In the mid-fifties he had entered the Olympus of rock'n roll, thanks also to unforgettable songs such as "Great Balls of Fire", which entered the soundtrack of the film "Top Gun".
Jerry Lee Lewis, nicknamed "The Killer", died aged 87 at his home in south Memphis . Recently entered the Country Hall of Fame, he had not been well for some time: Tmz two days ago had announced his death only to retract.
Born in Louisiana to a very poor family who had mortgaged their house to buy him his first piano, Jerry had learned to play on his own and at 14 he had performed for the first time in public at a local car dealership. As a child he attended an evangelical school, from which he was kicked out for playing a boogie-woogie version of "My God is Real" considered irreverent.
The first record was a steroid version of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms". With "Whole Lotta Shakin 'Goin' On" in 1957 the record company Sun Records got what they were looking for and " Great Balls of Fire " in November of that same year sealed the triumph.
His performances on stage were memorable, Lewis went up there " as if he were possessed by the music of the devil ", said the same person concerned. A rapid rise and an equally rapid fall: in 1958, as the third hit "Breathless" climbed to second place on the charts, Jerry embarked on a triumphal tour of Britain and the reporters in tow discovered that the girl who was traveling with him , Myra Gale Brown, was his wife of 13 and moreover a cousin , and that Lewis was still married to a second wife when he took his third wedding vows.
A scandal that was not appeased by Lewis's justifications: "13 is not young, age doesn't matter in our country and you can get married even at 10 if you find a husband ," she said.
He stayed away for a long time because of the scandal, but in the mid-sixties he was back, thanks to country : about twenty of his albums entered the top ten of the genre.
Between the 70s and 80s the abuse of alcohol and drugs and some family disasters , the fourth wife drowned in the swimming pool and the fifth due to a methadone overdose. In 1976, while watching TV, he injured his guitarist in the chest while aiming for a bottle of Coca Cola. The victim sued. Two months later, he then broke into Graceland, Presley's Memphis mansion, a few hours after he was arrested for drunk driving.
An eventful life, a music legend who had been in his "buen retiro" in Memphis for years. Late yesterday the news of his death.
(Unioneonline / L)
