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Jerry Lee Lewis

(1935-)

Who Is Jerry Lee Lewis?

Jerry Lee Lewis began playing the piano at age 9, copying the styles of preachers and Black musicians. He signed with Sun Records and became a rockabilly star. In 1958, Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin causing a record boycott but Lewis continued performing and made a comeback. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Early Life

With his innovative and flamboyant piano playing and catchy uptempo songs, Jerry Lee Lewis emerged as one of rock music's early showmen in the 1950s. Lewis was born on September 29, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, a small community where his musical talents became apparent early on. He taught himself to play piano and sang in church growing up. On the radio, Lewis listened to such shows as Grand Ole Opry and The Louisiana Hayride. Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Al Jolson were some of his early influences.

When he was 10 years old, Lewis got a piano of his very own. His father mortgaged the family farm to buy the instrument. He gave his first public performance at the ag

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Creating a Personal Style

In June 1949, at age thirteen, Lewis performed in public for the first time, at a car dealership, collecting $14, and before long was playing in local juke joints. As he developed his distinctly personal style, he poured into it everything that he loved: rousing gospel hymns, Tin Pan Alley songs, the classics of Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, the boogie-woogie piano playing of Black blues players and country great Moon Mullican. Often Lewis would sneak out at night to visit a Black nightclub in town, Haney’s Big House, along with his cousins Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. There Lewis reveled in the sounds of many leading Black artists, including Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, and B. B. King. “It was like strolling through heaven,” Lewis recalled.

In 1955, Lewis visited Nashville, hoping to land a record deal, but he found no takers. In the fall of 1956, after reading an article about Sun Records in Country Song Roundup magazine, he knew where he needed to go. His father sold all the eggs they had on

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Jerry Lee Lewis

American rock and roll musician (1935–2022)

This article is about the musician. For the comedian, see Jerry Lewis. For other uses, see Jerry Lee Lewis (disambiguation).

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 and 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".

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 o