European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Music amp entertainment Billy Joel still angry and broke by Walter Berry associated press Billy Joel once epitomized the angry Young Man he Sang about in the mid-1970s. Now at age 41, he s Stilt angry. He s also broke. Joel is almost a year into a 15-month world tour to promote his triple Platinum storm front up and get himself out of a sea of red Ink a although one of the biggest Selling Solo artists in the history of Columbia records a with 14 albums and 25 top 40 singles in his Catalon a Joel has Little financially to show for it. Still in litigation is a $90 million lawsuit he filed in september 1989 against his former manager and brother. In Law Frank Weber for fraud and breach of contract the suit asks for $60 million in punitive damages and alleges that Weber duped Joel out of $30 million losing $10 million of it in unsafe investments. Quot i Haven to gotten a Penny Back yet a Joel said in an interview before a recent sold out concert in Phoenix. A the bulk of the lawsuit is still with the lawyers. Quot the reason for the length of this tour is financial. Look at this age you done to want to go out on the Road for fun and games. When i started the tour i was in deep financial Straits. The accounting firm i m with now said i was looking at a deep deep deep deep financial Hole that would take two years to get out of. So i said of and put my head Down and went to work and i m getting Back in the Black. Quot am i angry about it bitter is a Good word. The worst thing is having to spend so much time away from my kid Quot added Joel who is married to supermodel Christie Brinkley they have a 4-year-old daughter Alexa Ray. Joel is Well aware that his Cash flow problems would be history if he agreed to tour sponsorship but the subject makes him bristle. Quot in a not comfortable with it whatever celebrity i have was Given to me by people. To Trade in on it would be a betrayal to that Quot a said. Quot Coke asked me. It was a lot of Money millions and millions of dollars. George Michael got that Deal. Pepsi made me an offer i turned that Down and Madonna got the  if he did accept sponsorship Joel is wary of another round of bashing from some segments of the Media the five time grammy Winner said certain music critics have been on his Back Ever since the stranger album produced four top 20 singles in 1978. Quot As soon As 1 started Selling records i was perceived in some circles to be this commercial Wunderkind a tunesmith Balladeer. You know need a hit let me grind it out that a not How i write. Any hit i be had is an  born William Martin Joel he grew up in Hicksville n.y., and discovered Mozart at age 4 before taking 10 years of piano lessons. As a second grader Joel remembers watching Elvis Presley perform on television one night and then trying to duplicate his moves at school the next Day. Quot i got up on stage during lunch hour in the gym and did my Elvis impersonation and the Giris in the third Grade started screaming because i was shaking my hips and doing hound dog. The teacher dragged me off the stage thinking i had done something really Nasty. Hey you done to even have hips in the second Grade. But i was thinking this is great Quot when i saw the beatles on the de Sullivan show i looked at them and said that a it. That a what i want to do those Guys did t look like Frankie Avalon or Fabian. They wrote their own songs played their own instruments and they had the coolest hair in the world. Quot the first gig f did was when i was 15, in 1964,1 played in a band at Hoty family Church in Hicksville. Girls who would t look twice at me now liked me. A1 the end of the night the priest came Over and gave us $5 each. You got paid for this stuff. That locked the backdoor. There was no Way out for me. I was hooked. Quot i did t graduate from Hicksville High too Many Page 16 a a a absences. I was working until 3 of clock in the morning in clubs. Who could Wake up at 7 o clock Quot in 1971, Joel was homeless sleeping on laundromat floors and surviving on Peanut butter sandwiches when he signed a Solo recording contract with family productions. But his debut up in 1972, cold Spring Harbor was mastered at the wrong Speed. So he played piano bars under the name Bill Martin and gathered material for his hit debut album for Columbia a piano Man a in 1973. The on going Legal hassles Are the main reason Why Joel can to help out other aspiring acts. Quot people Send me tapes All the time. They either want me to do their material or they want to know what i think. I used to like Liat now i Send them right Back Quot he said. Quot a lawyer can say Billy Joel used the word the in a song did no to you use the word a the in the song that you sent him hey sue him Quot it s a total defeat for the Little Guy because no one will listen to their tapes now because of Alt these lawsuits Quot added Joel who once was unsuccessfully sued by someone who claimed he wrote my life Joel a no. 1 single in 1978. Quot Guys who do what i do we done to need to steal. We write our own stuff. Ail the music i write in be dreamt. I dream music All the time. I Don t dream scenes and scenarios like most people do. I dream abstractions a shapes colors sounds symphonies. I Wake up and i done to remember what 1 dreamt but it s in my subconscious like a filing Cabinet. Quot when i sit Down to write i try to get into that filing Cabinet and once in a while a Littie window or drawer will pop open with the music in it and i la be Able to write it very  on dec. 5, Joel will take a one Day break from his tour and return to new York City to receive a humanitarian award from the Cathedral of St. John the divine and a Quot grammy legends Quot award in a television ceremony. Past humanitarian winners include Leonard Bernstein and Duke Ellington. Joe will be honoured As a a grammy legend Quot along with three of his idols Quincy Jones with 14 albums and 25 top 40 singles Billy Joel has Little financially to show for it aretha Franklin and Johnny Cash. Joel can relate to his past and shakes his head in disbelief Over All he a survived. His father left Home when Joel was 7, he considered suicide and checked himself into a mental institution in his Early 20s, fractured his right wrist and left thumb in a 1982 motorcycle Accident that put his career in jeopardy and was divorced in 1982 after a nine year marriage to Elizabeth Weber. His nose still shows signs of the 26 Amateur fights he had at age 19. A it always amazes me the resilience of human beings. It s unbelievable. But i m Happy to be anywhere Quot he said with a laugh. Quot i m As old As a 49 Studebaker. Ever look at a car from 1949? the steel is All rusted out the body is All dented and falling apart the upholstery to All ripped and the engine does no to work. I look in the Mirror and say Well you Ain t Cary Grant but you Ain t in the junkyard either but in a Happy with my life. Very Happy. Its nothing at All like i pictured it would  a singles 1. Love takes time a Meriah Carey 2. More than words can say alias 3. I m your baby tonight Whitney Houston 4. Groove is in the heart deep Ute 5. Because i love you Sev Tew b 6. Something to be eve in Poison 7. From a distance Bette Midler 6. Pray a . Hammer 9. Feels Good a Tony Toni Tonel 10. Knockin boots Candy Man top a albums 1. To the extreme Vanilla ice 2. Please Hammer Don t Hurt pm . Hammer 3. Mariah Carey a Marfa Carey 4. Rhythm of the saints Paul Simon 5. The razors Edge acc 6. Recycles Zzz top 7. Wilson Philips Wilson Phillips 6. Some people s lives Bette Midler a a Usten without prejudice George Michael 1u� a inx9country a singles 1.  it t. Odin 2. Crazy in love a Conway Twitty 3. Back in my younger Days Don Williams 4. Chasing that Neon Rainbow Alan Jackson #. Put yourself in my shoes 6. Ghost in this House Shenandoah 7. You really had me going Holly Dunn 8. I be come to expect it from you George Strait 9. Home a Joe Liflie 10. Yet exile amp by singles 1, misunderstanding a b sure 2. . Thought it was me Bell blvd Devoe 3. Slow motion Gerald Alston 1 your baby tonight Whitney Houston 5. Knockin boots a handymen a Jove takes time Martah Carey 7. Pray a . Hammer i and r0und to Quot Campbell a sensitivity Ralph tree ant 10. My heart your heart whisper album a Rock for week ending nov. 17 i handle the Black crowds a Mil baby travelling wll Burye 3-? Only Man Steve Wro Wod 4, my head s in Mississippi a a too a to be eve in Poison a a High enough Damn Yankees a of i1pfj?reams deep purple  Alv rare bees v a a Lamri the stars and stripes wednesday november 21, 1990