Billy Joel brought out all the stops for his wife Alexis the first time they met — but she wasn’t exactly impressed by a private concert.
Joel, 76, reflects on the first time he met Alexis, 43, in the new HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, and recalls that her nonchalance toward his skills drew him to her.
“When you meet someone who captures your imagination, it renews, it revitalizes,” he says in the film. “I remember the first time I met Alexis, we went to my house, and I wanted to play the piano for her. It’s a form of communication for me.”
The “Just the Way You Are” singer says he drew on a famous scene from the Marilyn Monroe film The Seven-Year Itch, in which the character trying to woo Monroe’s character plays a song by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
“I’m playing that and she’s completely unimpressed with it, totally. She couldn’t care less what I’m playing and I’m thinking, ‘Oh OK, this isn’t working,’” Joel says. “She was very unimpressed with the whole Billy Joel thing, which impressed me. Because I thought, ‘OK, maybe she’s just here because she likes me, not the Billy Joel guy.’”
Joel says he was initially uncertain as to whether he wanted to start a new relationship, as he was fresh off a divorce from his third wife, Katie Lee, and was wary. Still, the star explains that “something popped,” and he knew he was open to love once more.
Alexis — whom he went on to marry in 2015 and welcome daughters Della, 9, and Remy, 7 — also appears in the documentary, and says that the couple got to know each other better after that first meeting through phone calls and emails. She also praises his skills in the kitchen, saying Joel would often cook dinner for her to come home to while she was working in finance.
“We had a couple years together before we had kids and he had completely stopped doing shows,” she says. “We traveled everywhere. We did a motorcycle trip from Maine down to Long Island, we were on boats 24/7. We were in Europe. We had so much fun.”
Alexis has been a pillar of strength for the star in recent months as he deals with a treatable brain condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus (The rocker tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that he’s “OK” and not “deathly ill”).
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Dennis Arfa, the star’s longtime booking agent, tells PEOPLE he’s “so happy” to see Joel “raising his children and being so in love with them and Alexis and his family.”
“It’s quite rewarding,” Arfa says. “I’m always rooting for Billy’s happiness and his success. I’ve seen Billy have a lot of happy times through his life, [but] he’s had to deal with certain adversity. I’m happy for him in this chapter, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter with him.”
Joel himself adds that he’s “really enjoying this time in my life.”
Billy Joel: And So It Goes (now streaming on HBO Max) is a rare, revelatory glimpse into the private world of one of rock music’s most enduring acts, and how he overcame substance abuse, mental health struggles, and more to find peace.
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