Was Billy Joel ever arrested? What we know as Singer denies DUI rumors in documentary

Billy Joel is clearing the air about long-standing rumors that he's had multiple DUIs over the years.

The Piano Man, as he is also known, opened up about the rumors during the second part of his HBO documentary, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” which dropped just recently. In it, the crooner, now 76 years old, admits:

“You know, along with fame comes a lot of gossip, rumors. I didn’t like the tabloid kind of press. For example, there’s this rumor that I have all these DUIs. That never happened, but people keep repeating the myth: ‘Oh, he’s got so many DUIs.”” “I never had a DUI,” he added, “so f–k you. The press can be mean. So having that much attention paid to you is not easy.”

As reported by NBC News, while the singer was never arrested in connection with a DUI, he has had brushes with the law. Back in July 1992, he was arrested for protesting fishing regulations as he caught a striped bass, which was illegal. However, the charges were later tossed. It was this event that inspired him to write the song “The Downeaster ‘Alexa.’”

Billy Joel opens up about his stint in rehab, rumors that he had several DUIs, and more:

Billy Joel, a five-time Grammy-winning musician, was first accused of driving whilst inebriated back in June 2002. At the time, he crashed his Mercedes-Benz in East Hampton, New York. In January of the following year, his Mercedes swerved off the road and collided with a tree in Sag Harbor.

He was airlifted to a hospital, where he was treated. However, he was never arrested for the same. By April 2004, he'd gotten into yet another accident when he crashed into someone's house in Long Island, the New York Post has reported.

The rumors only ever intensified in 2004, when a sketch on SNL showed Horatio Sanz portraying a drunk Billy Joel, sipping on a bottle of pineapple schnapps and colliding into walls and mailboxes as he drove some girls to a party. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, rumors that he had been forced into rehab also began floating this time around, which he later confirmed.

Nonetheless, he has consistently maintained that he has never been charged with being drunk behind the wheel. Speaking with The New York Times Magazine in 2013, Billy Joel said:

"I had gone through a breakup and was really broken up about it, and I decided, 'I'm drinking too much. I should go to rehab. But people made a connection, like, 'Oh, he went there because he was in a car accident from drinking.' No." He added, "I never had a DUI in my life. That's another fallacy. Look at the police records."

He added,

"My mind wasn’t right. I wasn’t focused. I went into a deep, deep depression after 9/11. 9/11 just knocked the wind out of me, and I don’t know even now if I’ve recovered from it. It really, really hurt that man could do that to man. And then there was a breakup with somebody, and it took me a while to get me back on my feet again."

Billy Joel, who announced that he has been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), which is a brain disorder, also spoke to People Magazine earlier this week about his struggles with depression, substance abuse, and his journey of sobriety.

"Some of the stupid stuff I did, that’s painful to talk about," he told the outlet. “My goal was to get it over with,” Joel said of his initial involvement in the film. “When I do interviews, people just ask you about yourself and you get a little self-conscious about it eventually. It’s almost embarrassing. When you’re talking about your personal life detached from the material… I suppose there’s a little bit of wariness involved.”

The new film was directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, and it also features insight from those close to Billy Joel, including his sister, Judy, daughter Alexa Ray, 39, and friends like Steve Cohen and Dennis Arfa, a lighting designer and booking agent, respectively.

Cohen also spoke to People Magazine, noting that there's "a work ethic through line in Billy’s life."

“You make mistakes. He always said to me, ‘You show up. You do the best you can. You admit when you’re wrong and you let other people tell you how good you are. You don’t tell yourself how good you are,'" Cohen recalled. "I hope fans walk away realizing how f---ing human he is, and I hope they come back listening to these songs again with a deeper affection," Cohen added. "I hope that you walk away from this thing going, ‘I now justify my fandom. I know why this guy is as good and why I respond to it, because that’s the kind of guy I can relate to his life. I can relate to those emotions.'"

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