Billy Joel Opens Up About His Marriage to Christie Brinkley in Rare Comments
"It was like being a teenager all over again," said the "Piano Man" singer.
Decades after their divorce, Billy Joel is opening up about his marriage to Christie Brinkley. In the second part of his HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, out today, the former couple reminisces on falling in—and out—of love.
After meeting in St. Bart's in 1983, they went on their first "real date" to a Beach Boys concert back in New York City.
"Here I am dating this beautiful supermodel and...me? I’m from Hicksville. What am I doing with her? What’s she doing with me? But that was a very productive time for me," Joel says in the film. "I wrote a lot of songs for her. She was a muse."
"It was like being a teenager all over again," he added. "Experiencing those same emotions that I had when I was first discovering romance and love."
Brinkley described the early days of her and Joel's "whirlwind romance" as "so much fun."
In the documentary, the former Sports Illustrated cover girl explained the significance of Joel's 1989 track "I Go to Extremes," which she said reflected their relationship troubles.
Joel, Brinkley said, was "boomeranging between being a family man and tortured artist" whose life was "unraveling" because of the drinking habits he tried to keep secret.
"I was in a relationship with someone who I cared deeply about. But I was not able to be at home. I was not able to be with my family. It was a very sad time for me," Joel shared. "I realized love is not concrete. You feel like it is, but there are things eating away at it. And in the end, it all catches up. It’s hard. I was so devastated."
Brinkley also elaborated on one of her final fights with Joel, in which she threatened to leave with their daughter due to his drinking.
"He said, 'Yeah, fine, go.' I tried. I wanted it to work," she said. "I knew how lucky I was, having music and all of that. But it just didn't work."
Brinkley and Joel divorced in 1994, but they remained co-parents and are now close friends: Joel is the Godfather of the supermodel's two younger children, Jack and Sailor Brinkley Cook.
