AI Recreates Young Billy Joel for New Documentary Using Lost 1971 Interview

Filmmaker Adam Ripp obtained a 1971 college-radio interview of a 22-year-old Billy Joel and used AI to generate a visual recreation for a 20-minute documentary.

A year after Irwin Mazur, Billy Joel’s original manager, offered filmmaker Adam Ripp access to a long-forgotten 1971 college-radio interview, Ripp turned the audio into a visual piece using artificial intelligence. The interview, recorded by Ed Mann at C.W. Post’s station, featured a 22-year-old Joel discussing his early career and ambitions.

Ripp secured the rights to the master tape and to a collection of period photographs, then contracted a Canadian AI company to synthesize a moving portrait of Joel that matches his recorded voice. The 20-minute documentary, “1971: Billy Joel’s Lost Interview,” is set to premiere at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame’s film festival on September 25 and is being pitched to streaming platforms and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame archives.

While the project received support from Mazur and Mann, Joel was not involved, and his publicist, Claire Mercuri, declined to comment, highlighting ongoing legal uncertainty over unauthorized digital likenesses. Ripp, son of early Joel producer Artie Ripp, says the effort aims to restore credit to his family and Mazur and to give fans a glimpse of a rarely seen moment in music history.