The best revelations from the Billy Joel: And So It Goes documentary premiere at Tribeca Film Festival

It was a Billy Joel state of mind at the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival.The world premiere of the Piano Man’s documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes” kicked off the 24th edition of the festival at the Beacon Theatre on Wednesday night.Although the 76-year-old music legend was absent from his big night after revealing his shocking brain disorder diagnosis two weeks ago, Joel’s presence was still very much felt as the audience watched the first half of the two-part doc that will premiere on HBO and HBO Max later this summer.Here, we break down some of the biggest revelations of Part 1:While we always think of Joel as the ultimate piano balladeer, he actually wanted to get his Led Zeppelin on with an early band.The young Piano Man broke away from his early band The Hassles with Jon Small to form the heavy-metal duo Attila (as in Attila the Hun) in 1969 that set out to “destroy the world with amplification.”“I didn’t know one person that liked what we were doing,” says Joel, who can be seen as the hair apparent to Robert Plant in the doc.“But I did.”The Piano Man fell in love with Elizabeth Weber, who was Small’s wife at the time.

“I was just in love with a woman,” he says.“And I got punched in the nose, which I deserved.”But Small took the high road after Weber inspired Joel’s 1971 debut, “Cold Spring Harbor.”“You could tell from the lyrics that he was really in love with Elizabeth,” Small says of songs such as “She’s Got a Way.”“I was just in a lot of pain ..

so I just thought I’d end it all,” he says of trying to take his own life by overdosing on sleeping pills.But after surviving the attempt, he cracked “You can’t even do yourself in,” while revealing the compassion he was shown by his betrayed best friend through the ordeal: “Jon saved my life.”After he moved cross-country to Los Angeles with Weber to make more music, Joel became the resident lounge lizard at the Executive Room in LA.B...