Nantucket Week: Billy Joel

Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound

In the early summer of 1994, People Magazine was reporting the unthinkable: Billy Joel had chosen to end his marriage to supermodel Christie Brinkley. Seeking solace in solitude, he hie thee away'd to the pricey-est hotel on Nantucket Island. Situated out at the end of the paved road in a “haulover” area of dunes betwixt the eastern edge of the Harbor and the rolling waves on the Atlantic, sits The Wauwinet - with rooms and out-cottages going then for up to $1,195/night. Joel was as far from the madding crowd as one can get, without letting air out of the tires and forging over the dunes to Great Point.

About 3pm on a spectacular June day, I was walking onto the property at The Wauwinet, when at me came a golden SUV with New York plates, and its solitary occupant. A moment of recognition and Yes! that familiar unshaven, hangdog face above the steering wheel! He edged across the bricked speed-bump and eased forward, now about 10 feet ahead of me. Absolutely Billy Joel!

Elton John may have bested Mr. Joel as the superstar pop-pianist in the '70's (and well beyond)... but there's no question that Billy had much better luck with the ladies. What I questioned at that moment was the Piano Man's judgment. Thinking of Christie's perfect, All-American smile, and how this Long island cad had wiped it from her face, I looked up at the passenger window and mouthed the word “Whyyyyy???” He stared me down steely-eyed and drove right on.

How wrong I was. Turns out that, while Billy had been suffering in the hospital with kidneystones late that winter, his gorgeous wife had been carrying on an affair with soon-to-be third husband Richard Taubman, who'd secretly proposed to her in March.

Toppers at The Wauwinet serves a great Gin Martini in their tiny bar enclave, and whenever there I imagine the Piano Man sipping alone in the corner, perhaps with an old copy of the Sports Illustrated 1979 Swimsuit issue in his hands...