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Jerry Lee Lewis, the piano-pounding, foot-stomping singer who electrified early rock ‘n’ roll with hits like “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” before marital scandal derailed his career, has died, according to a statement from his representative, Zach Farnum. He was 87.
Lewis passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis, the statement said. Farnum told media that Lewis died of “natural causes” when reached by phone.
His seventh wife, Judith, was by his side when he died and Lewis “told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid,” the statement added.
Lewis was born in 1935 into a poor farming family in Ferriday, Louisiana. One of his cousins, Jimmy Swaggart, would go on to become a popular TV evangelist. Lewis’ website says he began playing the piano at age 9, aping the styles of preachers and Black musicians who passed through the region.
After dropping out of school to focus on playing music, Lewis traveled in 1956 to Sun Studios in Memphis, where he quickly gained work as a session player for such budding stars as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. He also recorded with Elvis Presley.
