Jon Small, of Billy Joel band The Hassles, dies at 79

Jon Small, the Jericho-raised drummer who brought a young Billy Joel into his band The Hassles, died Friday of cancer at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to his son, Sean Weber-Small. He was 79. On Monday, Joel posted an early photo of the two young musicians staring at the camera with nearly matching shoulder-length haircuts, followed by a recent photo of them smiling together. "RIP Jon Small," Joel wrote. Small's impact on a young Joel was both musical and personal. The two were close friends who recorded their first three albums together. But Joel fell in love with Small's wife, Elizabeth Weber, later to become Joel's first wife and manager. Years later, after Joel and Weber split, Joel asked Small — by then a director of music videos — to helm the videos for his songs "Tell Her About It" and "Baby Grand." Small also directed the 1986 video for "Walk This Way," a collaboration between Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. that helped breakdown the color barrier on MTV. Small's son, Sean Weber-Small, called his father "a heroic figure" who overcame devastating setbacks and made a place for himself in the competitive music and television industries. "When he lost his family, his wife, his son and his music partner, he didn't bail out," Weber-Small said. "He stayed in the business, he worked with my mother and then worked with Billy and he built his own career." Small was a founding member of The Hassles, which formed in 1964 and held rehearsals in the basement of his mother's Syosset wallpaper store. Small had been raised around music: His father, he said, was a professional trumpeter who played with Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman. The Hassles became good enough to land a steady gig at the Plainview nightclub My House, whose owner, Danny Mazur, began managing the group. When original keyboardist Harry Weber left, Small lured in Joel — then a member of The Lost Souls — with the promise of a free Hammond B3 organ. Sign up for Newsday's Entertainment newsletter Get the latest on celebs, TV and more. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. The new version of The Hassles signed with United Artists and released two albums, the first featuring a cover of Sam and Dave's "The Hour of the Wolf," the second featuring tracks co-written by Joel and Small. After The Hassles fell apart sometime in 1969, the two teamed up as Attila, an unusual drums-and-organ combo that played thudding heavy metal on such tracks as "March of the Huns" and "Brain Invasion." After the affair between Joel and Weber came to light, Joel attempted suicide twice and stayed briefly in a psychiatric ward, the singer recounted in the documentary "Billy Joel: And So It Goes." Small saw a therapist who encouraged him to curse his ex-wife aloud whenever he thought of her. Joel and Weber married in 1973 but split in 1982, around the same time that Small was transforming himself into a director. "And then Billy calls me and goes, 'You're doing music videos?'" Small told Newsday in 2025. "He goes, 'You want to do one for me?'" That phone call led to Small's video for "Tell Her About It," one of Joel's three No. 1 singles. "I used to say we were like pigs in a blanket," according to Small. "We were always together and just doing stuff, you know. And we're still good friends today." Small's survivors also include his wife, Jeanine Small, and their daughter, his son said.