The roots of Billy Joel’s first marriage came before his superstar celebrity status, when he had yet to perform under the name Billy Joel. Before becoming a solo performer, Joel was a member of a 1960s rock group called the Hassles. Though they released two albums, the band was volatile and split in 1969, with Joel going on to form a duo named Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila sounded nothing like the music that Joel would later make: At the time, he and his partner were interested in amplification and psychedelia. Their 1970 album is little loved today, but the collaboration is notable for the way it ended, with Joel having a marriage-destroying affair with Small’s wife, Elizabeth, and the band collapsing too shortly after their debut release.
Elizabeth, who had a child with Small, reportedly decided to leave the love triangle entirely shortly after her affair was revealed. But by 1973, she and Joel had reunited and were married that year. According to drummer Bruce Gentile (via Hank Bordowitz’s “Billy Joel”), she inspired some of Joel’s greatest early love songs, including “She’s Got a Way” and “She’s Always a Woman.” But Elizabeth, who had studied business, was also instrumental in helping Joel make the right business decisions in his music career on the road to stardom, and she became his manager. The pair divorced in 1984, according to Bordowitz.
