Jerry Lee Lewis, whose charisma, stage antics, and private life led him to become among the top, and most well-known and controversial early rock ‘n’ roll artists, was dead.
The publicist for the singer announced the news in a statement that reads, “Somewhere in the world, in a mean little honky-tonk or big music hall or church basement rec Room, somebody is playing the Jerry Lee Lewis song.”
In the report, Lewis “suffered in the final several years of his life from various injuries and ailments which, as per his medical professionals, are often said to be the cause taken care of many decades ago. He had been a victim of his body to the extent that in his youth, his chances were slim to last through the middle of age and even to reach old age.”
“He is ready to leave,” his wife Judith declared just before his death.
Beginnings of Jerry Lee Lewis
The man who was later popularly known as “The Killer” was born in September. 29, 1935, at Ferriday, La. He started playing the piano around nine and was captivated by the blues and rhythm when he slipped into the nightclub of his uncle’s. His mother was able to respond by taking her son to Southwestern Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas. Still, he quit when the school became a target for performing a boogie-woogie rendition of “My God Is Real.”
Lewis was not the sole one to feel this way. Their mix of profane and the secular, white and African American, birthed rock and roll around the middle of the 1950s. In the year 1956, at the time of the death of Elvis Presley, Lewis had found his way to Memphis and Sun Records, the same label that brought Elvis Presley to fame. Lewis’s first hit track, “Crazy Arms,” did not make it to the top; however, the following two ways – “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” and “Great Balls of Fire” both exploded. Both reached the top of the chart for the country and R&B charts, and both made it to the Top 5 on the Hot 100.
Jerry Lee Lewis Offering the people a ‘show.’
Lewis was born in an extremely religious, strict home and was often unable to reconcile his faith that he was a child of God with his love of music, which conservatives in the 1950s criticized as “the devil’s music.”
He wrote a few songs but was a master in interpreting other composers’ works by incorporating his boogie-woogie beats. This helped introduce rockabilly music to the mainstream.
As a performer, Lewis was able to make the national outrage that surrounded Presley moving his hips appear to be tame in the comparison. Lewis was the epitome of the conservative view that this new style of music was “devil’s music.” He hit the piano keys playing with such intensity that he could not sit still on the piano and was constantly kicking the bench while the pianist stood.
A second Top 10 hit, “Breathless,” was released in the early part of 1958, and an appearance in a film known as High School Confidential in which he played the title track on a flatbed truck in the movie’s first credits. However, the whole thing was about to fall apart in the end when the news surfaced during a tour through Great Britain that Lewis’ new wife, Myra Gale Brown, was not just his first cousin, once removed, but she was only thirteen years old.
He quickly became a tabloid. Lewis could continue recording and touring, but only one single he released in the following 13 years landed in his Top 40, a 1961 cover of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say.” In the final year of the 1960s, Lewis was able to come back by bringing out his roots in the country genre. From 1968 to 1981, the singer was a consistent performer, with around 40 songs making it into the Top 40 of the country chart.
Jerry Lee Lewis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 as part of the first class. A few years later, a documentary based on his early years and his wedding to Brown was released. It was titled The Great Balls of Fire and featured Dennis Quaid as Lewis, Winona Ryder as Brown, and Alec Baldwin as the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, Lewis’ cousin.
The trio of late-period albums including 2006’s Last Man Standing, 2010’s Mean Old Man, and 2014’s Rock & Roll Time – became all-star productions featuring guest appearances from other early rock and roll pioneers Little Richard, various country stars and musicians from the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Crazy Horse, the Beatles, and the Eagles. Lewis was reported to be working on a new album in 2020 as he deals with the aftermath of a ” minor stroke.”
Then, he was announced to be one of the class 2022 from the Country Music Hall of Fame, But physicians were advising Lewis not to go because of health reasons.
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