Rehab For The Piano Man

Billy Joel has checked himself into a substance abuse and psychiatric hospital for a "personal problem."

Entertainment Tonight confirms the 53-year-old, Grammy winning singer-songwriter is getting ten days of counseling at Silver Hill's chemical dependency treatment center in New Canaan, Connecticut. The hospital had no comment.

A brief statement released by his record label, Columbia Records said: "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."

A publicist for Joel was unavailable for comment.

Joel, whose hits include "Piano Man," "Just the Way You Are," "Only the Good Die Young" and "Uptown Girl," in March rescheduled a joint tour with Elton John, saying he was ill. The tour is to begin again in September.

A review in The New York Times of a show shortly before the postponement described him as rambling and bellowing, and said Joel "seemed to have ingested something quite a bit stronger than cough syrup."

He was placed under a doctor's supervision for acute laryngitis, inflamed vocal cords and an upper-respiratory infection, according to Sony Entertainment's Billy Joel Web site, www.billyjoel.com.

A long list of celebrities have spent time at Silver Hill's psychiatric and substance abuse treatment center. Pop star Mariah Carey checked in last summer after an "emotional and physical breakdown," according to her publicist. Other patients have included Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli, Gregg Allman and Joan Kennedy.