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Jerry Lee Lewis has lived a crazy life, one that leaves me surprised that he is the "last man standing," and his life is told wonderfully in story like narrative form by Nick Tosches. This was a real quick read, one that was really hard to put down, and the writing was simple and easy to read while painting vivid images of Lewis' life.
It starts from the very beginning (before this is a great antecdote about Lewis pulling a gun on one of the guys at Graceland because he wants to talk to Elvis), explaining how the Lewises settled in Ferriday, Louisiana, and really tells how things were in the south at that time, in addition to the roller coaster life that Lewis led. The most interesting part to this story is that Lewis had an older brother who had an incredible amount of musical talent, but was hit by a car and killed at the age of 9 (its odd that Elvis, Johnny Cash and Ray Charles also had brothers that died at a young age).
It seems to me that the legend of The Killer (who hated that nickname) is a pretty famous and entertaining one. While striking it big, he married his 13 year old cousin, Myra Gale(who happened to be the daughter of his bass player). Things went to hell when he outed their relationship in London, and he never quite recovered, even though he did gain a second wind as a country music star.
The antecdotes and information in these pages are great, especially his dealings with Sam Phillips at Sun Record (a great story is the argument they had over recording "Great Balls of Fire" because Lewis was having a religious moment), his marriages and his sort of fued/rivalry with Elvis. There is a lot of knowledge to be had, not only about Lewis and his family, but also about the south in the 40s and 50s, and the beginnings of rock and roll.
Written by: RF
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