lit a candle 7 Sept 2026He spent his life behind the camera showing us what other directors couldn't see yet. The wall scene. The stadium light. The friendship that survived everything. Quiet genius energy.
Their story
Jonathan Craig Small, known professionally as Jon Small, was an American drummer who remade himself into one of the defining music-video and concert-film directors of the MTV era. Fans of Billy Joel know him first as the teenage and young-adult bandmate who shared stages and a short-lived heavy duo, then…
Jonathan Craig Small, known professionally as Jon Small, was an American drummer who remade himself into one of the defining music-video and concert-film directors of the MTV era. Fans of Billy Joel know him first as the teenage and young-adult bandmate who shared stages and a short-lived heavy duo, then as the trusted lens behind Joel's major live films. Pop culture knows him, often without knowing his name, as the director who put Run-DMC and Aerosmith on opposite sides of a wall and then broke it open for "Walk This Way."
Small's own early oral history places him on the Long Island circuit startlingly young: at eight, in 1955, he was already playing professionally with The Starfires at after-school parties and sweet sixteens. By twelve he was earning steadily; by the early 1960s he was working Hempstead Turnpike clubs while still in tenth grade. Exact birth date was not made public; his account of being eight in 1955 implies birth around 1947, so he was about 78-79 when he died, not confirmed to the day. Around 1964 he co-formed The Hassles with singer John Dizek, guitarist Richard McKenna, and organist Harry Weber. The group became a Long Island blue-eyed soul force, later adding Billy Joel on keyboards and vocals and Howie Arthur Blauvelt on bass. United Artists issued The Hassles (1967) and the more psychedelic Hour of the Wolf (1969). Small was married to Harry Weber's sister, Elizabeth Weber; the personal and musical circles of the band were tightly intertwined.
When The Hassles wound down, Joel and Small split off as Attila, an organ-and-drums duo that released one Epic album in July 1970. Joel later called the project "psychedelic bullshit." The creative partnership collapsed the same era when Joel and Elizabeth Weber began an affair. Attila ended; Elizabeth left both men for a time; Joel fell into a depressive crisis. Joel has said Small took him to hospital and "saved my life." Small later said he eventually forgave Joel. Elizabeth married Joel in 1973 (they divorced in 1982). Small and Elizabeth's son, Sean Weber-Small, has spoken publicly about growing up in that complicated orbit. Remarkably, the musical friendship between Small and Joel survived: Small returned as producer and director on Joel concert films and videos for decades.
In the early MTV years Small built Picture Vision (founded 1984 per company histories) into a major music-visual shop. He produced or directed work across pop, rock, R&B, and country. Credits associated with his name and company include Joel projects such as Live from Long Island (1982), production on 1980s Joel videos including Uptown Girl and Tell Her About It (directed by Jay Dubin for Jon Small Productions), and directing Joel's "Baby Grand" with Ray Charles (1986). He produced Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" video, a credit Profile Records later cited when asking him to take on Run-DMC.
In 1986 he directed Run-DMC and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" video, shot at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey, on a budget reported around $67,000. Small's concept, developed after listening to the track, put the acts on either side of a literal wall that Steven Tyler smashes through. He framed the wall as MTV's color and genre barrier. The clip helped push hip-hop into heavy rock-oriented MTV rotation and became one of the most cited crossover videos in popular music. Tyler later called Small "a genius" for the wall idea.
Country and multi-artist concert television followed: Garth Brooks (including Central Park / HBO-era specials noted in 1990s Variety coverage), Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts, Luke Combs, and many others appear across industry credit lists and LIMEHOF's career summary. Small co-produced Paradise Music and Entertainment in the mid-1990s as Picture Vision expanded. His Billy Joel concert-film spine is especially clear: he directed and produced Billy Joel: Live at Yankee Stadium (filmed June 22-23, 1990; Grammy-nominated for Best Music Film at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards, 1992, per Grammy.com), directed concert footage for The Last Play at Shea (2008 shows; 2010 documentary with Paul Crowder), and remained a recurring visual partner for Joel live releases including Live at Shea Stadium.
In June-July 2025, The Hassles (including Small) were inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame; Small spoke with the LIMEHOF podcast and with the Glass Houses Billy Joel podcast on the eve of that honor. In May 2026 he was publicly attached to the unauthorized early-life film project Billy & Me (life rights, consultant, co-executive producer, second unit director), which Billy Joel's representatives condemned as lacking Joel's life and music rights. Small defended the script as grounded in people who knew Joel before fame.
Jon Small died on 4 September 2026. Billy Joel announced the death on 7 September 2026. A cause of death has not been made public. Death place and resting place were not made public. He leaves a dual legacy: the drummer in Joel's first recorded bands, and the director who helped invent how rock, hip-hop, country, and stadium spectacle looked on screen.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia Attila (rock band), The Hassles, Walk This Way, Live at Yankee Stadium (Billy Joel video) (CC BY-SA); Recording Academy / Grammy.com artist page for Jon Small; Discogs artist 281176; Great E.
In their own words
“So I'm listening to the song for maybe a half hour when I came up with the idea of the wall. We're gonna break down the wall because the wall was, in my mind, again, MTV. That's when I came up with the idea that the wall was not only separating the music styles but was separating black and white, and I didn't see any difference in black and white.”
Jon Small on the Walk This Way wall concept. VideoStatic / Music Video Time Machine interview, reflecting on 1986.
“Small was a genius. It was his idea to build that set and put the wall up.”
Steven Tyler on Small's Walk This Way concept. Quoted in Slate / Independent oral histories of the video.
“End of the sixties, I was in a two-man group. We were heavy metal, we were going to destroy the world with amplification... A lot of people think [I] just came out of the piano bar... I did a lot of heavy metal for a while.”
Billy Joel on Attila. 1985 interview, widely reprinted on the Attila Wikipedia page.
“Eventually, I forgave him.”
Jon Small on forgiving Billy Joel after the Elizabeth Weber rupture. Quoted in 2025 documentary coverage / SheKnows.
“This is the most honest, heartfelt, and authentic portrayal of Billy's early life and rise... I first met Billy when he was 16 years old, and after reading the script, I felt the filmmakers truly understood who he was before the world knew his name.”
Jon Small on Billy & Me. May 2026 statements via Variety / Guardian.
“Joel has publicly credited Small with saving his life in that period by getting him to hospital after a suicide attempt.”
Editorial paraphrase of Billy Joel's account of Small after the 1970 affair crisis (2025 documentary coverage). Prefer primary transcript if Creator upgrades to a verbatim line.
Photos
4COVER CONTEXT (NOT a portrait of Jon Small): Billy Joel at Last Play at Shea concert era, NYC. Small directed concert footage for this Shea project. Estate photo gap: no Commons portrait of Small exists.
by People Forever
CONTEXT (NOT Jon Small): Run-DMC performing in Long Beach, 1984. Collaborators on the 1986 Walk This Way video Small directed.
by People Forever
PLACEHOLDER COLLABORATOR PHOTO (NOT Jon Small): Billy Joel, NYC 2009. Flag for estate photo swap when a cleared Small portrait exists.
by People Forever
OPTIONAL CONTEXT (NOT Jon Small): Run-DMC cropped still. Walk This Way collaborators; not a portrait of Small.
by People Forever
