Jon Small, Billy Joel’s Early Bandmate and Music Video Director, Dies at 79

On September 9, 2026, the music world received the sad news that Jon Small – drummer, video director and one of Billy Joel’s first musical confidants – had died at the age of 79, a victim of cancer.

Small’s story with Joel stretches back to the noisy clubs of Long Island in the late‑1960s, where the two first jammed together in a garage‑rock outfit called The Hassles. The band, which put out two modest albums, would later earn a spot in the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2025, a testament to its lasting local impact.

After The Hassles dissolved, Small and Joel tried something a little harder‑edged. They formed Attila, a two‑man hard‑rock project that released a self‑titled album in 1970. That partnership, however, hit a painful snag when Joel fell in love with Small’s wife, Elizabeth Weber, while living under the same roof. The tangled romance broke the duo’s bond and even led to a brief, bruising altercation that Joel later recounted in the documentary “And So It Goes.”

“I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I was a home‑wrecker,” Joel said in the film. Small, too, reflected on the betrayal, noting how it felt like losing two best friends at once.

Time, however, has a way of softening even the sharpest edges. Years later, Small said he began to understand the depth of Joel’s remorse. “He never really said anything to me… He loved me that much and it killed him to hurt me that much. Eventually I forgave him,” he explained. The two eventually patched things up, and Small moved from behind the drum kit to behind the camera.

As a director, Small left a surprisingly prolific mark. He shot Joel’s concert films “Live From Long Island” and “Live at Shea Stadium,” and even directed the music video for the piano‑driven ballad “Baby Grand.” Beyond Joel, his résumé reads like a who’s‑who of 1990s music: videos for Reba McEntire, Enrique Iglesias, Brooks & Dunn, The Highwaymen, Garth Brooks, and the legendary Run‑DMC/Aerosmith mash‑up “Walk This Way.”

Small’s passing arrives as “And So It Goes” revisits Joel’s early years, reminding fans of the wild ride from garage bands to stadium‑filling hits. Joel, whose catalog boasts 43 Billboard Hot 100 entries—including three No. 1 singles—paid tribute on social media, honoring his old friend for the music, the memories, and the forgiveness that stitched their friendship back together.

Surviving Small is his wife of more than four decades, Jeanine, along with a son and a daughter. Though the world has lost a talented musician and visual storyteller, the echoes of his drumming and his lenses continue to play on in the archives of rock history.