Billy Joel's Heavy Metal Phase

It’s easy to assume that “The Piano Man” was the beginning of Billy Joel’s career as recording artist.  After all, that was the song that put him on the map for most music fans when it came out.

But long before any of us had even heard his name, the pianist and singer devoted himself for a time to a most unexpected genre of music:  heavy metal.

It was the era of Iron Butterfly, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin.  And according to a 2019 People magazine interview, Billy and a drummer formed a duo that they intended to make even heavier.  “They hooked Joel’s electric organ to a massive guitar amplifier cabinets to create a terrifyingly huge shriek.”

“We were going to destroy the world with amplification,” Joel told interviewer Dan Neer in 1985.  “We had titles like ‘Godzilla,’ ‘March of the Huns,’ ‘Brain Invasion.’  A lot of people think [I] just came out of the piano bar.  I did a lot of heavy metal for a while.”

Apparently someone in the music industry thought they were onto something.  The two-piece got a $50,000 advance from Epic Records.  And for their debut album, they chose a name for the band that was suitably aggressive:  Attila.

Billy later explained, “If you’re going to assault the rock world and crush it under ten Marshall amps, wouldn’t Attila the Hun, who plundered Italy and Gaul and slaughtered quite a few innocents along the way, work as a role model?  I was 19, and at that age, if you’re loving your heavy metal, it’s all about thrash, kill, metal, slash, burn, pillage, repeat.”

Which certainly explains the cover photo for the LP:  Billy and his drummer, Jon Small, decked out in barbarian attire standing in a meat locker surrounded by slabs of beef.

“We were so loud,” Billy told NPR in 2012, “you could see blood coming out of people’s ears.  It was just horrible.  Thank God it didn’t happen because I would’ve screamed myself right out of the business.”

The record was extreme on a variety of levels so you’ll excuse us for not covering any of its songs in our upcoming tribute.  But the album is worth mentioning because it did mark a turning point in Billy’s career.

After the demise of Attila (hastened no doubt by the fact that Billy ran off with his drummer’s wife), the singer realized that he didn’t actually want to be a rock star.

“I got that out of my system.  I was about 19 or 20.  I want to write songs now.”