Jon Small, an early band mate of Billy Joel and later a collaborator on several of Joel’s concert films, has died. Joel disclosed the news with a brief tribute on social media, but Small’s age and cause of death were not known at press time.
The announcement lands with the weight of a relationship that stretched from the Sixties through decades of music, rupture and repair. Small and Joel played together in the Hassles before forming the hard rock duo Attila, and Small later worked on Joel’s concert films Live From Long Island and Live at Shea Stadium, along with the Baby Grand video.
For readers searching Small’s name today, the reason is not just the death itself but the long trail that led there. Joel and Small were more than band mates. They were close friends, and the story became messier when Joel, while living with Small and Elizabeth Weber, fell in love with Weber. Small later said that was devastating because Joel and Weber were basically his two best friends.
The fallout broke up Attila, ended the friendship for a time and led to Joel being evicted from Small’s house. Joel and Weber later married in 1973, and their marriage lasted until 1982. Yet the relationship did not end there. Small and Joel eventually reconciled, and Small said later that he forgave him.
What remains unanswered is the most basic detail of the loss Joel chose to share: when Small died and what caused it. For now, the public record is the tribute itself, and the sense that one of the quieter figures in Joel’s musical history is gone before that history can be fully closed.
