EXCLUSIVE: SUPERSTAR BILLY JOEL ON LIFE WITHOUT MUSIC

MUSIC legend Billy Joel yesterday told how his songs saved his life.

The piano man from New York beat the odds and a tough up-bringing to sell more than 100 million records around the world.

Billy fears only his music prevented him from ending up in jail, addicted to drugs, or insane.

The straight-talking musician - born in New York's notorious South Bronx - says his life would have been very different if he'd not written a string of classic hits.

"Going to jail would definitely have been a possibility for me. That and drug addiction. I'd also have been homeless or ended up in an insane asylum," said Billy.

"I think I would have been a real desolate soul had I not been a musician."


Advertisement

And the star revealed the person most shocked by his global success is himself.


He said: "My success is pretty bizarre - because I don't think I'm all that great.


"I think I'm just competent about what I do. I know how to write, play, sing, perform and record. There's a lot of people out there who can't do that stuff."


The 55-year-old star is heading for Scotland to play two shows at the SECC in Glasgow, tomorrow and Thursday.


He's also planning a trip to his favourite watering hole, the Horse Shoe.


"I love that bar. I had a few beers last time I was in town and I'll be back if I can."


Billy has chalked up millions of sales, won a clutch of Grammy Awards and has his own Hollywood Walk of Fame star.


No mean feat for a guy whose dreams of becoming a history teacher were dashed when he failed to graduate at high school.


I met Billy backstage at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield on his first major UK tour in almost a decade.


He reflected on a rollercoaster 35-year career which has included two failed marriages and a spell in the Betty Ford Clinic for alcohol addiction.


Billy looks more like a car mechanic than a superstar - but it hasn't affected his way with the ladies.


He's romanced some of the world's most beautiful women.


Billy married first wife Elizabeth Weber in 1971 but they divorced after 12 years. He dated supermodel Elle Macpherson - before marrying catwalk rival Christie Brinkley in 5. The couple had a daughter, Alexa Ray who is now 20. But his marriage to Christie - who inspired one of his biggest hits, Uptown Girl - ended in 1994.


Billy wed his third wife - beautiful US TV presenter Katie Lee - in 2004.


He told me: "In the early days, I'd go to a party and there would be better "1 looking guys with smooth, suave chat-up lines. I'd go into the corner, play the piano, look up and there would be - girls.


"I thought, 'This is great'. That's how I met women. I didn't think I'd be a big star. My main goal was just to make a living.


"I'm a working guy. It's just that I make a lot more money than most other people. But I still know where I came from."


Billy was bullied at school when kids discovered he was taking piano lessons.


To defend himself, he took boxing lessons and could have made the grade as a prize fighter.


"I had to walk down the street going to piano lessons with my music books under my arm," said Billy.


"My teacher also taught ballet so you can imagine the reaction of the other kids. They'd hit me in the face or knock my books out of my hands.


"I took up boxing so I could take care of myself. I went back to my school, walked up to the biggest guy who used to pick on me and clocked him pretty good. Nobody bothered me after that."


Billy's father Howard was a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Germany. He split from the singer's mother Rosalind when Billy was 10 years old and moved back to Eastern Europe.


"My dad wasn't around so I never saw him much," revealed Billy.


"I had friends who said, 'You'll never make it as a musician, you're gonna starve'.


"But my mum used to sing in an operatic company so she encouraged me.


"When I didn't graduate, I said, 'I'm NOT going to Columbia University, I'd rather go to Columbia Records'. That's what I did." Several of Billy's hits were inspired by growing up inNewYork. How did he feel about the September 11 terrorist attack?


"I grew up 25 miles from Manhattan and as a kid the first chance I got I'd jump on a train and go into the city," he said.


"There were bright lights, great stores and pretty girls. New York coloured my life so much. When the city came under attack I went into a deep depression. It was so hard to fathom that kind of monstrous hatred for humanity.


"I'm still not over it. I think New York has changed. There's a sadness there which didn't used to exist. When I go by Ground Zero, it's very moving and emotional." At the last count, Billy had scored 33 Top 40 hits since releasing his first album Cold Spring Harbor in 1971, includ ing Just The Way You Are, Piano Man, Tell Her About It and An Innocent Man.


He was inducted into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and despite flunking high school he's been awarded honororary doctorates.


The star now funds the Billy Joel Endowment a scholarship to encourage kids to pursue a music path.


"There wasn't anything like that when I was a kid. My family didn't have any money to help me further my music education and I wasn't good enough to win any scholarships," he said.


"I just figure, the more opportunities there are out there for kids to learn to write and play, the better."


At 55, Billy has no plans to retire.


"I'm looking forward to playing in Glasgow again. The last gig I played in the city was in 1998 when I was sick with a terrible sore throat.


"So if anybody who was at that gig is reading this - I don't really sound that bad. This time, I'll sing a whole lot better."


'I think that I would have been a real desolate soul had I not been a musician'

Take a break and check out some Videos