The finished book still traces DeVitto’s whole life, focusing heavily on his three-decade run with Billy Joel, but nearly any hint of anger about the circumstances of his departure is absent. And when he was nearly done writing it, he reached out to Joel via email, and the two old friends agreed to meet up for breakfast and finally make peace.
When that happened, like thousands of other guys around the country, we started a band. We started playing high school dances, and people would come up to me at school the next day and go, “Hey, you were the kid that played the drums.” The drums gave me an identity. I became somebody. I became the drummer in the school.
Yeah. Eighteen years old. I graduated high school in June, and by November I was on the road with Mitch. What’s funny is that I was always into music like Aretha Franklin and Sam and Dave, that kind of stuff. My mother really appreciated that music too. When I first heard that I was going to audition for the Billy Joel band, I was practicing to some of his songs and my mother came downstairs. With a puzzled look on her face she said, “You’re going to play withThe first album you played on wasI don’t think they wanted Billy to produce it.
The music scene really shifted in the early Eighties with MTV and all these New Wave bands and pop acts. Did you worry that Billy’s music might start seeming passé? That was a tough one for Billy in terms of writing songs. We actually went into a house out on the east end of Long Island. He had a bunch of songs, and Phil Ramone would come out along with the band. That is when he changed the band. The songs that he wrote went in the trash can. I think he was having a hard time adjusting, and he started to get discouraged with the music business. It was a very difficult time.
Liberty is taking the high road. Billy Joel is still an asshole. He heard a rumour and didn't ask Liberty about it, just cut him off?
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