HOLLYWOOD - The "Piano Man" needs a little help, and he's getting it. The 53-year-old Grammy-winning singer Billy Joel has voluntarily checked himself into Silver Hill Hospital, a substance abuse and psychiatric hospital in New Canaan, Conn. Joel's stay was first reported in Wednesday's The Advocate of Stamford, The Associated Press reports.
According to a brief statement by Joel's record label Columbia Records, "Billy Joel recently checked himself into Silver Hill Hospital for a planned 10-day stay to deal with a specific and personal problem that had recently developed. Joel scheduled his stay in Silver Hill several weeks ago and expects to leave in a few days, as planned."
Citing unidentified sources, The Advocate indicated the singer was receiving help from Silver Hill's chemical dependency treatment center.
This comes on the heels of the postponement of Joel's concert tour with Elton John in March. At the time, Joel's camp cited acute laryngitis, inflamed vocal chords and an upper respiratory infection as the reasons for the delay. The concert tour is to begin again in September.
AP reports that a New York Times review of the concert described Joel as rambling and bellowing, and "seemed to have ingested something quite a bit stronger than cough syrup."
Joel joins a long list of celebrities who have visited the Silver Hill facilities, including Mariah Carey, who checked herself in last summer after her mental meltdown. The hospital has also seen the likes of Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli and Gregg Allman.