Billy Joel blasts Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” remark after Charlottesville, wearing a Star of David in silent protest.
Billy Joel isn’t one to stay silent when history—and basic human decency—are on the line.
In the second installment of his HBO Max documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, the 75-year-old “Piano Man” openly criticizes President Donald Trump’s remarks following the white supremacist–led Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11, 2017.
At that event, Trump infamously claimed there were “very fine people on both sides,” a comment Joel calls not just misguided, but morally unacceptable.
Recalling his deep upset, Joel explains that although he “never liked getting political on stage,” there are moments when “you can’t just look away.” One week after the rally, during his Madison Square Garden show, he donned a Star of David on his suit jacket in a silent yet powerful protest—a tribute to his Jewish heritage and a rebuke of the neo‑Nazi slogans that had filled Charlottesville (“Jews will not replace us”).
“We fought a war to defeat these people,” Joel reminds viewers, referencing his father’s service under General Patton and the tragic fate of his grandparents, who perished in Auschwitz.
“Trump should’ve come out and said, ‘Those are bad people,’” Joel says in the film.
“There is no qualifying it. The Nazis are not good people. Period!” His choice to wear the Star of David rather than deliver a speech was rooted in his desire to take a stand without turning his concert into a political platform—“but I had to do something,” he insists.
The Unite the Right rally itself descended into violence between white nationalists and counterprotesters, prompting then‑Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency.
The clash culminated in a horrific act: James Alex Fields Jr., identified by CNN as a white supremacist, drove into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens. In July 2024, a federal appeals court ordered white supremacist organizers to pay $2 million to survivors and families for the physical and emotional harm inflicted that day.
Joel’s protest in 2017 carries personal weight. In a 2018 CBS Sunday Morning interview, he shared that his father’s parents were murdered in the Holocaust, making his gesture at MSG not just political, but profoundly personal: “My family suffered. And I think I actually have a right to do that.”
Part two of Billy Joel: And So It Goes premieres tonight, July 25, at 8 p.m. ET on HBO Max, where Joel’s blend of music, memory, and moral clarity continues to resonate.
Source: Billboard
