Jon Small, Billy Joel’s Early Bandmate, Has Died

Jon Small, the drummer who shared Billy Joel’s earliest recording years before building a long career behind the camera, has died. Joel announced the loss in a social media tribute on September 7. Small’s age and cause of death had not been publicly confirmed when the news was reported.

Small’s place in Joel’s story began long before Piano Man made the singer a star. The two were teenage friends in New York and played together in the Hassles, a psychedelic rock and soul group that released two albums for United Artists in the late 1960s.

From the Hassles to Attila

Joel and Small later left the band to form Attila, a hard-rock duo built around organ and drums. The project released a self-titled album in 1970, giving both musicians an unusual entry in their discographies before Joel began his solo career.

Their friendship went through a painful rupture after Joel fell in love with Small’s then-wife, Elizabeth Weber. Small and Joel discussed that period openly in the documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes. They eventually reconciled, allowing their creative relationship to continue in a different form.

A major career behind the camera

Small became an accomplished director of music videos and concert films. His credits included Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s landmark “Walk This Way” video, along with work for Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Enrique Iglesias and Brooks & Dunn.

He also returned repeatedly to Joel’s music, directing the “Baby Grand” video and concert projects including Live From Long Island and Live at Shea Stadium. That later work made their reconciliation more than a private footnote: it became part of the visual record of Joel’s career.

Small’s death closes a connection that stretched from teenage garage-band ambition to arena-scale productions. The available reports did not establish an age or medical cause, and those details should not be inferred. What is clear is the range of his contribution—as a drummer in Joel’s formative groups and as a filmmaker whose work helped define the look of music television and large concert releases for decades.