Rock and roll star Jerry Lee Lewis, best known for the 1957 hit Great Balls of Fire, has died at the age of 87.
Lewis died at home in Memphis, Tennessee, his representatives said.
The rock and roll pioneer – who called himself The Killer – was also known for the song Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and was the last survivor of a generation of groundbreaking performers that included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
He was once described as “a one-man stampede”. During a 1957 performance of Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On for a TV show, chairs were thrown at him.
“There was rockabilly. There was Elvis. But there was no pure rock ‘n’ roll before Jerry Lee Lewis kicked in the door,” he famously said about himself after the show.
He became known for his famous stage antics, such as playing the piano standing up and even lighting the occasional one on fire.
However, his private life was mired by scandal.
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For a brief time, in 1958, he was a contender to replace Presley as rock’s number one, after Elviswas drafted into the army.
But while Lewis toured in England, the press discovered he was married to 13-year-old (possibly even 12-year-old) Myra Gale Brown. She was his cousin, and he was still married to his previous wife.
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His tour was cancelled, he was blacklisted from the radio, and his earnings dropped overnight to virtually nothing.
“I probably would have rearranged my life a little bit different, but I never did hide anything from people,” Lewis told the Wall Street Journal in 2014 when asked about the marriage. “I just went on with my life as usual.”
‘Mental cruelty’
Over the following decades, Lewis, who was married seven times, struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, legal disputes and physical illness.
Brown divorced him in the early 1970s, and would later allege physical and mental cruelty that nearly drove her to suicide.
“If I was still married to Jerry, I’d probably be dead by now,” she told People magazine in 1989.
Lewis reinvented himself as a country performer in the 1960s, and the music industry eventually forgave him.
He won three Grammys, and recorded with some of the industry’s greatest stars, including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Sheryl Crow and Tim McGraw.
Lewis had six children. One son, Steve Allen Lewis, drowned in a swimming pool in 1962 aged three, and another, Jerry Lee Jr, died in a traffic accident at 19 in 1973.
Among tributes paid to the musician was one from Elton John who remembered him as a “trailblazing inspiration”.
The veteran musician, who has previously cited Lewis as an influence for his love of the piano, shared a photo of them together on his Instagram.
He wrote: “Without Jerry Lee Lewis, I wouldn’t have become who I am today.
“He was groundbreaking and exciting, and he pulverised the piano.
“A brilliant singer too. Thank you for your trailblazing inspiration and all the rock n’ roll memories.”
The Country Music Association tweeted: “It is with great sadness we’ve learned about the passing of Jerry Lee Lewis, who was just inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this month.”
With seven weeks to go until the US goes to the polls, Sky’s dedicated team of correspondents goes on the road to gauge what citizens in key swing states make of the choice for president.
This week they focus on the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Mark Stone travels to Florida where the foiled attack took place, while James Matthews has been finding out more about the suspected would-be assassin in his hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina.
Plus, Martha Kelner attended a Trump town hall in Flint, Michigan, to hear him speak for the first time after the attempt on his life, and asked voters if it will impact the way they vote in November.
A previous Titan submersible dive to the Titanic was aborted due to an apparent mechanical failure, one of the mission’s passengers has said.
Fred Hagen had paid a fee to go on a dive in the Titan in 2021, two years before it imploded and killed all five passengers onboard.
He told a US Coast Guard panel investigating the tragedy on Friday that his trip was aborted underwater when the Titan began malfunctioning and it was clear they weren’t going to reach the Titanic wreck site.
“We realised that all it could do was spin around in circles, making right turns,” Mr Hagen said. “At this juncture, we obviously weren’t going to be able to navigate to the Titanic.”
He said the Titan resurfaced and the mission was scrapped.
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A Republican backed by Donald Trump in his bid to be North Carolina’s governor denied reports he called himself a “black nazi” on an online message board.
CNN reported Thursday that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson posted racial and sexual comments on a pornography website more than a decade ago.
In a video posted on social media, the Republican nominee said he would not leave the race over “salacious tabloid lies”.
“We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it. And we know that with your help, we will.”
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Mr Robinson also referenced the CNN report and said: “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story – those are not the words of Mark Robinson.
“You know my words. You know my character.”
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The US outlet reported Mr Robson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14.
He was also said to have used a racial slur when discussing civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, referred to himself as a “black nazi,” and said: “I’d take Hitler over any of the shit that’s in Washington right now.”
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CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.
Sky News has not verified whether the account is linked to Mr Robinson.
Eight minutes after the report was published on Thursday, vice president Kamala Harris’ campaign started sharing videos of Donald Trump praising Mr Robinson.
One video from the campaign on X shows the former president at a March rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he called the lieutenant governor “Martin Luther King times two”.
“I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” Mr Trump said.
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Scott Lassiter, a GOP Senate candidate in a swing district in the state, called on Mr Robinson to “suspend his campaign to allow a quality candidate to finish this race”.
Mr Trump’s campaign also appeared to be distancing itself from Mr Robinson.
The ex-president did not refer to the controversy when he addressed Jewish donors on Thursday night, instead vowing to be ‘the best friend Jewish Americans ever had”.