Rock ‘n’ roll icon, Jerry Lee Lewis has died … TMZ has confirmed.
The “Great Balls of Fire” singer’s staff launched a press release Friday, saying, “Lewis, maybe the final true, nice icon of the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll, whose marriage of blues, gospel, nation, honky-tonk and uncooked, pounding stage performances so threatened a younger Elvis Presley that it made him cry, has died.”
A piano-playing legend, Jerry Lee is taken into account one of many first true rock ‘n’ roll musicians … rising to fame means again in 1957 along with his first hit, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”
Ever the showman, Jerry Lee was identified to mild his piano on fireplace to shut out a present … and he was nicknamed “The Killer” for the way in which he knocked out audiences.
Jerry Lee was born in Ferriday, Louisiana, and when he was 9 years previous he taught himself to play piano. His father mortgaged the household farm to purchase Jerry Lee his first piano when he was 10, and when he was 14 he had his first public efficiency at a neighborhood automotive dealership.
JL stop college to give attention to piano and he wound up in Memphis, the place he signed with Sun Studios in 1956 … jamming out with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash earlier than releasing his first single and changing into a star himself.
10/5/14
TMZ.com
Jerry Lee’s second single was “Great Balls of Fire” … it was launched in December 1957 and is a staple of popular culture, being featured in films like “Top Gun” and the latest sequel.
Dennis Quaid performed Jerry within the “Great Balls of Fire!” film about his life.
The first individual inducted into the primary class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, Jerry Lee performed large gigs effectively into his ’80s … and in 2013 he opened Jerry Lee Lewis’ Café & Honky Tonk on historic Beale Street in Memphis.
He was simply inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this 12 months, however was unable to attend the ceremony as a result of he was sick with the flu. Kris Kristofferson accepted the award for Jerry, and drove it to him to current it in individual.
Jerry Lee was 87.
RIP