Jon Small, who directed videos for Reba McEntire and Run-DMC, fell out with best friend Billy Joel after Joel’s affair with his wife. The pair later reconciled.
Jon Small, the music video director, producer and longtime collaborator of Billy Joel, has died.
Joel confirmed Small’s death in a brief Instagram post. “RIP Jon Small,” the hitmaker wrote, alongside an early photo of the pair and one more recent.
A rep for Small could not be reached for comment.
Joel and Small were best friends and early bandmates in the rock band the Hassles, before leaving and forming the duo Attila in 1969, releasing their first and only album, “Attila,” in 1970. Small, in the documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” called the group “probably one of the worst bands ever.”
In 1970, during a career decline and personal low for Joel, the “Piano Man” singer lived with Small and his wife, Elizabeth Weber Small. Joel would eventually begin an affair with Weber Small, and after it was discovered, Attila disbanded, and Joel was kicked out.
“I got punched in the nose, which is what I deserved,” Joel said in his documentary.
Though she would eventually end both relationships, Joel and Weber later reconciled and married in 1973. They divorced in 1982.
Despite their estrangement, Joel credited Small for rushing him to the hospital following a suicide attempt in the early 1970s.
By the mid-1980s, Small and Joel had rekindled their relationship, with Small directing Joel’s music videos for “Tell Her About It” (for which he also wrote the treatment), “Piano Man (New Version)” and “Baby Grand” with Ray Charles. He also began directing music videos for Reba McEntire, Anika Baker and Luther Vandross. In 1986, Small directed the music video for Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”
He became a frequent collaborator with McEntire (including “Cathy’s Clown” and “The Heart Won’t Lie”) and Run-DMC (“It’s Tricky,” “Mary, Mary”). He went on to direct videos for Twisted Sister, Roger, Van Morrison, Sting, Garth Brooks, Enrique Iglesias, Rascle Flatts and Blake Shelton.
Small was also a producer on dozens of music videos, including Baker’s “Sweet Love,” and several TV specials, for McEntire, Shelton and Toby Keith.
His latest music video directing credit was for Luke Combs and Eric Church’s “Does to Me” in 2020.
Small is also listed as a co-executive producer on “Billy & Me,” the early Billy Joel biopic based on the life rights of Irwin Mazur – the manager who discovered, signed and worked with Joel through his first major label deal – and Small.
Joel has criticized the project, calling it “legally and professionally misguided.”