American rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis dies at 87

Jerry Lee Lewis and his piano, his favorite instrument, during a photo shoot in the 1970s. The singer died at the age of 87.

© Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

One of the last great pioneers of rock 'n' roll, American musician Jerry Lee Lewis, has died at the age of 87.

Nicknamed 'The Killer,' the 'Great Balls of Fires' author, renowned for his strong stage presence and dynamic piano style, has passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, his doorstep has said. -speak in a press release.

Advertising

Read more

Born September 29, 1935 into a poor family in Ferriday, Louisiana, he discovered the piano at age 9 and his parents mortgaged the family farm to pay for his instrument.

In 1956, he left for Memphis, Tennessee, "the Mecca" of new American music, and was one of the first to sign with the famous Sun Records label.

His meeting, that same year, with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins gives birth to a legendary recording session known as the “Million Dollar Quartet” (“The Million Dollar Quartet”).

In 1957, his first title,

, already bears the mark of his disheveled style.

Both friend and rival of King Elvis Presley himself, Jerry Lee Lewis had influenced a whole generation of musicians, like Bruce Springsteen who said about him in 1995: "

.

»

While rock is still in its infancy, crowds flock to see him pounding the keyboard fiercely with his fingers, elbows or feet, his hair swinging furiously to the frantic rhythm as he sends his stool waltzing in a wild dance step .

A few months later, "Great Balls of Fire", which will also be the title of a docu-drama on his life in 1989, propels him into the top of sales and makes him one of the most adored stars of the moment. .

He was as famous for his hits as for the dramas and scandals that marked his existence.

Jerry Lee Lewis marries Myra Gale Brown in December 1957. A scandal erupts when the press discovers that his third wife is his 13-year-old first cousin.

American radio stations decided to boycott the singer, who fell out of favor for a few years before resurfacing by abandoning rock for country music.

Fanciful and sometimes violent, alcohol and drugs have earned him serious health problems and as many problems with the police.

But the legend does not weaken, on the contrary, and he is one of the first musicians inducted into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" (museum and pantheon of rock, in Cleveland, Ohio), when it was created in 1986.

He spent part of his last years on his ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi, with his seventh wife, and was still performing in early 2019. But, following a minor stroke in May of that year, he canceled concerts.

With agencies

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• United States

• Musics