Seven marriages, scandal over a baby bride and a messy arrest exterior Elvis Presley’s compound … It’s secure to say Jerry Lee Lewis’ life within the highlight was marred by controversy.
The US rocker and gifted pianist, who died at his dwelling in Mississippi on Friday aged 87, hit stardom within the Nineteen Fifties along with his hit songs Nice Balls of Hearth and Complete Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.
Lewis’ agent Zach Farnum stated he had died of pure causes and was “maybe the final true, nice icon of the delivery of rock’n’roll”.
“He was there at first, with Elvis [Presley], Johnny Money, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Fat Domino, Buddy Holly, and the remainder, and watched them fade away one after the other til it was him alone to bear witness, and sing of the delivery of rock’n’roll,” Mr Farnum added in an announcement per BBC.
However shortly after his rise to world success within the late ‘50s, Lewis’ fame took an virtually irreparable dive when his third marriage to his 13-year-old cousin hit the headlines.
Baby bride scandal
In 1958, Lewis arrived within the UK for his British tour along with his new spouse, who on the time was unknown to the general public. Presley had simply enlisted within the military, paving the way in which for Lewis, then aged 22, to guide the cost on the planet of rock’n’roll.
A reporter awaited his arrival at Heathrow Airport, and requested the younger woman by Lewis’ facet, “Who’re you?”
That younger woman was Myra Gale Brown, the 13-year-old daughter of Lewis’ bassist J.W. Brown, and Lewis’ secret spouse of a number of months. She replied truthfully.
Inside days, Lewis’ UK tour had been scrapped and radio stations pulled his hit songs as newspapers splashed with the scandalous story of his youngster bride.
By 1970, the couple, who welcomed two youngsters throughout their marriage, had break up. Brown filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery and abuse, alleging that she had been “topic to each sort of bodily and psychological abuse possible”.
In a uncommon interview with The Guardian in 2014, Brown steered she regretted their union.
“Okay, in the event you say to me now, ‘There’s a 13-year-old woman over right here who desires to get married’, I might say ‘God, please don’t do this, little woman. Go to varsity, get an schooling, then determine it out’,” Brown, then aged 70, stated.
“But it surely was a special world, issues have modified so drastically. Choices, mindsets – this world has gone so quick the final 50 years you can’t sustain with it.”
Lewis would go on to marry an extra 4 instances.
He managed to reboot his profession within the late ‘60s after making the change to nation music, the place he skilled chart-topping success once more with songs together with One other Place, One other Time, To Make Love Sweeter for You and There Should Be Extra to Love Than This.
Arrest exterior Elvis Presley’s dwelling
In late 1976, Lewis was arrested exterior Presley’s Graceland compound in Memphis with a loaded pistol.
Lewis had been consuming at an area nightclub when he drove to Graceland and by accident smashed into the gates, a lot to the shock of Presley’s cousin Harold Lloyd, who was manning the property.
“Come out, and we’ll quickly discover out who’s King,” Lewis is reported to have stated.
Regardless of Presley and Lewis being associates on the time, the then-reclusive Presley instructed his guards to name the police, who later discovered a gun in Lewis’ automobile and proceeded to arrest him.
The weird incident was later defined by Lewis in author Rick Bragg’s 2014 authorised biography, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Personal Story.
“The cops requested Elvis, ‘What would you like us to do? And Elvis instructed ’em, ‘lock him up’. That harm my emotions. To be terrified of me — knowin’ me the way in which he did — was ridiculous,” Lewis stated within the ebook.
Lewis was charged with carrying a pistol and public drunkenness.
Simply eight months later, Presley died at Graceland.
Re-emergence in showbiz
It wasn’t till the late ‘80s when Lewis would discover business success once more.
The four-time Grammy Award winner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame at its inaugural occasion in 1986, and the 1989 film Nice Balls of Hearth! – starring Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin – bolstered him into the highlight but once more, the film primarily based on Brown’s ebook about their lives collectively.
In more moderen years, his 2006 album Final Man Standing was his greatest promoting launch, whereas his 2010 album Imply Outdated Man turned one other prime vendor.
This yr, he was lastly inducted into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame.
In his closing days, his spouse Judith stated he “was not afraid” of dying. He’s survived by 4 youngsters.
Initially revealed as Inside the various controversies of Jerry Lee Lewis as rocker dies aged 87
