Veteran musician Billy Joel is adamant he’s never been charged with being drunk behind the wheel – insisting stories about his DUIs “never happened”.
Billy Joel is adamant he’s never faced a drink driving charge.
The veteran musician, 76, has addressed long-standing rumours about his past in his new documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes and he has insisted he’s never been prosecuted for a DUI (driving under the influence charge) despite previous reports suggesting he got in trouble with the law after a series of motoring mishaps.
He explained: “There’s this rumor that I have all these DUIs. That never happened. But people keep repeating the myth. ‘Oh, he’s got so many DUIs.’
“I never had a DUI. So f*** you. The press can be mean. So having that much attention paid to you is not easy.”
Joel was involved in a number of car accidents over the years – including a 1999 accident, a 2003 crash when he drove his Mercedes-Benz into a tree in Sag Harbor, New York and another smash in 2004 when he crashed his car into a house in Bayville, New York.
However, Joel has since insisted the car accidents had nothing to do with alcohol and were actually linked to the “deep depression” he was suffering at the time.
In a 2013 interview with the New York Times, he explained: “{The accidents had] nothing to do with the booze … I never had a DUI in my life. That’s another fallacy.
“Look at the police records. My mind wasn’t right. I wasn’t focused. I went into a deep, deep depression after 9/11. 9/11 just knocked the wind out of me, and
“I don’t know even now if I’ve recovered from it.
“It really, really hurt that man could do that to man. And then there was a break-up with somebody, and it took me a while to get me back on my feet again.”
In the documentary, Joel also opened up about becoming embroiled in a feud with Sir Elton John after the pop icon encouraged him to go to rehab.
Joel explained: “Elton had made a comment that he thought I needed real rehab. He chalked it up to, ‘Oh, he’s a drunk.’ And that really hurt me.
“I said wait a minute? Don’t you know me better than that? And there was bad blood for a little while. There was a dovetailing of things that happened during that time.”
Billy recalled feeling at “rock bottom” when he read Elton’s comments. He said: “I was disillusioned with what I thought it was all supposed to mean. It was like all the signs were pointing to me: enough. And I wrote this letter to the band. ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m gonna stop.'”
Elton made the comments to Rolling Stone magazine back in 2011, shortly after they toured together.
The singer explained at the time that they had “so many cancelled tours because of illnesses and various other things, alcoholism”.
Elton – who also struggled with addiction in the 70s and 80s – added: “He’s going to hate me for this, but every time he goes to rehab they’ve been light … I love you Billy, and this is tough love.”
Billy did actually spend time in rehab in 2005, and he previously acknowledged that addiction created “problems” in his life.
The singer stopped drinking altogether in 2021.
Billy Joel insists DUIs ‘never happened’
