Billy Joel Blasts Unauthorized Biopic as ‘Legally Misguided’

Billy Joel has a message for the people making a movie about his life without his permission: don’t.

A biopic titled Billy & Me is officially in development, with director John Ottman — the Oscar-winning editor behind Bohemian Rhapsody and the recently released Michael Jackson film Michael — attached to helm the project. But the Piano Man himself has been actively pushing back on the film for years, and his team isn’t mincing words.

“Since 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project,” spokesperson Claire Mercuri said in a statement. “Billy Joel has not authorized or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided.”

That’s about as clear as it gets. And yet, the film is pressing forward anyway.

What the Film Is Actually About

Rather than a full cradle-to-grave portrait of one of rock’s most enduring figures, Billy & Me is framed as an origin story — specifically, the story of a young Billy Joel before the world knew his name. The film is told through the eyes of Irwin Mazur, the Long Island manager who discovered Joel in 1966, signed him in 1970, and helped him land a deal with Columbia Records in 1972. All of this takes place before the 1973 release of “Piano Man,” the song that changed everything.

Screenwriter and producer Adam Ripp pushed back on the idea that the project is trampling on Joel’s legacy. “Billy & Me is specifically not a traditional cradle-to-grave Billy Joel biopic, nor is it dependent on Billy Joel’s original music catalog,” Ripp said. “The film takes place during Billy’s formative years — before the fame, before the fortune, and before the iconic songs that made him ‘The Piano Man.’ Much of the period depicted centers around Billy’s early years performing cover songs with The Hassles and struggling to find his artistic identity as a young musician.”

“At no point have we ever claimed to control or possess rights to Billy Joel’s original songs, nor has this film ever been conceived around the use of his hit catalog,” Ripp continued. “The project was always designed as an intimate origin story focused on the people and relationships surrounding Billy during this specific period of his life.”

Ottman, for his part, sounds genuinely invested in the material. “I’m really proud of the development work Adam Ripp and I did to shape Billy & Me into both a deeply emotional and fun story,” he said. “Sure, the long hair, cigarette smoke and authentic look of the period turns me on as a filmmaker, but what truly drew me to the material was the humanity at its core. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately very inspiring.”

The Friend Who Said Yes When Billy Said No

The most complicated piece of this whole situation is Jon Small. Small and Joel go back to their teenage years — they played together in the psychedelic rock bands The Hassles and Attila, a two-piece outfit that produced one of the more bizarre artifacts in Joel’s catalog. Their friendship survived a famously messy personal entanglement (Small’s then-wife Elizabeth Weber left him and eventually married Joel), and decades later, Small is still in Joel’s corner — just apparently not on this particular issue.

Small has signed on as a consultant, co-executive producer, and second unit director on Billy & Me, and he’s enthusiastic about it. “This is the most honest, heartfelt, and authentic portrayal of Billy’s early life and rise to becoming one of the greatest musical voices of our time,” he said. “Billy & Me is grounded in truth, shaped with care, and built with the insight of people who genuinely know and love Billy. Too often, stories about artists get lost in exaggeration or mythmaking. Billy & Me reflects the real history with integrity and respect.”

“I first met Billy when he was 16 years old,” Small added. “After reading the script, I felt the filmmakers truly understood who he was before the world knew his name.”

Ripp noted that Small “personally consulted on the screenplay” and is “actively involved in the production” — positioning him as the film’s authenticity anchor, even as Joel himself remains firmly opposed.

An Oscar Winner With Something to Prove as a Director

Ottman’s name carries real weight in the biopic space. His editing work on Bohemian Rhapsody earned him the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and Michael — the Jackson biopic he edited earlier this year — pulled in roughly $700 million at the global box office, reigniting Hollywood’s appetite for musician origin stories in a major way. The success of that film is almost certainly part of what’s driving the momentum behind Billy & Me right now.

As a director, though, Ottman is less proven — his feature credits include Urban Legend: Final Cut back in 2000. Billy & Me would be a significant step up in profile.

Casting hasn’t been announced yet, and the film doesn’t have a distributor attached. Production is scheduled to kick off this fall in New York and Winnipeg.

The timing adds another layer of context. Joel was the subject of the two-part HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes — directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin — which dropped last year with his full participation and cooperation. That film gave fans an expansive, authorized look at his life and career. The fact that an unauthorized version is now racing toward cameras, with people from his own inner circle attached, is the kind of Hollywood drama that practically writes itself.

Whether the legal threats in Joel’s statement translate into actual action remains to be seen — but the Piano Man has made his position crystal clear. He’s not playing along.