Just the other day my wife asked me if Jerry Lee Lewis had died. I told her I didn't think so, despite all his health problems.
A few days later I heard an NPR interview with 'The Killer' - just a few days before his 75th birthday, which is today.
Lewis hails from Ferriday, LA. I've driven by his childhood home. His cousin, preacher Jimmy Swaggart, also grew up in Ferriday. I once heard Lewis say that cousin Jimmy was a better piano player but chose to follow God. That Swaggart followed God could be open to debate, but there is no question about who or what Lewis followed (although his mother enrolled him in a bible institute in an illl-fated effort to guide his life). His personal life has been a shambles, and he ultimately had to find refuge in country music after his 1958 marriage to his 13-year-old cousin caused him to be blackballed from radio.
I have always loved Lewis' early rock 'n roll music, like his Great Balls of Fire (below, from American Bandstand) and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (my favorite). His trademark pounding piano is something else.
The man's an amazing talent.
"If I'm going to Hell, I'm going there playing the piano." -- Jerry Lee Lewis
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