'That Really Hurt Me': Music Legend Admits Past 'Bad Blood' With Elton John

Billy Joel on stage in 2018Singer-songwriter Billy Joel has opened up about his past falling out with fellow music legend Sir Elton John.In the new documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, the Piano Man singer admitted that there was “bad blood” between himself and Sir Elton after an interview the latter gave to Rolling Stone in 2011, opening up about how past joint tours of theirs had to be cancelled due to “illnesses and various other things” including the former’s “alcoholism”.“He’s going to hate me for this, but every time [Billy has] gone to rehab, they’ve been ‘rehab light’,” he claimed. “When I went to rehab, I had to clean the floors. He goes to rehab where they have TVs.“I love you, Billy, and this is tough love. Billy, you have your demons, and you’re not going to get rid of them at ‘rehab light’. You’ve got to be serious. People adore you, they love you and respect you. You should be able to do something better than what you’re doing now.”Sir Elton John on stage on the opening night of his Broadway musical Tammy Faye last yearReflecting on Sir Elton’s remarks more than a decade on, Billy claimed (as reported by People magazine): “Elton had made a comment that he thought I needed ‘real’ rehab. He chalked it up to, ‘Oh, he’s a drunk.’ And that really hurt me.”“I said, ‘wait a minute – don’t you know me better than that?’. And there was bad blood for a little while. There was a dovetailing of things that happened during that time.”Billy added that he felt “clobbered” by Sir Elton’s remarks, which he said served as a “rock bottom” moment for him.Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 2023, the American singer claimed he’d stopped drinking “a couple of years ago”.“It wasn’t a big AA kick,” he explained. “I just got to a point where I’d had enough. I didn’t enjoy being completely inebriated, and it probably created more problems in my life than I needed.”Sir Elton John and Billy Joel on stage together in 2009However, Billy isn’t the only prolific musician to have had a falling out with Sir Elton either privately or publicly.In recent years, he and his one-time friend Sir Rod Stewart have both spoken about a rift between them, which came about when the Maggie May singer claimed that Sir Elton’s then-upcoming farewell tour was “not rock and roll” and “stank of selling tickets”.More recently, Sir Elton and Madonna have publicly buried the hatchet and are even rumoured to be working on music together, after years of swapping jibes in the press.READ MORE:Elton John Gets Candid About Studio 'Outbursts' Making New Album: 'I Was A Nightmare'Madonna Reveals She And Elton John Have 'Buried The Hatchet' After Decades-Long Feud'Awkward': Ed Sheeran Reveals How Elton John Is Still Getting His Name Wrong After 15 Years

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