About this episode

Liberty DeVitto discusses his experiences as Billy Joel's drummer and their professional relationship.

In Pt. 2 of this lively, insightful conversation with Liberty DeVitto’, Billy Joel’s longtime drummer revisits the challenge of drumming in the synth-driven 1980s; the making of Joel’s albums The Bridge , Storm Front and River of Dreams ; the creation of the smash single “We Didn’t Start the Fire”; the reason DeVitto plays on only one River of Dreams song; and his irate fax that wound up on that last album’s control room wall. DeVitto also addresses his high-profile split from Joel and subsequent lawsuit against the singer-songwriter. How did they reconcile, with Joel writing the foreword to DeVitto’s memoir, Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness ? Have DeVitto and Joel played together since then? Why or why not? What did DeVitto say that got left on the cutting-room floor of the two-part HBO documentary: Billy Joel: And So It Goes ? He recalls playing with Karen Carpenter and Paul McCartney as well. (Photo: Petra den Tenter)

People in this episode

Host: Mark Caro

Guest: Liberty DeVitto

Topics covered

• drumming in the 1980s
• Billy Joel's albums
• musical collaborations
• artist reconciliation
• personal memoirs

Keywords

• Liberty DeVitto
• Billy Joel
• drumming
• 1980s music
• album production
• musical history
• reconciliation
• memoir

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Bridge, Storm Front, River of Dreams, We Didn’t Start the Fire, Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness, Billy Joel: And So It Goes

More episodes of Caropop

• Jason Ringenberg (Jason and the Scorchers/Still Standing) · July 16, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Glenn Morrow (Bar/None, Cry for Help) · July 9, 2026 · 56 min
• Liberty DeVitto (Billy Joel), Pt. 1 · June 25, 2026 · 45 min
• Rachel Lichtman · June 18, 2026 · 1h 14m

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