Jon Small, who performed drums in Billy Joel’s early bands the Hassles and Atilla and later grew to become an achieved director of music movies and live performance movies, has died. Joel introduced his passing in a social media submit at present, and a dying announcement circulating on social media notes he died Friday. His funeral can be held on Sept. 9 in Nice Neck, New York. No reason behind dying has been listed.
Getting their begin as youngsters in New York Metropolis, Small and Joel have been finest mates who first teamed up within the Nineteen Sixties as members of the psych rock and soul band the Hassles. The group launched two albums for United Artists within the late ’60s, with Joel, the first songwriter, taking up lead vocals from authentic singer John Dizek on the second LP, 1969’s Hour Of The Wolf. Joel and Small then left the Hassles to type the onerous rock duo Attila, whose lone self-titled album got here out on Epic in 1970.
Attila dissolved the next yr when Joel started relationship Small’s spouse, Elizabeth Weber, a topic that every one events mentioned at size within the HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes. Joel felt such guilt over betraying Small that he tried suicide by consuming furnishings polish, however Small rescued him by driving him to the hospital. The saga grew to become the idea for “Tomorrow Is At this time” from Joel’s 1971 solo debut album Chilly Spring Harbor.
Small grew to become a filmmaker specializing in music movies and live performance movies. He directed Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s well-known “Stroll This Approach” video, a number of Garth Brooks movies resembling “The Pink Strokes” and “Standing Outdoors The Fireplace,” clips for Anita Baker and Luther Vandross, and several other Billy Joel movies, amongst them “Inform Her About It” and the Ray Charles duet “Child Grand.” Small started to deal with live performance movies later in his profession, helming initiatives for nation stars like Brooks, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, and Rascal Flatts, in addition to work with Van Morrison and a number of Billy Joel live performance motion pictures.
