Billy Joel Rejects New Biopic About His Early Years, Warns Project Lacks His Approval
A newly announced film about Billy Joel’s early life is already facing public resistance from the artist himself.
Shortly after news broke that a biopic titled Billy & Me was moving into development, Joel’s team issued a blunt statement making clear the singer has no connection to the project and does not support it. More significantly, his representatives suggested the filmmakers are attempting to move forward despite lacking the rights typically considered essential for a music biopic of this scale.
According to Joel’s spokesperson, the parties behind the film have been aware since 2021 that they do not control his life rights and would not have access to the music rights required to properly tell his story. The unusually forceful response immediately casts uncertainty over how the project plans to proceed and what version of Billy Joel’s life can realistically be portrayed without the participation of the man at its center.
The film, which is being developed under the title Billy & Me, is expected to focus on Joel’s early years before his commercial breakthrough in the 1970s, tracing the personal and professional experiences that shaped his rise into one of America’s most successful singer-songwriters.
But rather than telling that story through Joel’s own perspective, the project is being built around the experiences of the people who knew him during that period.
At the center of the narrative is Irwin Mazur, Joel’s first manager, who discovered him in the 1960s and later helped guide his early career, including the period leading up to his signing with Columbia Records in 1972. The production has reportedly secured Mazur’s life rights, giving filmmakers a legal foundation to tell the story through his personal recollections rather than through Joel himself.
That approach is not uncommon in unauthorized biographical filmmaking, particularly when direct access to the central figure is unavailable. Legally, films can often proceed by relying on the firsthand accounts of people adjacent to the subject, rather than requiring blanket authorization from the person being portrayed. Creatively, however, that can present obvious limitations.
Without access to Joel’s music catalog, the project would face one of its biggest obstacles. A Billy Joel biopic without Billy Joel’s songs would fundamentally alter audience expectations, especially given how central his music is to his public identity. Whether the production expects to secure rights later or intends to navigate around that issue remains unclear.
The project has also brought in Jon Small, one of Joel’s longtime collaborators and former bandmates, who is attached as a consultant, co-executive producer, and second unit director. Small has publicly defended the film, describing it as a faithful and carefully developed portrayal of Joel’s early life rather than an exploitative dramatization.
Unlike many music biopics that launch with artist participation as a selling point, Billy & Me now enters development under a cloud of opposition from its central subject. Joel’s team did not merely distance him from the production; they directly suggested that moving forward without authorization would be professionally irresponsible.
The film is being directed by John Ottman, whose recent high-profile work includes editing the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael. Screenwriter Adam Ripp is attached to write the script, with production expected to begin in the fall of 2026 across New York and Canada.
Music biopics remain one of the most commercially attractive genres in Hollywood, particularly as audiences continue responding to artist-driven films that combine nostalgia, recognizable catalogs, and behind-the-scenes mythology. But Billy & Me now faces a very different challenge: convincing audiences it can tell an authentic Billy Joel story while the artist himself is actively rejecting its legitimacy.
