Singer Billy Joel attempted to kill himself twice in the early 1970s over a failed affair with a pal's wife.

In his new memoir, Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography, the Piano Man reveals he overdosed on sleeping pills when his business partner Jon Small learned the singer and his wife Elizabeth were having an affair.

She subsequently dumped both men.

The hitmaker tells biographer Fred Schruers, "The next thing I remember, I woke up in the hospital and learned that they had pumped my stomach.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh, great, I couldn't even do this right.' It was another failure."

Joel then attempted to kill himself a few weeks later by drinking furniture polish.

He subsequently checked himself into a mental health facility for three weeks in a bid to address his problems.

He continues, "The people I was locked up with were never going to be able to overcome their problems, whereas mine were all self-made."

Ironically, Elizabeth Small was to become Joel's first wife in 1973, but they divorced in 1982.

Joel then dated models Elle MACpherson and Christie Brinkley, marrying the latter in 1985. The couple welcomed daughter Alexa Ray Joel the same year. They divorced in 1994.