Billy Joel Dishes on ‘Bad Blood’ With Elton John, Reveals British Singer’s Remarks ‘Really Hurt’ Him

Billy Joel is singing that his battle with the bottle poured “bad blood” on his friendship with former tour partner Elton John.

In Billy Joel: And So It Goes — a no-holds-barred documentary about the hitmaker’s life now airing on HBO Max — the “Piano Man”, 76, recalls how Elton, 78, blasted him in a 2011 Rolling Stone interview for canceling shows on their Face 2 Face tours nearly a decade earlier because of “alcoholism.”

Recovering addict Elton also griped that Billy went to cushy “rehab light” — rather than seriously dealing with his “demons” — and was “coasting” on his old hits.

“That really hurt me,” Billy confided in the two-part docuseries, which was first available in full on July 25. “I said, ‘Wait a minute? Don’t you know me better than that?’ And there was bad blood for a little while.”

Billy, who told the Los Angeles Times in 2023 that he put a cork in his alcohol habit “a couple years ago” after getting fed up with being “completely inebriated,” has patched things up with Elton, but the two haven’t toured together since the “Rocket Man” rocker’s caustic comments.

Since then, the “Movin’ Out” singer has suffered a string of health issues, even falling on stage earlier this year.

In May, Billy was forced to abruptly cancel upcoming concert dates and announced he’d been diagnosed with the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Sources say the illness occurs when cerebrospinal fluid builds up inside the skull and presses on the brain, disrupting cognitive functioning.

In the documentary, Billy looks considerably thinner, but shows signs of the irrepressible energy that saw him set an unlikely to ever be broken 150 sellouts at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

The “Honesty” singer insists he “feels good” in the HBO Max show and told People that he has “no plans to retire.”

“It was scary, but I’m OK,” he told People of his medical issue. “I just wanted to let people know. Don’t worry about me being deathly ill or anything.”

A source says, “He is happiest while performing. Music is, has been and will always be his life.”