July 24, 2025 • 7 mins
Steve Cohen joins Mendte in the Morning to talk about the new documentary about Billy Joel’s life and some of the stories that are told in that film.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't think anybody dislikes Billy Joe. I think everybody
knows a Billy Joel's song that is important in their
lives and loves it. Most people can name almost every
one of his hit songs. I would put him up
there with Paul McCartney as the most loved, the most
(00:23):
loved singer songwriters in the country. Yeah, very very American,
very very much a part of our history. And when
you hear his story, you understand that this was completely
unlikely that his talent guided him to this. He had
so many falls, so many tragedies in his life to
(00:46):
get where he is as one of the most loved
singers in the country, with an album bigger than an album,
album's full of huge hits. And that's why he is
so fascinating. And right now there is a docu series
on HBO. Max Steve Cohen is Billy Joel's longtime creative director,
(01:11):
trusted collaborator, and most importantly, he is an unconditional friend.
He has been a close friend of Billy Joel for
fifty years. So there's nobody better to be the executive
producer of his latest documentary film, Billy Joel, And so
it goes now. This premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
(01:31):
on June fourth. It airs right now. Part one dropped
on July eighteenth, so you can watch that right now
on HBO Max and then tomorrow night is part two,
and we talked to Steve Cohen about the project. See
by the way, First of all, congratulations on the projects.
(01:52):
It's for Billy Joel fans like myself and that, you know,
saying you're a fan of Billy Joel's like saying you're
a fan of air. Everybody is. But to see what
made him and who he is and the man that
he is is important to all of us. That being said,
I think everybody is concerned about how he's doing right now.
Could you fill us in on his health.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, he's doing good. He's home and doing you know,
what he needs to do to treat this condition, and
he's you know, super positive. He's with his kids, and
I get to see him quite regularly because we live
(02:35):
a few minutes from each other in Florida. And Yeah,
he's doing really good. I'm doing really really good.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's wonderful to hear. It is interesting when you know
somebody so well. And then you were the executive producer
of telling their story and showing their life, and especially
because so much of this is very personal, were there
any things during the process where Billy said to you, no, no, no,
(03:01):
we can't do that, we can't show this.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, He basically said, when he decided to do this,
you know, there was a lot of reluctance to do
a documentary over the years because, in his words, you know,
my life is in my songs. You don't need me
to talk about it. I don't need to tell you
the story. And I think what changed his mind was
a combination of, you know, the timing where he was
in his life, the filmmaker Susan Lacey and Jessica Levin,
(03:30):
and the way Susan has portrayed artists lives in documentary
filmmaking was very intriguing to him. And also the fact
that you know, we were we were winding down the
Madison Square Garden run and he felt comfortable enough to
allow someone else to tell the story. And all he
ever said to Susan was just be honest. And and
(03:54):
one of the interesting conversations after he said that was
where I pointed out to him, Look, you being honest
means we you know, on top of it, we have
nothing to say and what's eventually going to be in
that movie? And he said, I got nothing to hide,
So I think I think that's a telling statement about
who Billy is that he's never withheld this stuff on purpose.
(04:16):
He just he wanted you to make stuff up in
your mind of what these songs meant, so he didn't
tell you what to think. And I think what's interesting
about this film now is by pulling back the curtain
or lifting the hood, as I say, behind the backstories
of some of these things, it gives a new appreciation
to the lyrics and a new appreciation to the experience
(04:38):
behind those songs. And I think that's a gift. I
think he's given us another gift. So it's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool to be able to look back and
do this stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, and it's pretty cool for all of us to
be able to look behind the curtain and see him
because he is such a regular guy. He's always come
off to everybody as just a regular guy, but at
the same time, he's this genius. And first of all,
it's got to be strange for you to be around.
You're used to it now, but to realize, here's a
guy that I'm around all the time, and he's got
(05:09):
this other side to him that's a genius. But now
for us to be able to see how those two
things come together, it is great. It's very important for
his fans, and I'm sure that was very important for
you to show where this came from.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I mean, I you know, we all knew because
you know, we're with him. We watched, we watched, you know,
this kind of ordinary guy give birth to these extraordinary
pieces of art and extraordinarily emotional pieces of music. Where
does it come from? You know, we also hung out
with him when it was you know, during the difficult
(05:48):
gestation periods of all of this stuff. So you know,
to tell that story, like I said, is a gift
that that we got to ourselves and a gift that
we get to give you know, the fans. But I
think to me, the greatest part about this is that,
you know, at the end of the day, Billy always
wanted to be a history teacher. And if if you know,
(06:11):
he's able to to teach something and and make people
think about things, I think that he feels like there's
a little bit bigger layer on on what he does
because to him, he's you know, it's a golf swing.
It's like I sit down and these things come to
me and I and I create this stuff and I
work very hard at it. But but he's, uh, it's
(06:34):
sort of like he doesn't think about it too much,
you know what I mean. There's no, he doesn't. He
doesn't like to break all this stuff down because he
believes that it's very ephemeral and then it's very fragile
and if you if you try and figure it out,
it'll slip out of your hands. So all of that
being shown in this documentary is really what I think
is the essence of the storytelling very.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Few things that a good friend doesn't know about someone
and and you are the best of friends with him.
Is there something in the documentary that you saw that
you didn't know? No, that's a pretty out question. And
do we get to see where all these songs come
from in the documentary?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Oh? Yeah, I mean you get to see you get
to see their specific there's about a half dozen one
that they do that the filmmakers do a deep dive in.
But you get that, you get the essence of the
motivations behind all the music, especially the classical training and
the classical background. And you know the fact that he
writes about uh writes about his relationships with others, so
you you get you get a lot of knowledge about
(07:41):
the origin of these stories.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, thanks so much for spending time with us. I
really appreciated. Steve Cohen, executive producer his latest documentary film,
Billy Joel and So It Goes.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Thanks a lot, Steve, Thanks a lot.
I don't think anybody dislikes Billy Joe. I think everybody
knows a Billy Joel's song that is important in their
lives and loves it. Most people can name almost every
one of his hit songs. I would put him up
there with Paul McCartney as the most loved, the most
(00:23):
loved singer songwriters in the country. Yeah, very very American,
very very much a part of our history. And when
you hear his story, you understand that this was completely
unlikely that his talent guided him to this. He had
so many falls, so many tragedies in his life to
(00:46):
get where he is as one of the most loved
singers in the country, with an album bigger than an album,
album's full of huge hits. And that's why he is
so fascinating. And right now there is a docu series
on HBO. Max Steve Cohen is Billy Joel's longtime creative director,
(01:11):
trusted collaborator, and most importantly, he is an unconditional friend.
He has been a close friend of Billy Joel for
fifty years. So there's nobody better to be the executive
producer of his latest documentary film, Billy Joel, And so
it goes now. This premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
(01:31):
on June fourth. It airs right now. Part one dropped
on July eighteenth, so you can watch that right now
on HBO Max and then tomorrow night is part two,
and we talked to Steve Cohen about the project. See
by the way, First of all, congratulations on the projects.
(01:52):
It's for Billy Joel fans like myself and that, you know,
saying you're a fan of Billy Joel's like saying you're
a fan of air. Everybody is. But to see what
made him and who he is and the man that
he is is important to all of us. That being said,
I think everybody is concerned about how he's doing right now.
Could you fill us in on his health.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, he's doing good. He's home and doing you know,
what he needs to do to treat this condition, and
he's you know, super positive. He's with his kids, and
I get to see him quite regularly because we live
(02:35):
a few minutes from each other in Florida. And Yeah,
he's doing really good. I'm doing really really good.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's wonderful to hear. It is interesting when you know
somebody so well. And then you were the executive producer
of telling their story and showing their life, and especially
because so much of this is very personal, were there
any things during the process where Billy said to you, no, no, no,
(03:01):
we can't do that, we can't show this.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, He basically said, when he decided to do this,
you know, there was a lot of reluctance to do
a documentary over the years because, in his words, you know,
my life is in my songs. You don't need me
to talk about it. I don't need to tell you
the story. And I think what changed his mind was
a combination of, you know, the timing where he was
in his life, the filmmaker Susan Lacey and Jessica Levin,
(03:30):
and the way Susan has portrayed artists lives in documentary
filmmaking was very intriguing to him. And also the fact
that you know, we were we were winding down the
Madison Square Garden run and he felt comfortable enough to
allow someone else to tell the story. And all he
ever said to Susan was just be honest. And and
(03:54):
one of the interesting conversations after he said that was
where I pointed out to him, Look, you being honest
means we you know, on top of it, we have
nothing to say and what's eventually going to be in
that movie? And he said, I got nothing to hide,
So I think I think that's a telling statement about
who Billy is that he's never withheld this stuff on purpose.
(04:16):
He just he wanted you to make stuff up in
your mind of what these songs meant, so he didn't
tell you what to think. And I think what's interesting
about this film now is by pulling back the curtain
or lifting the hood, as I say, behind the backstories
of some of these things, it gives a new appreciation
to the lyrics and a new appreciation to the experience
(04:38):
behind those songs. And I think that's a gift. I
think he's given us another gift. So it's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool to be able to look back and
do this stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, and it's pretty cool for all of us to
be able to look behind the curtain and see him
because he is such a regular guy. He's always come
off to everybody as just a regular guy, but at
the same time, he's this genius. And first of all,
it's got to be strange for you to be around.
You're used to it now, but to realize, here's a
guy that I'm around all the time, and he's got
(05:09):
this other side to him that's a genius. But now
for us to be able to see how those two
things come together, it is great. It's very important for
his fans, and I'm sure that was very important for
you to show where this came from.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I mean, I you know, we all knew because
you know, we're with him. We watched, we watched, you know,
this kind of ordinary guy give birth to these extraordinary
pieces of art and extraordinarily emotional pieces of music. Where
does it come from? You know, we also hung out
with him when it was you know, during the difficult
(05:48):
gestation periods of all of this stuff. So you know,
to tell that story, like I said, is a gift
that that we got to ourselves and a gift that
we get to give you know, the fans. But I
think to me, the greatest part about this is that,
you know, at the end of the day, Billy always
wanted to be a history teacher. And if if you know,
(06:11):
he's able to to teach something and and make people
think about things, I think that he feels like there's
a little bit bigger layer on on what he does
because to him, he's you know, it's a golf swing.
It's like I sit down and these things come to
me and I and I create this stuff and I
work very hard at it. But but he's, uh, it's
(06:34):
sort of like he doesn't think about it too much,
you know what I mean. There's no, he doesn't. He
doesn't like to break all this stuff down because he
believes that it's very ephemeral and then it's very fragile
and if you if you try and figure it out,
it'll slip out of your hands. So all of that
being shown in this documentary is really what I think
is the essence of the storytelling very.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Few things that a good friend doesn't know about someone
and and you are the best of friends with him.
Is there something in the documentary that you saw that
you didn't know? No, that's a pretty out question. And
do we get to see where all these songs come
from in the documentary?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Oh? Yeah, I mean you get to see you get
to see their specific there's about a half dozen one
that they do that the filmmakers do a deep dive in.
But you get that, you get the essence of the
motivations behind all the music, especially the classical training and
the classical background. And you know the fact that he
writes about uh writes about his relationships with others, so
you you get you get a lot of knowledge about
(07:41):
the origin of these stories.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, thanks so much for spending time with us. I
really appreciated. Steve Cohen, executive producer his latest documentary film,
Billy Joel and So It Goes.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Thanks a lot, Steve, Thanks a lot.
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