NY- The ex-hooker arrested in the upper East Side slaying of the former tour manager for Paul Simon and Billy Joel says cocaine fueled the fatal fight, police sources said yesterday.

Kathleen Connors, 37, told detectives she and boyfriend Danny Harrison freebased cocaine to celebrate his 57th birthday Sunday before she stabbed him with a butcher knife, a source said.

Connors also said she stabbed Harrison twice in the chest in self-defense after he began hitting her, the source said.

Police said they were investigating Connors’ story, but no drugs were found in his sixth-floor apartment at 530 E. 89th St., near Gracie Mansion, which she shared.

Harrison’s death stunned rocker Joel.

“I’m really sorry to hear about what happened to Danny Harrison,” he said in a statement yesterday. “My sympathy goes out to his family.”

Harrison, who had a master’s degree in psychology, broke into the rock ‘n’ roll business as a roadie on Joel’s 1980 Glass Houses tour. He went from stagehand to tour manager, setting up Simon & Garfunkel’s fabled 1981 Central Park concert, which drew more than 400,000 fans.

Harrison – who had been married three times and had two children, four stepchildren and two grandchildren – also was the road manager on Simon’s 1987 Graceland tour.

Connors sobbed last night as she was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge in Manhattan Criminal Court. Her rap sheet dates to 2001 and includes four arrests for prostitution.