Jonathan Small

Jonathan Craig Small — known to everyone as Jon — was a drummer, music video director, and creative force whose work helped define the sound and the look of American popular music across six decades. Born on January 3, 1947, on Long Island, New York, to a musician father and a mother who ran a wallpaper store, Jon came of age steeped in music, restless energy, and an irrepressible desire to make things. In 1964, as a teenager, he became the drummer for The Hassles, a psych rock and soul group that would prove to be the crucible of one of rock's most enduring partnerships. It was in that band that Small befriended a young pianist named Billy Joel — a friendship that would outlast marriages, heartbreaks, and the long passage of time. Small's easy cool had an immediate impact on Joel. "I had super long hair," Jon recalled with a laugh. "When he went to my home for the first time, he wanted to look like me." When The Hassles dissolved in 1969, the two friends stepped away from the crowd and formed the heavy metal duo Attila, recording a self-titled album in 1970. It was a bold, noisy, gloriously strange record — and a sign of how fully in sync the two young men were. When that chapter closed, Jon reinvented himself entirely. Through the 1980s and beyond, he built a second, equally remarkable career as a music video director and producer. His eye for storytelling and live energy produced iconic work across genres: the electrifying "Walk This Way" video for Aerosmith and Run-DMC in 1986, "Tell Her About It" and "Baby Grand" for Billy Joel, and videos for Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, and The Highwaymen, among many others. His concert film work earned a Grammy nomination in 1992 for Billy Joel's Live at Yankee Stadium. Jon and his wife Jeanine built their production company together, a partnership that mirrored their 40-plus years of marriage. In June 2025, Jon was inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame as a member of The Hassles — a homecoming that moved him deeply. Jonathan Craig Small died on October 4, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a battle with cancer. He was 79. He is survived by his wife Jeanine, two children, and a legacy of art and friendship that will endure.