Billy Joel is slamming President Donald Trump over his claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” of 2017’s “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
“I’ve never liked getting political onstage,” Joel confessed in the second installment of his two-part HBO documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes. “People wanna get away from a lot of that stuff, I realized that. But sometimes there are things that happen and you can’t just look away.”
The five-time Grammy winner, who is Jewish, condemned the president’s comments and opened up about his decision to wear a Star of David on his coat at a Madison Square Garden concert in response to the rally, which left one person dead and multiple injured.
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Billy Joel performs during Billy Joel’s 100th show at Madison Square Garden on March 28, 2024 in New York City
The “Piano Man” singer explained that he knew he had to do “something” at his next concert in the aftermath of the incident, which in part saw torch-carrying attendees espouse racist and antisemitic rhetoric.
“I was angry,” Joel said. “Here they are marching through an American city saying, ‘Jews will not replace us.’ We fought a war to defeat these people!”
Trump’s comments in the wake of the rally didn’t help, either.
“And when Trump comes out and says, ‘There were very fine people on both sides,'” Joel said. “He should’ve come out and said, ‘Those are bad people.’ There is no qualifying it. The Nazis are not good people. Period.”
So, Joel added the star to the front and back of his coat in protest.
“I had to do something, but I didn’t want to get up on a soap box on stage and say, ‘This is wrong,'” he said. “So I wore the star. But basically to say, no matter what, I will always be a Jew.”
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Joel’s political statement was praised by his ex-wife, model Christie Brinkley, in an Instagram post at the time.
“And on the day of the Solar Eclipse a yellow star appeared on the jacket of another kind of star with a clinched fist that seemed to be gripping painful, no excruciating, memories of loved ones who wore that star to their death,” she wrote. “May that star also remind you today of the gold stars pinned to the jackets of soldiers for their bravery and valor for fighting an evil so hideous even the gold stars in the sky were afraid to shine.”
She continued, “Thank you Billy for reminding people what was …so it may never ever again be. My darling @alexarayjoel another reason to be proud of your Pop.”
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Billy Joel performs in February
Their daughter, Alexa Ray, also celebrated her dad in her own Instagram post.
“Now, THIS Is How You Do It. THAT’S MY POP!!! Proud Jewish New Yorker Through & Through!!!!!” She wrote. “REPRESENT! STAND STRONG! #HellYES #NewYorkStateOfMind #ProudJew #NewYorkStrong #FightForLoveAndInclusion and #DiversityMakesAmericaGreat.”
At a news conference following the rally, Trump told reporters that he “condemned neo-Nazis,” but also that the incident “had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest,” The New York Times reported at the time.
Ahead of its one year anniversary in 2018, Trump wrote on X, “The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!”
Both parts of Billy Joel: And So It Goes are streaming now on HBO Max.
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