Jerry Lee Lewis loves his fans. Sign Jerry Lee Lewis’ Official Guestbook by adding your comment below.
Jerry Lee Lewis loves his fans. Sign Jerry Lee Lewis’ Official Guestbook by adding your comment below.
Somewhere in the world, in a mean little honky-tonk or big music hall or church basement rec room, someone is playing a Jerry Lee Lewis song. Wherever there is a piano, someone is shouting…
You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a man insane…
“But they won’t play it like the Killer,” Lewis liked to say, as if he needed to make sure the whole world was hearing him right, hearing the pounding genius of it, in songs like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Breathless” and “Great Balls of Fire.”
“’Cause,” he liked to say, “ain’t but one of me.”
You broke my will
But what a thrill…
Lewis, perhaps the last true, great icon of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, whose marriage of blues, gospel, country, honky-tonk and raw, pounding stage performances so threatened a young Elvis Presley that it made him cry, has died.
He was there at the beginning, with Elvis, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, and the rest, and watched them fade away one by one till it was him alone to bear witness, and sing of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Who would have thought,” he said, near the end of his days, “it would be me?”
Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!
He suffered through the last years of his life from various illnesses and injuries that, his physicians have often said, should have taken him decades ago; he had abused his body so thoroughly as a young man he was given little chance of lasting through middle age, let alone old age.
“He is ready to leave,” his wife Judith said, just before his death.
Lewis, who performed everything from “Over the Rainbow” to Al Jolson, who played the Opry and the Apollo and even Shakespeare, was 87 years old.
Some music historians have wondered if Lewis, regarded by his fans and many music historians as rock’s first, great wild man, might be indestructible; his obituary has been written, re-written, then shelved, gathering dust for a day that seemed inevitable, but seemed to never come. He defied death in his old age just as he shrugged off the hard-driving, self-destructive lifestyle of his younger years, to play his music to a worldwide audience across seven decades, decorate the walls of his home with Grammys and gold records, and spawn a million outrageous stories — most of them true.
Once, when asked by a biographer: “Is it true that…”
“Yeah,” interrupted Lewis, without waiting to hear the particulars, “it probably was.”
His beginnings sounded like myth. His father, Elmo, and mother, Mamie, mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano, after he climbed onto a piano bench and, without ever having touched a keyboard before, began to play. His nickname, Killer, had nothing to do with his playing, but came from a schoolroom fight in Ferriday when he tried to choke a grown man with his own necktie; still, it fit the man, the musician to come, but there was more to him than a barroom piano pounder who sometimes kept a pistol in his pants.
Musicians and music journalists called him a true virtuoso, whose music was so rich and complex that some of them swore there were two pianos on stage instead of one. He played honky-tonk and blues across the same keyboard in the same instant, could play melody with both hands. He sang rockabilly before he knew it had a name, sang blues, gospel and country in the same set and sometimes the same breath, to become No. 24 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Sam Phillips, who launched the careers of Elvis and Lewis at Sun Records in Memphis, called Lewis the most talented person he had ever seen. A talent that made him one of the very few to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first class in 1986 and, most recently this past week, at long last, into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
As Lewis stacked hits on the charts in ’57 and Elvis received his draft notice, the reigning king of rock ‘n’ roll drove to Sun Records in tears, to tell Lewis: “You can have it.”
But if Jerry Lee’s life was a comet that streaked across the sky of American music, it was also a thing that scorched him inside and out, and so many of the people around him.
Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis. He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid.
Born into the Assembly of God church in his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana, he never stopped believing, even when his lifestyle made the specter of hell seem closer. His greatest fear, that he would be condemned to a lake of fire for playing what many in his Pentecostal faith called “the devil’s music,” haunted him. He shared his fear with Elvis, who begged him to never mention it again. Lewis thought Elvis, also a Pentecostal, was the one person who might understand, but he died in ’77, leaving Lewis to wonder, alone.
He had prayed every day across his long life for forgiveness, and for salvation. His was a church that believed in miracles; why, he sometimes wondered, should he not be one of them? He found peace near the end of his life in a simple idea: that a music that brought such joy to so many could only come from God, “and the devil,” he said, “didn’t have nothin’ to do with it.”
“He said he was ready to be with Jesus,” said Judith.
His last album was a gospel record with his cousin, lifetime televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who had preached against his music when they were younger. In Jerry Lee’s final months, they took turns at the keyboard, singing songs they learned as children: “Old Rugged Cross” and “Lily of the Valley” and “In the Garden.” Lewis, though his voice and body were weakened by his injury and a recent stroke, seemed happy, content.
Much of his life, Lewis had seemed determined to leave the world in the great fire he sang about. He set pianos ablaze, busted hecklers in the head with the butt-end of his microphone stand and rammed the gates of Graceland with his Rolls Royce. He shot holes in the wall of his Memphis office with a .38 revolver, shot his bass player in the chest, “by accident,” with a .357. His life, at different times, was a blur of high-speed chases and Crown Royal. The DEA met his planes on the runway. Fortunes came and went; all the wild rock musicians who came after him, he said, were mostly amateurs. Keith Richards tried to toss up a bottle of Crown Royal and catch it by the neck, like him, “but he never did it right … wasted a bunch of good liquor.”
But if you asked him, in his waning years, what he hoped people would say about him, he had a simple answer.
“You can tell ‘em I played the piano and sang rock ‘n’ roll.”
His career, like his body, seemed doomed a dozen times.
After soaring to the top of the charts in ’57 with songs like “Shakin’” and “High School Confidential,” he was castigated in the press for his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra. His rock’n’ roll star seemed to burn out even as it began to rise, and after a few big hits in the early 1960s his career seemed to be over. He responded by loading two cars with instruments and musicians and hitting the road, to play some big rooms, still, but also every honky-tonk and beer joint that would pay him to perform. He fought his way out of beer joints in Iowa, then drove all night and all day to another town and another show.
Sometimes he gave them magic and sometimes, if the mood was on him, he gave them less, but in his old age he swore he gave them the magic all the time. In ’64, record producers taped his show at a Hamburg, Germany, nightclub and made what would become music history. Live at the Star Club would be regarded as one the rawest, wildest, and greatest live albums of all time.
Then, in a twist that surprised many of his rock fans, Jerry Lee Lewis went country. “Another Place, Another Time,” was just the beginning of a string of soulful country chart-toppers that made him rich and famous all over again. He had more than 30 songs reach Billboard’s Top 10, including “To Make Love Sweeter for You” and a haunting “Would You Take Another Chance on Me.” It seemed only natural to Jerry Lee. He had always believed that Hank Williams hung the moon.
In this new stardom he finally played the Grand Ole Opry, the organization that had once snubbed him, and ignored the two-song protocol to play what and for long as he pleased, even playing through the commercials. Then, in perhaps the oddest twist of his musical career, he was cast as Shakespeare’s sinister Iago in a musical production in Los Angeles; he was a natural.
Once again, he flew around the world, sometimes on his own plane, and once again his lifestyle made almost as many headlines as his music. Tragedy followed him; he buried two sons. His health began to fail, marriages failed, but somehow he always rallied, always kept playing, for big paydays, or for free in a Memphis nightclub, living the life he sang about in his songs.
In 2006, his Last Man Standing album sold a million copies, his best-selling album of his long career. He followed that with another success, Mean Ol’ Man. You could hear the ghosts of the old honky-tonks in them, as if Jerry Lee Lewis had, truly, found a way to stop time. He did a duet with Springsteen.
His Lifetime Achievement Grammy was a kind of crowning achievement, and he appeared at Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame shows to accept his due and to school the whippersnappers on how it was done.
In 2012, when he was 76, he fell in love and married Judith, and they lived quietly – quietly for Jerry Lee Lewis – in northern Mississippi, though Lewis continued to do shows here in the U.S. and abroad. That year they took a trip to Ferriday to visit the family cemetery, and to drive across the bridge to Natchez where, as a boy, Jerry Lee used to dangle over the girders high above the brown water of the Mississippi and the passing boats below. The other boys begged him to get down, but he just hung there, grinning, till they were in tears. When asked if he was scared, a lifetime later, he just looked surprised. The Killer didn’t get scared. But looking down at the river as an old man, he said he might have been crazy.
Later, they drove past the church where he beat the piano to pieces with his cousins Swaggart and Mickey Gilley, who would go on to country music stardom, pounding a little blues and honky-tonk into the hymns they were supposed to be practicing.
Just across town from the tiny church had once stood the other temple of his musical education, a blues joint called Haney’s Big House, where some of the biggest acts in the country came to play. As a little boy, he snuck in the door and hid under the tables to hear rolling blues piano and wicked guitar. And somewhere in between it all, between the hymnals and the beer joints, between Hank Williams and Ray Charles, he found something that was his alone. It was always a waste of breath to ask if he had any regrets.
He had a million, and he had none. It all just depended on the song that was running through his head at the time.
“I’ve had an interesting life,” he said, in his 2014 biography, “haven’t I?”
Written by Rick Bragg
—
Jerry Lee Lewis is survived by his wife, Judith Coghlan Lewis, his children Jerry Lee Lewis III, Ronnie Lewis, Pheobe Lewis and Lori Lancaster, sister Linda Gail Lewis, cousin Jimmy Swaggart and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Elmo and Mamie Lewis, sons Steve Allen Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., his siblings Elmo Lewis Jr. and Frankie Jean Lewis and his cousin Mickey Gilley.
Services and more information will be announced in the following days. In lieu of flowers, the Lewis family requests donations be made in Jerry Lee Lewis’ honor to the Arthritis Foundation or MusiCares – the non-profit foundation of the GRAMMYs / National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
I’m in love with you, no disrespect to Judith. I can’t help it, I can’t. Every night I watch your videos over and over again. They just don’t get old. The beard, not a fan of! Lol I loved that you have been so out there your whole life. Letting them know that you can get knocked sideways but NOT down!!! My favorite is “Haunted House” I can see the fire in your eyes! The Storyville show was incredible! When you look up at Ronnie Wood doing a solo and give him that smile and look at the crowd. It was like, “ya this is good man and I’m so proud” It’s awesome! My first song I heard on the radio was “Chantilly Lace” I thought it was so “dirty”. But I bought the 45 and played it until my parents made me turn it off. Not because they didn’t like your music too, but hey, they were parents. I love the “Killer” video. I see that same love and fire in your eyes. I bought your new CD. AMAZING! I believe God gave you a beautiful gift. He just needed you to realize it. You are and will always be “THE KILLER,THE KING OF ROCK N ROLL”! Love to you and healthy to you and Judith.❤️
Hi Jerry! I love your music. I’m 71.
Jerry Lee Lewis 史上最高のミュージシャン
Mr. Jerry Lee Lewis,
My parents listened to your music (and still do), my daughter and I listen to your music all the time! It’s the BEST music ever! Stuff out there today is garbage (my teenage daughter agrees). My daughter is a singer and plays a little piano and is so inspired by your music that she wants to play like you do!
Thanks for such amazing music, we can’t sit still when we hear it.
Best wishes for a Happy New Year1
Killer
You are the greatest singer/performer in my 72 years of life.
No one comes close.
дорожите любовью люди Jerry Lee “The Killer”
mmm-mmm! Jerry Lee-you are the greatest rock and roller ever! I listen to your albums that i have alot. I have cds too. Nobody better than “The Killer”!
Hi Jerry lee,
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year. I enjoy your music videos as well as the interviews i find that you did over the years.
Especially the two you did with George Klein on Memphis Sounds.
Your gospel songs are wonderful and listen to them all the time. Hope to visit your ranch home this year to take it all in. It would be incredible to meet you, but i know chances are slim to none.
Your one hell of a piano player jerry!
I hope your doing good and wish you well for 2021. 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹 🎙
Your music is keeping me sane during this pandemic! You are an inspiration for everyone.
I “Grew up” listening to your music. Loving every song!
Hope to hear many more!! Keep it Rockin’
Thank You Mr Lewis for the amazing gift you have given our world. Music takes us on a journey, rekindles wonderful memories, puts Joy in our hearts. May God bless you for your gift to the world of music.
Blessings
Sherrie Melanson
Thank You Mr Lewis for the amazing gift you have given our world. Music takes us on a journey, rekindles wonderful memories, puts Joy in our hearts. May God bless you for your gift to the world of music.
Blessings
Sherrie Melanson
What a remarkable life you have!!
Dear Mr. Jerry Lee Lewis, I just wanted to tell you how much of an impact your music has had on my life. I remember when I was a little kid at my Grandparents house every saturday morning a little radio station next door WGOG would play country and when you came on my nana’s eyes would light up and her hands would lightly tap together. Turns out nana had a secret crush on “The Killer”. Hahaha. I remember at 8 years old seeing this wild man on t.v. play the piano like i’ve never heard to this day with such an awesome stage presence! I thought, that’s what i’m gonna be when I grow up, a rock & roller, so I got my first guitar a few months later and been playing ever since. I’m 43 now. I know it’s not piano like I wish I could’ve played, but I tried it and it was way too hard. Haha. Hell, after all these years i’m still just a rhythm guitarist at that. Ha. But atleast I enjoy it and that’s all that matters. Killer, I wish you many more years of health and happiness, and Thank You for all these years of entertainment. Sincerely, Kyle Holden.
Jerry lee I am 24 years old been raised on the good music yourself hank sr George jones and so on you are one of my most favorite I am also a lover of the blues love the boogie woogie style you’ve made famous I sing and play guitar would love to learn piano but music is my only way through the day to to life I would love to make it a career but your music and you have been a inspiration crazy arms is one of the first I’ve learned ! Would make my life to meet you one day God bless you jerry lee !
Music & life goes on. Listening to your concerts. I saw a blond dancing holding on to a cigarette with her right hand while shaking so strong. This woman was an incredible dancer. It was 1969. Can not locate it. Of course, you were singing: “shaking” with a red Shirt, short sleeved. I bet this was one of your best presentations. How it was released in “69?” Or ever er. Really. Fantastic. Do you know which concert this could be. It was in the US.
Mr jerry lee. My dad loved u as do i now. He has passed away in 2013 at 82yrs. He claimed to be uour 1st welsh fan.:-) while he was in R.a.f. i would love to get to meet you? Have a happy 2021 & stay safe. Lynett Lynedwards@yahoo.co.uk
I was at the Blue Ash Music Festival in 2001 when you played there, and you were sizzling.
I have followed you since 1956 and all your albums are one my iPhone and played constantly in my car.You will always be my favourite. I finally got to see you in Glasgow on your last tour there..
Love your music 🎶
I HAD THE PLEASURE OF MEETING YOU IN THE 1980S WHILE DOING A STORY ON YOUR APPEARANCE IN PROVIDENCE RI. MY REPORTER THE LATE GLENN LAXTON WAS A ROCK-A-BILLY MUSICIAN OF HIS OWN AND HEARING YOUR MUSIC AND SEEING YOU REMINDS ME OF HIM. GOD BLESS AND A BELATED HAPPY 85TH. -SCOTT D.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lewis!
Hope you and yours are having a GREAT season!
I enjoy your music, style, and I’m a huge fan of the impact that you have, and have made, in the music industry!
Thank You.
God Bless You and your Family!~
Cheers!
I love jerry lee lewis’s music he is like an idol to me may god bless him and his family
Still here your music today on the radios, stores, random playlists! LEGEND! Always will be a fan
Dear Mr. Lewis. I am 67 years old, a bassist in 5 bands. You are one of the main reasons I’m a musician. My Mom played your R & R records, then your country and I loved everyone. My dear Uncle Don would say about you, “That’s m’man!” Wish I’d known of this site earlier. Anyway, thank you so much for your music and I feel fortunate to have lived in the same lifetime as yourself.