Billy Joel announced the death of Jon Small, his early bandmate from the Sixties, in a social-media tribute. Small had been one of Joel’s two best friends before their split over Elizabeth Weber changed the shape of both their careers and their friendship.
The loss lands with the weight of a long public history. Small and Joel were bandmates in the Hassles, then formed Attila, which released its debut album in 1970 before the relationship between the two men collapsed.
From Hassles to Attila
1970 was the turn in the story: after Attila’s debut album, Joel was living with Small and Weber when he fell in love with Weber. Small later said, “I kept seeing that Billy was not the same guy. Something was the matter. And Billy one day came up to me, became a little honest, and said to me, ‘I’m in love with your wife.’ So it was a very devastating thing for me, because these were basically my two best friends.”
Joel described the fallout in the documentary And So It Goes: “I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker.” He added, “I was just in love with a woman, and I got punched in the nose, which I deserved. Jon was very upset. I was very upset.”
1973 to 1982
Joel and Weber married in 1973 and stayed married until 1982. The affair temporarily ended Joel’s best friendship with Small, and Joel was evicted from Small’s house, but the story did not end there.
Small later said, “He never really said anything to me, the only practical answer I can give as to why Billy took it so hard was because he loved me that much and that it killed him to hurt me that much. Eventually I forgave him.” That reconciliation turned a private rupture into a longer working relationship that stretched into concert films and a music video.
After Attila
Small worked on Live From Long Island and Live at Shea Stadium, then directed the “Baby Grand” video. He also directed music videos for Reba McEntire, Enrique Iglesias, and Brooks & Dunn, which gives this death announcement a business-side footnote: Joel’s tribute is also the end of a creative thread that moved from early bands to later production work.
Small’s age and cause of death were not known at press time. The unanswered question is simple and immediate: when did he die, and what was the cause?
