Notorious rock ‘n’ roll hellraiser
AFOUNDING father of rock ’n’ roll, Jerry Lee Lewis was an outrageous performer with endless energy, known for playing the piano with his feet. He belted out Great Balls Of Fire with such gusto that some fans went into a dance frenzy. He gave contemporaries Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard a run for their money but a self-destructive trait meant his talents were never fully exploited.
Born in Ferriday, Louisiana, Lewis’s family were Pentecostal Christians. As a teenager, the first tune he could play well on the piano was Silent Night.
The star’s carpenter father had little money but when Lewis was 15 the family found enough to send him to a Dallas Pentecostal School with a strict code of ethics. However he was expelled after a few months for giving a rendition of a hymn in boogie-woogie style.
After playing drums in bars, he moved to Memphis, where he was snapped up by Sun Records. Fellow artist Presley said of him: “That boy can go.The way he plays piano just gets inside me.” In 1957 Lewis
released Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, which quickly sold a million copies.
But as international stardom loomed, his first British tour was marred by the revelation of a third marriage to his 13-year-old cousin Myra Gale Brown.
When questions were raised in the House of Commons, the tour was cut short. Crestfallen, Lewis became a boozer and a brawler.
He had hits in 1968 with comeback album Another Place, Another Time, and in 1979 with Every Day I Have To Cry.
But his drugs, drink and divorce lifestyle was out of control and he spent months in hospital trying to sort out his addictions.
Lewis’s life was marred by tragedy. His fourth wife drowned in a swimming pool. His fifth wife is
believed to have died from an overdose of sleeping tablets. One son also drowned in a pool and another died in a vehicle accident.
Finally, Lewis seemed to find happiness with his sixth wife, Kerrie. Wed in 1984, the marriage lasted 21 years, and in 1987 they had a son, Jerry Lee Lewis III.
Despite having a large section of
his stomach removed, Lewis continued performing, and in 2006 he released Last Man Standing, featuring Jimmy Page and Rod Stewart.
In 1986 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and this year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
He died with his seventh wife, Judith, at his bedside.