Jon Small, Drummer in Billy Joel’s First Bands, Dies

Jon Small, who drummed in Billy Joel’s earliest bands before shifting to a directing career behind some of the most visible music videos of the 1980s and ’90s, has died. Joel announced the news on social media. Small died Friday, according to a death announcement circulating online. A funeral is scheduled for September 9 in Great Neck, New York. No cause of death has been listed.

Small and Joel met as teenagers in New York City and first played together in the psych rock and soul group the Hassles, which released two albums for United Artists in the late 1960s. Joel, the band’s primary songwriter, took over lead vocals on the second LP, 1969’s Hour of the Wolf. The two then left to form the duo Attila, whose sole self-titled album came out on Epic in 1970.

Their friendship fractured when Joel began a relationship with Small’s wife, Elizabeth Weber. The situation has been discussed at length in the HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes. Joel has said the guilt drove him to attempt suicide; Small drove him to the hospital. The episode became the basis for the song “Tomorrow Is Today” on Joel’s 1971 solo debut, Cold Spring Harbor.

Small later found his footing as a filmmaker. He directed Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way” video, several Garth Brooks clips including “Standing Outside the Fire,” and multiple Billy Joel videos such as “Tell Her About It” and “Baby Grand.” His later work focused on concert films, with projects for Brooks, Reba McEntire, Van Morrison, and others.