Billy Joel HBO Documentary Trailer Highlights Classical Music to “Uptown Girl” Journey Amid “Hard Lessons”: “Life Is a Fight”
HBO has released the trailer for its sprawling two-part Billy Joel documentary, And So It Goes, which airs across two weeks this month and clocks in at a total of five hours.
In the preview, the iconic musician opens up about his journey from growing up in Hicksville, New York, to hearing classical music and writing “Uptown Girl” as well as the “hard lessons” he learned along the way.
The trailer opens with Joel, over clips of him performing, including to a packed audience, speaking about his disconnect with fame.
“Sometimes it’s alien to me, this guy Billy Joel,” he says. “I don’t know who that is or what that is. I’m reminded of it when I go walk on the street.”
Amid clips of him performing and composing at home, he reveals how his classical music past affected his own pop compositions.
“My own history with me as a musician started with me hearing classical music,” he said. “‘Uptown Girl’ — it could’ve been a Mozart piece,” he says as he plays some of the song on the piano.
He then returns to the fame disconnect, referencing the song’s famous supermodel inspiration.
“Here I am dating this supermodel, me? I’m from Hicksville,” Joel says.
Turning dark, the trailer features Joel’s longtime friend Howard Stern and the musician talking about past “traumas” and Joel not knowing his father “from eight years old until I was in my 20s.”
“I’ve had a lot of hard lessons in my life,” Joel says. “I’ve learned that life is a fight,” he later adds.
“If there’s a skeleton key to unlocking what’s behind the songs, it’s my relationships with others,” he explains of the personal connections to his work. “Everything I’ve done and everything I’ve lived through has somehow found its way into my music.”
Billy Joel: And So It Goes is set to premiere on HBO later this month, with part one airing on Friday, July 18, followed by part two a week later on Friday, July 25. Each part will debut on HBO, and streaming service HBO Max, at 8 p.m. ET/PT and run for roughly two-and-a-half hours.
Billy Joel: And So It Goes, directed and produced by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, premiered its first part at the 2025 Tribeca Festival in New York last month, but Joel himself was unable to attend the opening night screening, announcing just the week before the event that he had been diagnosed with brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), leading him to cancel his upcoming concerts and prompting concern from fans.
But at the Tribeca premiere, the film’s directors and producers indicated that there’s no reason to be too concerned, with Lacy in particular saying he’s “going to be fine.”
The film offers an expansive look at Joel’s life and work, featuring exclusive, in-depth interviews with the artist as well as access to never-before-seen performances, home movies and personal photos.
In addition to interviews with Joel, the doc includes interviews with friend and former collaborator Jon Small; ex-wives Elizabeth Weber (who also served as Joel’s manager), Christie Brinkley and Katie Lee; daughter Alexa Ray Joel; wife Alexis Roderick Joel; members of his band; and fellow musicians including Bruce Springsteen, Sting, John Mellencamp, Nas, Pink, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney.
The trailer includes clips of the interviews with Pink, McCartney and Springsteen, who says, “Billy’s melodies are better than mine.”
Billy Joel: And So It Goes is produced by Emma Pildes and executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman through their Playtone banner, as well as Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner through their Hazy Mills banner. Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Sara Rodriguez executive produce for HBO.
