he attempted suicide by drinking furniture polish following the incident, and that Small drove him to hospital.

Small and Joel eventually reconciled and worked together on several music video projects, including for Joel's songs Uptown Girl, Keeping the Faith and Tell Her About It. Joel and Weber married in 1973, a union that lasted until 1982. Beyond his work with Joel, Small produced music videos for artists including Whitney Houston, Sting, Meat Loaf and Taylor Swift, and was inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.