Billy Joel and me

by Pia

After Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley were divorced, my mom decided that he would make my perfect spouse. Unlike my father and I, my mother actively disliked most celebrities, and wasn’t star struck. As my mom was the most practical person I knew, I couldn’t understand where this was coming from. Though she was losing her sight she could still somewhat see then.

“Uh, why do you think I should marry him?” X’s nephew was in prison for killing his parents but everybody knew that he had been framed. This was beginning to make sense. My mother was part of Long Island’s very tied in community of Jewish mothers. If somebody was from the Island and became famous odds where that my mother knew their mothers, a relative or close friend. This conversation went on for awhile.

When I had been in high school, Billy Joel played in a group called The Hassles. They had played at many Sweet Sixteens in our community. I hadn’t been invited to any. My boyfriend had been a 28 year old hippie truck driver. I couldn’t help but think that a Jewish high school drop out musician probably would have been an improvement in my parents eyes.

My parents had never stopped me from dating anybody as they assumed each boyfriend was just another passing phase. But guilt was still my middle name, and I suddenly felt very guilty for not having been been friendlier with the girls in my town, meeting Billy Joel, dating and marrying him. If my mother said that I could have done it, I could have done it.

My parents aren’t even alive anymore and yet just writing this makes me feel guilty. Yes, mom, I should have married Billy Joel. But I don’t think you would have liked his amazing ability to smash cars.

I am also a classical rock singer in Nigeria and was also a teen idol and the girls still scream anytime I open my voice to sing. I am 42, but I am still being adored by teenage fans as young as 15.

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