Joel’s first earnest movements came in 1967 when he and his school friend John Small played in a local psych-rock group, the Hassles. In 1969, after a couple of unsuccessful albums, Joel and Small left the Hassles to form a duo with a revised sound, naming themselves Atilla. (Farout Mag)
At the turn of the decade, heavier rock and metal groups like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple took the baton from The Beatles. Inspired by the ever-mutating beast of rock ‘n’ roll, Joel traded in his classical piano for a Hammond B-3 organ and joined drummer Small for some heavy metal composition.
The duo’s first hurdle was coordinating their equipment to create the distorted metal sound on a tight budget. Without an electric guitar handy, they decided to plug Joel’s organ into a Marshall amp with the distortion and overdrive turned up to eleven.
The pair played a handful of early gigs at clubs around New York City, with Joel’s vocals barely decipherable above the thunderous roar of his organ. “End of the sixties, I was in a two-man group. We were heavy metal; we were going to destroy the world with amplification.”
“We had titles like ‘Godzilla’, ‘March of the Huns’, ‘Brain Invasion’. A lot of people think that I just came out of the piano bar… I did a lot of heavy metal for a while. We had about a dozen gigs, and nobody could stay in the room when we were playing. It was too loud. We drove people literally out of clubs". They would say ] ‘It was great, but we can’t stay in the club.'”
Atilla managed to secure a deal with Epic Records and set about recording material for their first and only album, Attila. It was a commercial and critical disaster.
Attila finally disbanded after Joel began an affair with Small’s wife, Elizabeth Weber Small, whom he eventually married. Joel embarked on his now legendary solo career in 1971 with his debut LP, Cold Spring Harbor. However, it wasn’t until 1973’s follow-up, Piano Man, that Joel would finally break through to global recognition.
Billy still loves hard rock, in fact, he plays it whenever he can: Billy Performed Led Zeppelin With Jason Bonham in “Whole Lotta Love” and “Good Times Bad Times”.
On May 23rd, 2019 in Philadelphia, music icon Billy Joel performed the Led Zeppelin classics "Whole Lotta Love" and "Good Times Bad Times" with Jason Bonham - the son of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham - behind the kit during his show at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. Joel's guitarist Mike DelGuidice handled the vocals on "Whole Lotta Love", which feature a drum solo, and Joel sang "Good Times Bad Times".
With the son of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham at the drum kit, Billy Joel and his band first launched into “Whole Lotta Love,” featuring vocals by Joel’s guitarist Mike DelGuidice and a lengthy drum solo by Bonham. Joel then handled lead on “Good Times Bad Times.”
Joel has frequently performed entire or portions of Led Zeppelin songs during his concerts; the band’s “Rock and Roll” is routinely teased during his concert’s steady encore “You May Be Right.”
Perhaps in response to Joel’s recent Rolling Stone interview where he badmouthed his own song “Captain Jack” – “He didn’t age well. Captain Jack’s been demoted to Private Jack,” he said – Joel also (reluctantly?) performed that 1973 hit for the first time in two years.The song has become a staple of Joel’s concerts in Philadelphia, having played it at four straight shows in the City of Brotherly Love. “When I’m doing the song, I feel kinda dreary and I don’t like doing the song anymore, although we’ll probably do it again,” Joel told Rolling Stone earlier this month. (Rolling Stone)
