Even with famous dad, Joel trying to make her own way
Alexa Ray Joel
Billy Joel's Long Island
Billy Joel at Shea Stadium
Alexa Ray Joel has never been one to take the easy route.
The singer-songwriter, 23, could have landed a major-label contract years ago, thanks to her father, Billy Joel, and her mother, Christie Brinkley. But that's just not her style.
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"I'm trusting [the record deals] will come as I keep working," she told Newsday in September. "They're all a little afraid of me, I think, because I'm such a control freak. I think they'd want to have more of a controlled team around me, which is fine, but I want to be still in charge of the music."
That's what made the news of Joel's hospitalization Saturday so surprising, one of her pals said.
"She was looking forward to playing her shows [in Manhattan] next week," a friend of Joel's said Saturday. "She seemed good."
Joel, who grew up in Sag Harbor and now lives in Greenwich Village, is on the verge of breaking into the mainstream on her own terms. She has been working on her debut full-length album in Manhattan and in Los Angeles, excited about the progress she has made with her new single "Invisible," which she debuted in October on "The Wendy Williams Show."
Joel has been working with Tommy Byrnes, her father's longtime guitarist, as well as Long Beach-based OCD Management, on honing a new, more pop-like sound. On her Web site, a behind-the-scenes video of recording "Invisible" shows her smiling and dancing around the studio as she builds a new sound.
Before singing "Baby Grand" with her father at a star-studded benefit for President Barack Obama last year, she had performed with him only twice in an effort to make a name for herself.
However, she has recently been touring with her father, learning firsthand how to connect with larger audiences.
She was set to perform and sign autographs at J&R Music World in Manhattan, as well as perform at the New York Stock Exchange tree-lighting ceremony, on Thursday.
"I'm so proud of her," Billy Joel told Newsday earlier this year. "She's doing things the right way. She's taking things slow and she really just keeps getting better."
In addition to her father's musical chops, she may have inherited some of his fight as well. Joel made lots of headlines in 2007 when she decided to stand up to Internet gossip Perez Hilton, who had made disparaging comments about her looks. She also took to her MySpace page to explain how the criticism affected her.
"My whole life I've been aware of how vicious the media can be, and how people love to tear apart public figures, but I guess it never really hit me that it could happen to me!" she wrote. "I've got to toughen up and not let it get to me, but I guess my feelings are hurt."
>>PHOTOS: Billy Joel on Long Island
>>PHOTOS: Billy Joel at Shea Stadium
>>PHOTOS: Alexa Ray Joel through the years
