Why Billy Joel Had ‘Issues’ Being Compared to Elton John and Thought Working with His Band Was ‘a Terrible Idea’

Billy Joel wasn’t always a fan of another piano man.

In the 2025 documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, which premiered at Tribeca Festival on June 4, the “Piano Man” singer talks about the “Rocket Man” crooner, Elton John. Joel, 76, didn’t like being compared to his piano-playing contemporary.

After Joel’s 1974 album Streetlife Serenade came out, Joel needed a manager, so his first wife and business manager, Elizabeth Weber, asked Columbia Records who their favorite managers were. One of the names they gave was Caribou Management, which included James Guercio.

Guercio, 79, had worked with bands like Chicago and the Beach Boys. He had a vision for Joel to work with Elton’s band, which “which I thought was a terrible idea,” Joel said.

“Why would I want to work with the other well-known piano player’s band?” the five-time Grammy winner said. “The lack of imagination was staggering and I was already having critical issues with people comparing me to Elton.”

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Joel said that he and the “Rocket Man” singer played piano in very different ways. “Elton’s style is very rhythmic,” while Joel considered his technique “five fingered” and with “more movement stuff.”

“It took a while for people to get away from using the Elton John comparison,” Joel said in older footage. “I think it’s pretty much died down at this point — I hope so!”

Joel gave John’s band a chance to work together in the studio, but it ultimately wasn’t the right match. “They were good musicians, but they didn’t get it. It sounded like Elton and I said, ‘I don’t want to sound like Elton, I want to sound like me.’ I left. I said this isn’t gonna work,” Joel said in the documentary.

“I want to make my own sound and Jimmy Guercio is not going to be the producer. I wanted to put together a group of New York musicians who had New York experiences because that’s what I had.”

Joel would go on to record Turnstiles in 1976 with his own band and produce the album himself.

Almost 20 years later. Joel and John, 78, went on tour in tandem several times from 1994 until 2010, calling it “Face to Face.”

Per Tribeca Festival’s website, Billy Joel: And So It Goes “pulls back the curtain on Joel’s private world with unreleased performances, intimate home movies, and behind-the-scenes moments that have remained locked away until now.”