Jerry Lee Lewis was born in a very religious family on September 29, 1935. His family, not very wealthy, sold their house when he was a child to get their son a piano. He loved to play piano.

He was sent to a religious school, but was soon thrown out - he made a boogie version of a song about Jesus, something they could not accept. Jerry was not too sad about it - he was happy to be free again.

At 17, young Jerry Lee married at the first time. The marriage would last for about a year. He married another girl three weeks before he had divorced the first one, and the second marriage would not last for long either.

In November 1956, he moved in to his male cousin in Memphis. They would start a band together, with Jerry as singer. They sold a copy of their first song, Crazy Arms, to legendary Sam Phillips, President of Sun Records - his name had now become famous because of his discovering of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Phillips liked the song a lot. Jerry Lee Lewis was a quite well known name in Memphis around Christmas times in 1956.

Two months later, in January 1957, he recorded a new song, the self-penned End of the Road. Singers did not often write their songs at that time. Jerry was fresh in many ways. He did not only write some of his songs himself - most important of all, he played piano. Every rock singer at that time played guitar, just look at Elvis Presley, Tommy Steele, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry etc. A couple of people did not believe that teenage girls would be impressed of a man on a piano - but they did.

Jerry Lee Lewis got his big breakthrough in April 1957, when he went to New York and appeared in the very popular Steve Allen Show with the "nigger song" (as they called it at that time) Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On. A couple of number 1-hits would soon follow, Great Balls of Fire and High School Confidential. Many people talked about that Jerry Lee would be bigger than The King of Rock'n'Roll - Elvis Presley.

In late 1957, the audiences stormed the stage when he put a piano on fire. Chuck Berry should originally have ended the evening, but he refused to do it, simply because he understood that he never could make a show like that.

Elvis went into the army in the late winter of 1958, so Jerry Lee was now alone.

But problems would come. Very serious problems. In 1957, he married his 13-year old cousin, Myra Lewis, in secret. Her parents was deeply hurt, but after a discussion with Sam Phillips, they forgave Jerry as far as it was possible.

Jerry's marriage was unknown to the press and fans until he went to a England tour in the spring of 1958. Again, fans stormed the stage - but this time often to express their disgust.

The marriage was first-page-stuff in newspapers all over the world. His career was ruined. However, he had just signed a five-year contract to Sun Records, which did that he continued to record songs until 1963 - but during the last years, he made few Rock'n'Roll songs, ballades was his new thing, probably because of depression.

Jerry and Myra had one son, Steve Allen Lewis, but he drowned as a three year old baby. They divorced in 1970, after thirteen years of bad treatment in the press.

But Jerry's career was not finished. In 1968, he made his great comeback, as a country singer. And during the next few years, he performed more and more Rock 'n' Roll again.

He married a fourth time, in October 1971, but they divorced about two years later. They had one child. The same year as the divorce took place, Jerry's first son, who was born during his very first marriage, died in an auto accident. This was without doubt one of the main reasons of the alcoholism that surrounded Jerry during the next fifteen years. He almost died of a ruptured stomach in 1981. People thought that The Killer was finished. But he was not.

Jerry Lee Lewis gives us brilliant concerts even today, at the age of 70 and with a wild, wild life behind him. He divorced his sixth wife in the summer of 2005, after over twenty years of marriage. He is still a wild man - and he is still on fire!


At her ten-year high school reunion, Janis Joplin introduced her younger sister to Lewis, who was a guest. Lewis commented to her that "you wouldn't be half-bad-looking if you weren't trying to look like your sister." Janis slugged Lewis for the comment. Lewis slugged her back, saying, "If you're gonna act like a man, I'm gonna treat you like one!". Cousin of Jimmy Swaggart and Mickey Gilley. Almost died from a ruptured stomach in 1981. His first cousin, once removed Myra Lewis was 13 years old when they married. Revitalized his career in the late 1960s as a country singer. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 2005. Was on the critical list in a Memphis hospital in November 1985. Is portrayed by Dennis Quaid in Great Balls of Fire! (1989), by Waylon Payne in Walk the Line (2005), and James C. Victor in Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story (1999) (TV). Recorded his song "What'd I Say" with guitarist Hank Garland. Hated his ex-wife Myra Lewis' autobiographical book "Great Balls of Fire". Was in the process of finalizing a divorce from his fourth wife, Jaren, when she drowned in a swimming pool in 1982. They had separated in 1974. Siblings: Linda Gail Lewis (b. 1947), Frankie Jean Lewis (b. 1944) and Elmo Lewis Jr. Father, with Myra, of a boy named Steven Allen Lewis (1959-1962) and a girl named Phoebe Allen Lewis (b. 1963). Contrary to public assumption, Lewis said that he actually had the nickname "Killer" ever since childhood. As a boy, he had the habit of calling acquaintances and friends "Killer," and they would return the greeting. The nickname has stuck with him since. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.