Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock 'n' roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but it was his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" that shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential".
Not to be confused with Jerry Lewis, the comedian.
Jerry Lee Lewis
September 29, 1935
October 28, 2022 (aged 87)
- Pianist
- singer
- songwriter
1949–2022[1]
6
- Myra Gale Brown (cousin)
- Linda Gail Lewis (sister)
- Mickey Gilley (cousin)
- Carl McVoy (cousin)
- Jimmy Swaggart (double first cousin)
- Piano
- vocals
His rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old first cousin once removed. His popularity quickly eroded following the scandal, and with few exceptions, such as a cover of Ray Charles's "What'd I Say", he did not have much chart success in the early 1960s. His live performances at this time were increasingly wild and energetic. His 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is regarded by many music journalists and fans as one of the wildest and greatest live rock albums ever. In 1968, Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". This reignited his career, and throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, he regularly topped the country-western charts; throughout his seven-decade career, Lewis had 30 songs reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Country and Western Chart.[7] His No. 1 country hits included "To Make Love Sweeter for You", "There Must Be More to Love Than This", "Would You Take Another Chance on Me", and "Me and Bobby McGee".
Lewis's successes continued throughout the decades, and he embraced his rock and roll past with songs such as a cover of The Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and Mack Vickery's "Rockin' My Life Away". In the 21st century, Lewis continued to tour worldwide and released new albums. His 2006 album Last Man Standing was his best-selling release, with over a million copies worldwide. This was followed by Mean Old Man in 2010, another of his bestselling albums.
Lewis had a dozen gold records in rock and country. He won four Grammy awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and two Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. Lewis was inducted into the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and his pioneering contribution to the genre was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.[8] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022. In 1989, his life was chronicled in the movie Great Balls of Fire, starring Dennis Quaid. In 2003, Rolling Stone listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology at number 242 on their list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[9] In 2004, they ranked him No. 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[10] Lewis was the last surviving member of Sun Records' Million Dollar Quartet and the album Class of '55, which also included Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley.
Music critic Robert Christgau said of Lewis: "His drive, his timing, his offhand vocal power, his unmistakable boogie-plus piano, and his absolute confidence in the face of the void make Jerry Lee the quintessential rock and roller."[4]
Early life[edit]
Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29, 1935, to Elmo Kidd Lewis Sr. and Mary "Mamie" Herron Lewis in Ferriday, Louisiana. He grew up in an impoverished farming family in Eastern Louisiana. In his youth, he began playing the piano with two of his cousins, Mickey Gilley (later a popular country music singer) and Jimmy Swaggart (later a popular televangelist). His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Lewis was influenced by a piano-playing older cousin, Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from Haney's Big House, a black juke joint across the tracks.[11] On November 19, 1949, Lewis made his first public performance of his career, playing with a country and western band at a car dealership in Ferriday. The hit of his set was his performance of R&B artist Stick McGhee's "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee".[12] On the live album By Request, More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth, Lewis is heard naming Moon Mullican as an artist who inspired him.[13]
His mother enrolled him at the Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, so that he could sing evangelical songs exclusively. When Lewis daringly played a boogie-woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a church assembly, it ended his association with the school the same night. Pearry Green, then president of the student body, related how during a talent show Lewis played some "worldly" music. The next morning, the dean of the school called Lewis and Green into his office to expel them. After that incident, he went home and started playing at clubs in and around Ferriday and Natchez, Mississippi, becoming part of the burgeoning new rock and roll sound and cutting his first demo recording in 1952 for Cosimo Matassa in New Orleans.[14][15] Around 1955, he traveled to Nashville, where he played in clubs and attempted to build interest, but was turned down by the Grand Ole Opry, as he was already at the Louisiana Hayride country stage and radio show in Shreveport.[16]
Career[edit]
J&M Studio[edit]
Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana. He covered Lefty Frizzell's "Don't Stay Away (Till Love Grows Cold)" and his own instrumental composition "Jerry's Boogie" (a.k.a. New Orleans Boogie).[14]
Personal life[edit]
Relationships and children[edit]
Lewis was married seven times, including bigamous marriages and a marriage with his underage cousin.[62] He had six children during his marriages.
When Jerry Lee Lewis was 16, he married Dorothy Barton, the daughter of a preacher.[63] The union lasted from February 1952 to October 1953.[64]
Lewis's second marriage to Sally Jane Mitcham in September 1953, was of dubious validity because it occurred 23 days before his divorce from Barton was final. They had two children: Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1954–1973) and Ronnie Guy Lewis (b. 1956). After four years, he filed for divorce in October 1957. Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. died in 1973, at the age of 19, when the Jeep he was driving overturned.[64][65]
His third marriage was to 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown, his first cousin once removed, on December 12, 1957.[66] His divorce from Jane Mitcham was not finalized before the ceremony took place, so he remarried Brown on June 4, 1958.[67] They had two children: Steve Allen Lewis (1959–1962) and Phoebe Allen Lewis (b. 1963). Brown was only 14 years old when their son was born.[68] In 1962, Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident at the age of 3.[64] In 1970, Brown filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery and abuse,[67] stating that she had been "subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable."[69]
His fourth marriage was to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, from October 1971 to June 8, 1982. Pate drowned in a swimming pool at the home of a friend with whom she was staying, several weeks before divorce proceedings could be finalized.[70] They had one daughter, Lori Lee Lewis (b. 1972).
Mary Kathy "K.K." Jones of San Antonio, Texas, testified in court during Lewis's income tax evasion trial in 1984 that she lived with him from 1980 to 1983.[71]
Lewis's fifth marriage, to Shawn Stephens, lasted 77 days, from June to August 1983, ending with her death[72] from an overdose of methadone.[73] Journalist Richard Ben Cramer alleged that Lewis abused and may have killed her, neither of which was proven.[63]
His sixth marriage, to Kerrie McCarver, lasted 21 years, from April 1984 to June 2005. They had one child: Jerry Lee Lewis III (b. 1987).[74]
In 1993, Lewis moved to Ireland with his family in what was suggested (but denied) to be a move to avoid issues with the Internal Revenue Service.[75] He lived in a rented house on Westminster Road in Foxrock, Dublin, and during his time there was sued by the German company Neue Constantin Film Production GmbH for failure to appear at a concert in Munich in 1993.[76] Lewis returned to the U.S. in 1997 after his tax issues had been resolved by Irish promoter Kieran Cavanagh.[77]
Lewis lived on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi, with his family.[78][79][80]
Lewis married his seventh wife, Judith Lewis (née Brown, Myra Gale Brown's brother's former wife), on March 9, 2012.[62] The next day, Lewis severed business ties with his daughter, Phoebe Lewis-Loftin, who was his manager, and revoked her power of attorney.[81] In 2017, Lewis sued his daughter and her husband Zeke Loftin, claiming that she owed him "substantial sums of money".[82] In the lawsuit, Lewis, his wife Judith Lewis, and his son Jerry Lee Lewis III also claimed Loftin defamed them on Facebook. Lewis-Loftin and her husband counter-sued, claiming Judith Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis III interfered in the business relationship. In April 2019, U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers ruled that most of the claims were barred by a three-year statute of limitations except the defamation claims.[81]
Religious beliefs[edit]
As a teenager, Lewis studied at the Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, before being thrown out for playing a 'worldly' boogie-woogie version of "My God Is Real", and that early incident foreshadowed his lifelong conflict over his faith in God and his love of playing "the devil's music". Lewis had a recorded argument with Sam Phillips during the recording session for "Great Balls of Fire", a song he initially refused to record because he considered it blasphemous ("How can... How can the devil save souls? What are you talkin' about?" he asks Phillips during one heated exchange.) During the famous Million Dollar Quartet jam involving Lewis, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash, they performed several gospel songs. Lewis's biographer Rick Bragg explains that part of the reason the recording only features Lewis and Elvis singing is because "only Elvis and Jerry Lee [were] raised in the Assembly of God", and "'Johnny and Carl didn't really know the words... they was Baptists', [Lewis] said, and therefore deprived."[83]
In the 1990 documentary The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, Lewis said to the interviewer, "The Bible doesn't even speak of religion. No word of religion is even in the Bible. Sanctification! Are you sanctified? Have you been saved? See, I was a good preacher, I know my Bible? I find myself falling short of the glory of God."
Gospel music was a staple of his performing repertoire. After a string of hit country albums, he recorded a gospel album for the first time in 1970 (it was released in 1971).[84]
Lewis was also a cousin of the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.[85]
