In his prime they didn’t come any more bad ass than Jerry Lee Lewis. If you wanted your rock n’ roll WILD you just needed Jerry Lee and you had it. Check this famous Granada TV performance -
That’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on. And a great hair cut.
Off stage Jerry Lee and his daddy Elmo were a whole bunch more trouble. Knife fights, fist fights, fights with Elvis and Chuck Berry, pills, booze, fast cars, faster cars, car chases, car crashes, handguns, prison, tax evasion cases, private planes, and lots and lots of wives and girlfriends. In fact the wildest of the wild.
Not content with being the subject of the best rock n’ roll book ever, (Nick Tosches’ Hellfire, in which Tosches reimagines Jerry Lee’s tormented battle between god and rock n’roll) Jerry Lee has just released his autobiography which tells the same half remembered stories again in nearly as colourful a fashion. Apparently they are all true. Sort of. And even if they aren’t they are really, truly great.
But it doesn’t tell the one that made the biggest impact on a good friend. Whilst enjoying a quiet toilet break at the Wembley Country Music Festival, the door opened and the urinal next to him was taken by none other than his hero Jerry Lee himself. As he was washing his (shaking) hands Jerry Lee finished, zipped up and headed for the door. As he passed he winked deep, put out a handshake, and in that strong southern twang left him with “Son, tell em you met the Killer” Not one you forget easily.
Time to dig out the greatest live album ever .. Jerry Lee at the Star Club Hamburg… and remind ourselves who was really MONEY.
-TH
