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Billy Joel: I tried heroin once, but it scared me

Billy Joel admitted Monday that he has tried heroin.

The Piano Man, in an interview with Howard Stern at The Cutting Room in Midtown, said he did smack only once — because he got so wasted and “scared” that he never wanted to touch it again.

“This was back in the late ’70s I think. We were in Amsterdam, and there was all this stuff going on, so I said, ‘Let me see what this is like,’ ” Joel said, according to an account of the interview published online by Rolling Stone.

“It got me so high, I didn’t know how to deal with it. You just get way out, just go to another place, and you’re into the blues. All you want to hear is the blues. You start drooling, and you get sick.”

The Grammy-winning artist said the experience inspired the 1982 song “Scandinavian Skies.” The lyrics mention the “sins of Amsterdam” and leaving him “paralyzed.”

He made the comment at the “Billy Joel Town Hall,” a Stern-hosted event that included performances of his songs by Melissa Etheridge, Tony Bennett and Pink.

It got me so high, I didn’t know how to deal with it.

 - Billy Joel

Joel also said during the chat with Stern that he once considered forming a supergroup with Sting and Don Henley.

“I liked being in a band,” Joel said to the audience of about 150 people. “Someday, we might put together a silly supergroup.”

Joel, 64, said he doesn’t have plans to release new music but recently recorded a Christmas song with legendary crooner Johnny Mathis, who’s 78.

“Everybody has a hard time understanding that: ‘Why don’t you write new songs?’ ” Joel said.

“Elton [John] would say that to me: ‘Why don’t you make another album?’ And I used to say to him, ‘Why don’t you make less albums?’ ”

Joel answered questions from Stern, his sidekick Robin Quivers and fans, including TV personalities Rachael Ray and Matt Lauer.

Alexa Ray JoelGetty Images

He insisted that the success of his daughter, singer Alexa Ray Joel, was not his doing.

“She’s really good,” Joel said. “Everyone thinks Dad set it up . . . She did it on her own.”

Joel performed a duet version of “She’s Always a Woman” with Pink, and Melissa Etheridge played a cover of his hit song “Only the Good Die Young.”

Bennett closed the event, which aired live on Stern’s SiriusXM radio show, with a rousing rendition of Joel’s iconic tune “New York State of Mind.”