Billy Joel spoke out against an in-the-works biopic from director John Ottman on Tuesday, saying that the life and music rights needed for the film have been denied for years and to move forward with it would be “both legally and professionally misguided.”
“Since 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project,” a spokesperson for Joel said in a statement to TheWrap. “Billy Joel has not authorized or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided.”
The project, titled “Billy and Me,” is currently casting and said to be from the perspective of his first manager Irwin Mazur. It involves creative contributions from Joel’s former bandmate and friend Jon Small, with whom the Grammy winner had a notorious rift after Small’s wife, Elizabeth Weber, left him for Joel and later inspired such classic songs as “She’s Got a Way” and “Just the Way You Are.”
The film, reportedly preparing to film between Canada and New York this fall, has Small attached as a co-executive producer, consultant and second unit director. It is intended to depict Joel’s career pre-fame and “Piano Man” while working with Small and Mazur.
“Billy and Me” comes in the footsteps of 2025’s life-spanning HBO documentary from directors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” which heavily featured Joel’s involvement.
Ottman was most recently lead editor on the Michael Jackson biopic, titled “Michael,” from filmmaker Antoine Fuqua and Lionsgate.
Variety first reported the news of “Billy and Me.”
