Jerry Lee Lewis: Rock n’ roll star and Great Balls of Fire singer dies aged 87
Rock n’ roll star Jerry Lee Lewis, best known for 1957 hit Great Balls of Fire, has died at the age of 87.
Lewis died at home in Memphis, Tennessee, his representative Zach Farnum confirmed.
The rock n’ 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.
However, his private life was mired by scandal.
Jerry Lee Lewis performs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York in 2005
For a brief time, in 1958, he was a contender to replace Presley as rock’s number one, after Elvis was 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.
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 struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, legal disputes and physical illness.
Two of his seven marriages ended in his wife’s early death. Brown herself 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.
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Dame Joanna Lumley warns of ‘crisis hidden in plain sight’ – with 1.5 million older people set to spend Christmas alone
Dame Joanna Lumley has warned of a “crisis hidden in plain sight”, with 1.5 million older people set to spend Christmas alone.
Age UK spoke to more than 2,600 people and found 11% will eat dinner alone on 25 December, while 5% will not see or speak to anyone the whole day.
Applied to the overall population, the findings suggest 1.5 million people will eat alone at Christmas, according to the charity.
Dame Joanna said the “silence can be deafening” for those left isolated and called it “a crisis hidden in plain sight”.
The actor and campaigner is now joining other luminaries including Dame Judi Dench, Brian Cox and Miriam Margolyes to back Age UK’s campaign against loneliness.
The charity says its volunteers made more than 70,000 minutes’ worth of calls to people during Christmas week last year and is urging people to donate.
‘A tragedy we don’t talk about enough’
Age UK said it also supports coffee mornings and festive lunches to give lonely people the chance to enjoy in-person interaction.
Dame Judi said: “For so many older people, Christmas can be a time of silence – days without conversation or company.”
Succession star Brian Cox called the issue “a tragedy we don’t talk about enough”.
He said: “Far too many older people are left spending the season in silence, when it should be a time of warmth, connection and joy.”
Brian Cox is another of the campaign’s high-profile backers. Pic: PA
Margolyes, of Harry Potter fame, added: “Growing older shouldn’t mean disappearing into the background, we need to be seen, heard and celebrated.
“That’s what Age UK is striving for – they’re changing how we perceive age.”
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The charity’s chief executive, Paul Farmer, said: “Your donation could bring comfort, friendship, and care to an older person facing loneliness this winter.
“From friendly, weekly calls to local lunch clubs, we’re here to make sure no one spends winter alone. But we can’t do it without you.”
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