Piano Man 'Depressed,' He Tells PEOPLE

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday June 27, 2002 12:00 PM EDT

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As announced, Billy Joel, 53, after a 10-day stay, departed Connecticut's Silver Hill Hospital, a rehab clinic specializing in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, on Wednesday, reports the Associated Press. As PEOPLE reveals in its new issue, the "Piano Man" singer and composer checked in on June 17, blaming a respiratory infection "that made me very depressed." Also taking very hard the fact that he was forced to cancel concerts for the first time in 30 years of touring, Joel tells the magazine: "I then began what was a prolonged period of overindulgence. I don't want to get more specific." PEOPLE goes on to back up the theory that Joel, who is now resting at his home in the Hamptons, has been depressed over his painful breakup with "Inside Edition" anchor Trish Bergen, 31, who recently married lawyer Randi Weichbrodt. Another longtime ex-love of Joel's, artist Carolyn Beegan, has also moved on, reports PEOPLE. But Joel still has the love of his daughter, Alexa Ray, 16, whose mother is his ex-wife Christie Brinkley. "I told my daughter that I recognized I was having a problem," he tells the magazine. "And my gift to her for Father's Day was going to be cleaning up my act."