NEW YORK — Billy Joel is slamming an unauthorized biopic underway about the Piano Man, helmed by “Michael” editor John Ottman.

The “New York State of Mind” crooner, 77, has not in any way signed off on “Billy & Me,” and has, in fact, been at odds over the production’s existence for several years, a spokesperson for Joel confirmed in a statement shared with the Daily News.

“Since 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project,” read the statement. “Billy Joel has not authorized or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided.”

Ottman, 61, not only edited the box office smash that is the authorized, albeit controversial Michael Jackson biopic, which hit theaters late last month, but took home an Academy Award for editing the Queen-focused “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Variety was first to report the existence of “Billy & Me”— which is listed on IMDb as being in pre-production— with Ottman’s “Public Access” collaborator Adam Ripp attached to the script.

Ripp told The Hollywood Reporter that the upcoming project “is specifically not a traditional cradle-to-grave Billy Joel biopic, nor is it dependent on Billy Joel’s original music catalog.”

The “intimate origin story,” he said, is largely told through the eyes of Joel’s former manager Irwin Mazur, who along with Joel’s friend and ex-bandmate Jon Small, provided life rights.

Joel revealed in 2025’s “And So It Goes” documentary that he’d twice attempted suicide after an affair with Small’s then-wife Elizabeth Weber, who Joel himself ended up marrying.

Ripp also clarified that he and Ottman have “tremendous respect for Billy Joel” and have never “claimed to control or possess rights to” Joel’s “iconic songs.” He also said Small saved his life after the second attempt, at which point they reconciled.

News of “Billy & Me” comes nearly a year to the day after Joel canceled the rest of his 2025 shows due to the neurological condition, normal pressure hydrocephalus, which had affected his “hearing, vision and balance.” He returned to the stage in January to play for a crowd at a Florida amphitheater.

----------

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.