Billy Joel and his longtime-now-ex-drummer, Liberty DeVitto, have buried the hatchet.
15 years after leaving Billy’s band, Liberty got him to write the foreword for his memoir, LIBERTY: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness. It tells the story of his 30-year run with Long Island, New York’s most famous musician.
Liberty says “I needed to get over the bitterness and hurt that I still had for Billy — not keep harboring it. I was concentrating on the loss all the time, but I needed to think about the great times we had, the legendary music we made together, and all the lives we touched together.” — and so the rest was history.
The memoir will drop on July 14th. From 2012, Liberty DeVitto recalls when his friendship with Billy Joel began to fade, despite his three decades in the band.
“I came in on Turnstiles, when he made it big. I was still the only original guy from the records, let’s put it that way. And the new people that came in, some of them were very jealous that I was the guy — one in particular, a certain guitar player, won’t mention his name, but he was very jealous of it. He used to socialize with Billy a lot. When we were told to leave Billy alone because he’s got to sing that night, the guitar player would go over there and hang out and, you know, Billy would lose his voice. Let’s put it that way. I’m not going to say what he did, but…”
Also from 2012, Liberty DeVitto when he realized his friendship and time in Billy’s band were over.
“Had it out with the guitar play one day, and I just didn’t like him anymore. I didn’t like what was happening with Billy, I saw him just going downhill. Just was going ‘lounge’ kinda music. He liked that better, I still wanted to rock and roll. So, one day, when I wasn’t invited to his wedding, his third wedding, I kinda got the hint that, ‘OK, he’s not my friend anymore.’ And that’s how I actually found out that it was over.”
