For the longest time, it seemed that if Jerry Lee Lewis wasn’t dead already, then obviously nothing could kill him. But what alcohol, painkillers, a perforated stomach ulcer, angry fathers and general recklessness couldn’t do, advancing age finally did. The seemingly indestructible rock ’n’ roll wild man died Friday at his home in DeSoto County, Mississippi, near Memphis, his representative confirmed to USA TODAY in a statement. Lewis was 87.
Along with Little Richard and Fats Domino, Lewis established the piano as a rock ’n’ roll instrument. In 1957, his “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” and “Great Balls of Fire,” two of the most outrageous hits of rock ’n’ roll’s first generation, ignited the pop, country and R&B charts simultaneously.
Lewis didn’t just play the piano, he attacked it, pummeling the lower register with rock-steady left-hand lines and ripping across the keyboard with slashing glissandos. He smashed the keys with his foot; he kicked the piano stool out from under him and continued to pound away.
Lewis performed in a 1958 teen flick called “High School Confidential,” and his real life was every bit as lurid as the film’s title promised. On the opening night of disc jockey Alan Freed’s “Big Beat Show” in March 1958, after losing an argument about whether he or Chuck Berry should close the show, Lewis poured a bottle of gasoline on his piano and set it ablaze. “They had to call the fire department and everything,” Lewis remembered in Rick Bragg’s 2014 biography “Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story.”
Two months later, news of the 22-year-old star’s marriage to his 13-year-old third cousin Myra Gale Brown broke during a tour of England, setting off a firestorm of controversy. Lewis and Brown had wed the previous December, just days after the release of “Great Balls of Fire.” The marriage was Lewis’ third, though he’d never officially divorced his first wife.
The British tour had come just after the Army drafted Elvis Presley and right on the heels of Lewis’ two huge hits. Lewis had been poised to snatch the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s throne away from him. Instead, the tour was canceled after just three dates, Lewis’ single “Breathless” fell off the charts, and he never had another top 10 pop hit.
“I’ve done some crazy things,” he told USA TODAY in 2010 of his more outlandish exploits. “I messed up along the way and got what was coming to me.”
Lewis experienced a comeback in country music during the late ’60s – around the same time he starred as Iago in a rock ’n’ roll adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Othello” called “Catch My Soul.” He was a regular presence on the country charts through the end of the next decade with such singles as “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)” and “Middle Age Crazy.”
He recorded sporadically after the early ’80s, releasing a Sun Records-esque comeback album, “Young Blood,” in 1995. Two duets albums followed (“Last Man Standing and “Mean Old Man”), which paired him with George Jones, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger, and his final album, 2014’s “Rock & Roll Time,” featured Keith Richards and Neil Young.
Lewis was one of the original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Chuck Berry, Elvis, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. After Don Everly died in 2021, Lewis became the longest-surviving member of the induction class.
In 1989, Dennis Quaid portrayed Lewis in the garish biopic “Great Balls of Fire.” At the time of Lewis’ death, director Ethan Coen had completed the documentary “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind,” which focused on the star’s graces and demons, and premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2022. (USAToday)