WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:07.599 wrestling with a paradox. A massive, loud, piano 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:10.539 -kicking paradox. We are talking about a man 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:13.640 who was synonymous with the birth of rock and 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:17.219 roll. A man nicknamed The Killer. But we're also 00:00:17.219 --> 00:00:19.859 talking about a man who was... arguably more 00:00:19.859 --> 00:00:21.940 tortured by the music he created than anyone 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.179 else, I mean, maybe in the history of the genre. 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:26.300 It's a fascinating tension, isn't it? Usually 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:28.120 when we talk about rock and roll rebels, we're 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:31.160 talking about people who, you know, they embraced 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:33.159 the rebellion. They wanted to tear down the system. 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:34.840 They were leaning into. They were leaning in 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:37.119 hard. They wanted to shock the parents. But the 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:40.649 subject of today's dive was a devout man. He 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:43.789 was genuinely deeply plagued by the fear. I mean, 00:00:43.810 --> 00:00:46.130 the absolute theological conviction that his 00:00:46.130 --> 00:00:48.729 own music was a one way ticket to hell. It's 00:00:48.729 --> 00:00:51.630 heavy stuff. We are talking, of course, about 00:00:51.630 --> 00:00:53.490 Jerry Lee Lewis. And I think what makes this 00:00:53.490 --> 00:00:55.789 deep dive so compelling is just the sheer altitude 00:00:55.789 --> 00:00:57.750 of the roller coaster. I mean, we're talking 00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:00.649 about a figure who experienced arguably the highest 00:01:00.649 --> 00:01:04.609 highs in music history. Instant worldwide fame, 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:07.189 challenging Elvis Presley for the crown, and 00:01:07.189 --> 00:01:10.549 then the absolute lowest lows. Complete career 00:01:10.549 --> 00:01:13.870 implosion. A scandal that would have ended anyone 00:01:13.870 --> 00:01:17.790 else's career instantly. And tragedy that just 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:20.689 reads like a Greek myth. It's relentless. It 00:01:20.689 --> 00:01:23.090 is a story of survival, really. I think that's 00:01:23.090 --> 00:01:24.969 the core theme we found in the source material. 00:01:25.109 --> 00:01:28.629 We're looking at a man who outlived his contemporaries, 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:31.650 outlived multiple wives, outlived his own reputation, 00:01:31.709 --> 00:01:33.750 and then managed to rebuild it from scratch. 00:01:33.769 --> 00:01:36.790 Not once, but twice. Exactly. And just to set 00:01:36.790 --> 00:01:38.670 the stage for you listening, our source material 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:41.390 today is the comprehensive biography of Jerry 00:01:41.390 --> 00:01:43.069 Lee Lewis. And we're pulling from historical 00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:45.709 accounts, session logs, interviews, all of it. 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:47.150 Yeah, we've got a lot to get through. His music, 00:01:47.209 --> 00:01:49.469 his seven marriages, his run -ins with the law, 00:01:49.609 --> 00:01:52.269 which are legendary, and his multiple musical 00:01:52.269 --> 00:01:54.849 reinventions. And our mission here is to move 00:01:54.849 --> 00:01:57.819 a bit beyond just great balls of fire. We all 00:01:57.819 --> 00:02:00.060 know the song. We all know the energy. But we 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:02.640 want to look at the survival instinct. This was 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.519 the last surviving member of the Million Dollar 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.500 Quartet. The last man standing. We want to understand 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:11.159 how he transitioned from being a total pariah 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:14.659 in the rock world to a legitimate country music 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:17.259 superstar. And we need to answer the question. 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:20.800 Was the chaos the fuel for the music or was the 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:22.939 music the only thing holding back the chaos? 00:02:23.469 --> 00:02:25.469 That's the central question. And we have to talk 00:02:25.469 --> 00:02:27.550 about the piano. We absolutely have to talk about 00:02:27.550 --> 00:02:29.689 the piano. The kicking of the bench, the playing 00:02:29.689 --> 00:02:32.909 with the feet, the raw, unfiltered nature of 00:02:32.909 --> 00:02:35.930 it all. So let's unpack this. Let's start at 00:02:35.930 --> 00:02:38.229 the very beginning. Where does a character like 00:02:38.229 --> 00:02:39.909 Jerry Lee Lewis come from? Because sometimes 00:02:39.909 --> 00:02:42.090 it feels like he just fell out of the sky, fully 00:02:42.090 --> 00:02:44.849 formed, with a cigar in one hand and a glass 00:02:44.849 --> 00:02:47.150 of whiskey in the other. Well, he didn't fall 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:49.189 from the sky, but you could say he rose from 00:02:49.189 --> 00:02:52.120 the mud. To understand the man, you have to understand 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:55.479 the soil he grew up on. He was born in 1935 in 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:58.620 Faraday, Louisiana. Now, Faraday isn't a metropolis. 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:02.979 In the 30s, this was hard country. The source 00:03:02.979 --> 00:03:06.979 material paints a very specific picture. An impoverished 00:03:06.979 --> 00:03:10.300 farming family in eastern Louisiana. So, humble 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:13.120 beginnings. Is that fair to say? Humble is putting 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:16.400 it politely. This was subsistence farming. But 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:17.900 here is where it gets really interesting and 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:20.539 almost unbelievable. If you look at his family 00:03:20.539 --> 00:03:22.639 tree, it's like a layout for a musical dynasty. 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:26.020 It's almost statistically impossible how much 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:28.699 talent was in this one extended family. He grew 00:03:28.699 --> 00:03:31.340 up playing piano with two of his cousins. One 00:03:31.340 --> 00:03:33.340 was Mickey Gilly. Wait, the Mickey Dilly, the 00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:35.580 country star, urban cowboy Mickey Gilly? The 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:37.719 very same. The owner of Gilly's, the world's 00:03:37.719 --> 00:03:40.379 biggest honky -tonk. Wow, okay. And the other 00:03:40.379 --> 00:03:43.020 cousin? The other cousin, Jimmy Swagger. No way. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:46.159 The televangelist. The I -have -sinned Jimmy 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.719 Swaggart. Yes. So imagine that living room for 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:51.360 a second. You have Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, 00:03:51.379 --> 00:03:53.479 and Jimmy Swaggart, all kids, all learning to 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.460 play piano together on the same beat -up instrument. 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:58.159 That is just wild. It's an incredible concentration 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:01.300 of charisma. You have the king of country nightclubs, 00:04:01.379 --> 00:04:03.819 the king of televangelism, and the killer of 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:06.960 rock and roll. All sharing a piano bench. It 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:08.900 explains a lot about the showmanship, doesn't 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:11.139 it? Whether you're preaching to save souls or 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:13.639 playing rock and roll to, well, corrupt them, 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:16.379 you need to command an audience. You need that 00:04:16.379 --> 00:04:19.060 fire. Precisely. They're two sides of the same 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:21.740 coin. The preaching style of the assembly of 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:23.860 God and the performance style of early rock and 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:27.240 roll. They share the same DNA. It's about ecstasy. 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.019 It's about being moved by the spirit. Okay. And 00:04:30.019 --> 00:04:32.939 a family was dedicated to this talent. His parents, 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:35.579 Elmo and Mamie Lewis, they actually mortgaged 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:38.079 their farm to buy him a piano. That's a massive 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:40.720 gamble. We're talking about the 1940s. A mortgage 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:42.860 on a family farm for a musical instrument. That's 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:44.660 like Jack and the Beanstalk levels of rhythm. 00:04:44.699 --> 00:04:46.959 It was. But they heard something. He had this 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.480 natural affinity. And his musical education was, 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:52.699 let's call it, eclectic. He was influenced by 00:04:52.699 --> 00:04:55.160 an older cousin, Carl McFoy, who taught him some 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.899 of the basics. But the real spice, the thing 00:04:57.899 --> 00:04:59.480 that made Jerry Lee different from the other 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:02.470 kids, came from Haney's Big House. What was Haney's 00:05:02.470 --> 00:05:04.949 big house? That sounds like a cartoon location. 00:05:05.189 --> 00:05:07.689 It was a black juke joint across the tracks. 00:05:07.870 --> 00:05:10.430 Now remember, this is the segregated South. He 00:05:10.430 --> 00:05:12.930 couldn't go in. It would have been socially unacceptable 00:05:12.930 --> 00:05:16.290 and frankly dangerous for a young white kid to 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:18.769 just waltz into a black club. Right, of course. 00:05:19.069 --> 00:05:21.050 But he would hide in the bushes outside. He would 00:05:21.050 --> 00:05:22.870 just listen to the sounds coming out of the windows. 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:25.189 And what was he hearing? He was hearing the blues. 00:05:25.470 --> 00:05:27.529 He was hearing rhythm and blues. He was hearing 00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:31.990 a driving, sexual, rhythmic pulse that you just 00:05:31.990 --> 00:05:34.050 didn't hear in the white country music or the 00:05:34.050 --> 00:05:35.790 polite gospel of the time. That's where the flavor 00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:38.189 came from. He took the white country gospel he 00:05:38.189 --> 00:05:40.870 learned at home and just injected it with the 00:05:40.870 --> 00:05:43.529 rhythm of the juke joint. So you've got the church 00:05:43.529 --> 00:05:45.430 on one side of the tracks and the juke joint 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:47.850 on the other. That is the central tension of 00:05:47.850 --> 00:05:50.250 his entire life, right there in the geography 00:05:50.250 --> 00:05:53.529 of his childhood. And he started young. His first 00:05:53.529 --> 00:05:56.189 public performance, his first ever gig, was on 00:05:56.189 --> 00:06:00.050 November 19th, 1949. He was just a kid. 14 years 00:06:00.050 --> 00:06:02.850 old. 14. He played with a country and western 00:06:02.850 --> 00:06:06.910 band at a car dealership in Faraday. A car dealership, 00:06:06.910 --> 00:06:09.430 that is. Oh. That's almost cinematic in its own 00:06:09.430 --> 00:06:12.129 way. So American. It is. They opened the back 00:06:12.129 --> 00:06:15.430 of a flatbed truck to use as a stage. But apparently, 00:06:15.589 --> 00:06:18.490 he just stole the show. The highlight was a cover 00:06:18.490 --> 00:06:21.810 of Drinkin' Wine, Spodeo D by Dick McGee. Wait, 00:06:21.829 --> 00:06:24.889 wait. He's 14 years old and he's singing a drinking 00:06:24.889 --> 00:06:27.810 song at a car dealership. Already leaning into 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:29.990 the killer persona, even if he didn't know it 00:06:29.990 --> 00:06:32.589 yet. But this is where the conflict really kicks 00:06:32.589 --> 00:06:36.149 in. His mother, Mary Maney Lewis, she was a devout 00:06:36.149 --> 00:06:38.850 woman. She saw this talent, but she was terrified 00:06:38.850 --> 00:06:41.089 of where it was leading. She saw the juke joint 00:06:41.089 --> 00:06:43.810 in his playing. She did. She wanted him to use 00:06:43.810 --> 00:06:47.040 that talent for the Lord. So she took drastic 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.339 action. She enrolled him in the Southwest Bible 00:06:49.339 --> 00:06:52.139 Institute in Waxhia, Texas. To become a preacher 00:06:52.139 --> 00:06:55.300 or a gospel singer? To sing evangelical songs 00:06:55.300 --> 00:06:58.339 exclusively. That was the plan. Use the gift 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:01.800 for God. But Jerry Lee, well, he couldn't suppress 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:03.319 the boogie woogie. It was just in his hands. 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:05.459 This is the famous expulsion story, right? I 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:06.839 feel like every rock star has a kicked out of 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:09.560 school story. But this one feels different. It's 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.959 more profound. It is different because of the 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:14.160 context. He wasn't, you know, smoking in the 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:16.769 boys room. He was expelled from musical blasphemy. 00:07:16.870 --> 00:07:19.029 He was at a church assembly, supposed to be playing 00:07:19.029 --> 00:07:23.029 a hymn. The song was My God is Real. A standard 00:07:23.029 --> 00:07:26.550 reverent hymn. Yes. But he didn't play it straight. 00:07:26.750 --> 00:07:29.129 He played a boogie -woogie rendition of it. In 00:07:29.129 --> 00:07:31.949 a Bible institute. He syncopated a hymn. Exactly. 00:07:32.110 --> 00:07:35.089 He sped it up. He added that driving left -hand 00:07:35.089 --> 00:07:38.509 rhythm. Perry Green, who was the student body 00:07:38.509 --> 00:07:41.250 president at the time, said that the dean called 00:07:41.250 --> 00:07:44.720 Jerry Lee into his office the very next morning 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:47.060 and expelled him immediately. Just for the rhythm. 00:07:47.220 --> 00:07:49.699 Just for that. For playing worldly music. That 00:07:49.699 --> 00:07:51.699 was the term they used. They told him he was 00:07:51.699 --> 00:07:54.600 washing the Holy Spirit in the gutter. And this 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:56.220 moment is just crucial for you to understand. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:58.480 This wasn't just the man trying to keep him down. 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:01.379 This established the battlefield inside his own 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:04.060 head. How so? Well, he respected these people. 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:07.000 He believed in their theology. So when they told 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.110 him this music is of the devil. He didn't think, 00:08:10.110 --> 00:08:12.730 oh, you guys are just squares. No, he thought... 00:08:12.730 --> 00:08:15.970 He thought, you might be right. He loved the 00:08:15.970 --> 00:08:19.029 music, this driving, rhythmic, exciting sound. 00:08:19.269 --> 00:08:22.170 But the very institutions he respected told him 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:25.230 it was sinful. That's the tragedy of it. He didn't 00:08:25.230 --> 00:08:27.029 play it because he was some rebel who didn't 00:08:27.029 --> 00:08:29.110 care about religion. He played it because he 00:08:29.110 --> 00:08:31.129 couldn't help himself, but he carried the guilt 00:08:31.129 --> 00:08:33.169 that he was doing something wrong every single 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:35.629 time he hit the keys. Exactly. He was sinning 00:08:35.629 --> 00:08:39.200 with every note in his own mind. So... Kicked 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.100 out of Bible school, he goes back to the only 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:44.080 place that'll have him, the clubs. Right. Starts 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:45.679 playing in Faraday and Natchez, Mississippi. 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:48.159 He's soaking up the new rock and roll sound. 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:51.240 He actually cut a demo in New Orleans in 1952, 00:08:51.259 --> 00:08:54.100 but nothing really happened with it. The real 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:56.379 turning point comes when he decides to make the 00:08:56.379 --> 00:08:59.539 pilgrimage. To Memphis. To Memphis. To Sun Records. 00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:02.769 To see The Wizard. Sam Phillips. The man who 00:09:02.769 --> 00:09:05.769 found Elvis. The man who was building this whole 00:09:05.769 --> 00:09:09.029 new world. It's November 1956. Lewis travels 00:09:09.029 --> 00:09:11.990 to Sun Records. And I want to highlight the desperation 00:09:11.990 --> 00:09:15.409 here. He didn't just hop on a bus. He and his 00:09:15.409 --> 00:09:17.409 father gathered up all the eggs on their farm, 00:09:17.649 --> 00:09:21.129 33 dozen eggs, and sold them to a local market 00:09:21.129 --> 00:09:24.809 just to pay for the gas to get to Memphis. 33 00:09:24.809 --> 00:09:28.470 dozen eggs. That is such a specific, granular 00:09:28.470 --> 00:09:31.330 detail that it really paints the picture of their 00:09:31.330 --> 00:09:34.269 poverty. He literally scraped the farm clean 00:09:34.269 --> 00:09:36.570 to get a tank of gas. That's how desperate he 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:38.570 was. But here's the thing. After selling the 00:09:38.570 --> 00:09:41.250 eggs and driving all that way, Sam Phillips wasn't 00:09:41.250 --> 00:09:43.330 there. He was on vacation in Florida. Oh, wow. 00:09:43.490 --> 00:09:46.269 So he drives all that way, sells all the family's 00:09:46.269 --> 00:09:47.990 eggs. And the guy isn't even in the building. 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:50.070 He almost missed his shot entirely. He might 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:52.230 have. But the producer and engineer, Jack Clement, 00:09:52.330 --> 00:09:54.789 was there. And Clement was skeptical. He told 00:09:54.789 --> 00:09:57.070 Lewis, we really need another country singer. 00:09:57.210 --> 00:10:00.169 But Lewis insisted on playing. He basically refused 00:10:00.169 --> 00:10:02.730 to leave until he was heard. I love that, the 00:10:02.730 --> 00:10:05.110 confidence. He recorded a version of Ray Price's 00:10:05.110 --> 00:10:07.870 Crazy Arms. And what did Clement think? He was 00:10:07.870 --> 00:10:09.669 impressed enough to play the tape for Sam Phillips 00:10:09.669 --> 00:10:12.149 when he got back. And Phillips heard it. He heard 00:10:12.149 --> 00:10:14.250 the distinctiveness in the piano. He said, get 00:10:14.250 --> 00:10:17.549 that boy back in here. By December, he's recording 00:10:17.549 --> 00:10:20.600 prolifically. And this leads us to one of the 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.360 most famous, almost mythological dates in music 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:27.740 history, December 4th, 1956. The Million Dollar 00:10:27.740 --> 00:10:30.159 Quartet. I love this story because it sounds 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:32.600 like fan fiction, but it actually happened. It 00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:34.059 sounds like a marketing gimmick that someone 00:10:34.059 --> 00:10:36.899 came up with 40 years later, but it was a complete 00:10:36.899 --> 00:10:39.840 accident. So paint the scene for us. Who is in 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.340 the room? How does this happen? Okay, so it's 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:45.399 a Tuesday. Carl Perkins, who had the massive 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:49.120 hit Blue Suede Shoes. is in the studio trying 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.440 to record some new tracks. He's struggling a 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:53.940 bit to find his next hit. Jerry Lee Lewis is 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:56.559 there, effectively as a hired gun, a session 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:58.879 musician playing piano for Perkins. He's a nobody 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:01.240 at this point. Nobody knows who he is. OK, so 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.759 Perkins is the star. Lewis is the help. Right. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.419 And Johnny Cash is there. He had stopped by just 00:11:06.419 --> 00:11:08.240 to listen, just to hang out. He was already a 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:10.059 star on the label. So you've got three heavy 00:11:10.059 --> 00:11:12.899 hitters already in the room. And then the door 00:11:12.899 --> 00:11:16.710 opens and in walks. Elvis Presley. Who is, I 00:11:16.710 --> 00:11:19.070 mean, at this point, in late 56, Elvis is the 00:11:19.070 --> 00:11:21.669 biggest thing on the planet. He's huge. He's 00:11:21.669 --> 00:11:24.190 already left Sun Records for RCA. He's a movie 00:11:24.190 --> 00:11:27.149 star. He just dropped by his old stomping grounds 00:11:27.149 --> 00:11:29.970 for a social visit with a showgirl on his arm. 00:11:30.129 --> 00:11:33.690 Wow. But you put four musicians of that caliber 00:11:33.690 --> 00:11:36.350 in a room and instruments are going to get picked 00:11:36.350 --> 00:11:39.429 up. They started an impromptu jam session. And 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:41.970 crucially, Sam Phillips had the presence of mind 00:11:41.970 --> 00:11:44.269 to leave the tape running. Thank goodness for 00:11:44.269 --> 00:11:45.950 that. What did they play? Was it all just rock 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:48.309 and roll hits? That's the fascinating part. And 00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:50.090 this goes right back to our earlier point about 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:52.429 the Bible Institute. Yeah. Almost half the songs 00:11:52.429 --> 00:11:55.029 they played were gospel. Really? Just a little 00:11:55.029 --> 00:11:58.090 talk with Jesus, walk that lonesome valley. So 00:11:58.090 --> 00:12:00.690 the Million Dollar Quartet, these icons of rock 00:12:00.690 --> 00:12:02.230 rebellion, and they're sitting around singing 00:12:02.230 --> 00:12:04.629 hymns. It was the common language they all spoke. 00:12:05.210 --> 00:12:07.710 But the source notes, a really interesting dynamic 00:12:07.710 --> 00:12:11.120 in the room that day. Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:14.259 Presley knew all the words to the more ecstatic 00:12:14.259 --> 00:12:17.500 Pentecostal numbers because they were both raised 00:12:17.500 --> 00:12:20.279 in the assembly of God. Right. Johnny Cash and 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:22.879 Carl Perkins were Baptists. They were a bit more 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:24.559 reserved. They didn't know the shouting songs 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:26.940 as well. The theological divide right there in 00:12:26.940 --> 00:12:29.440 the studio. Amazing. Lewis actually said later 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:32.139 that Cash and Perkins were deprived because they 00:12:32.139 --> 00:12:34.559 didn't know the song. That is hilarious. Only 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:37.320 Jerry Lee Lewis, the absolute rookie in the room, 00:12:37.379 --> 00:12:39.480 the session guy, would have the confidence to 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:41.840 call Johnny Cash deprived. It shows his personality. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.279 He wasn't intimidated by Elvis. He wanted to 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:49.039 be Elvis. He wanted to beat Elvis. And 1957 gave 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:50.720 him the chance. That was the year he strapped 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:52.840 himself to a rocket ship. Whole lot of shaking 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:55.460 going on. It was a big Maybel cover. He took 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:57.600 a Rhythm and Blues song and just injected it 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:00.419 with nuclear energy. And then the big one, Great 00:13:00.419 --> 00:13:02.460 Balls of Fire. These songs were massive. They 00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:05.440 defined the era. They felt dangerous. Worldwide 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:09.620 fame. But also immediate backlash. We have to 00:13:09.620 --> 00:13:12.460 remember the cultural climate of 1957. This wasn't 00:13:12.460 --> 00:13:14.820 just pop music. This was viewed as a threat. 00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:18.120 Radio stations boycotted the songs. Why? What 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:20.059 was so threatening? They were considered sinful. 00:13:20.299 --> 00:13:23.110 They were too sexual. The breathing, the pacing, 00:13:23.289 --> 00:13:25.769 the raw energy. It was just too much for mainstream 00:13:25.769 --> 00:13:28.649 sensibilities. And here is where we get a window 00:13:28.649 --> 00:13:31.450 into that internal conflict again. I read in 00:13:31.450 --> 00:13:33.570 the notes that there is a recording of an argument 00:13:33.570 --> 00:13:36.750 about this song. An actual recording. Yes. And 00:13:36.750 --> 00:13:39.769 it is chilling to listen to. It's a literal recording 00:13:39.769 --> 00:13:42.529 of a theological argument between Jerry Lee Lewis 00:13:42.529 --> 00:13:45.029 and Sam Phillips during the session for Great 00:13:45.029 --> 00:13:47.230 Balls of Fire. The tape was rolling. What are 00:13:47.230 --> 00:13:49.659 they arguing about? Theology. Lewis initially 00:13:49.659 --> 00:13:51.759 refused to record the song. He thought it was 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:54.299 blasphemous. The title, Great Balls of Fire, 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:56.379 is a biblical reference from the Book of Acts, 00:13:56.480 --> 00:13:59.279 and using it for a lustful love song felt completely 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:02.679 wrong to him. Wow. He asked Sam Phillips, how 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:04.820 can the devil save souls? What are you talking 00:14:04.820 --> 00:14:07.159 about? I have the devil in me. That is incredible. 00:14:07.419 --> 00:14:10.000 He's standing on the brink of superstardom. He 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.720 has a monster hit record in his hands. And he's 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.820 arguing that he can't record it because he's 00:14:14.820 --> 00:14:17.519 terrified of hellfire. And Sam Phillips, who 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:19.779 is a genius psychologist as much as a producer, 00:14:19.940 --> 00:14:22.820 tries to talk him down. He tells him, you can 00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:25.419 save souls by making people happy. You can use 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:28.120 your talent to lift people up. Phillips is trying 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:30.379 to give him a theological loophole to be a rock 00:14:30.379 --> 00:14:33.519 star. Did Jerry Lee buy it? He recorded the song. 00:14:33.929 --> 00:14:35.509 But I don't think he ever truly bought it. He 00:14:35.509 --> 00:14:37.429 lived with that cognitive dissonance for his 00:14:37.429 --> 00:14:41.309 entire life. But once that red light went on, 00:14:41.409 --> 00:14:45.370 he unleashed. He brought a physicality to the 00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:47.909 piano that no one had ever seen. Oh, the pumping 00:14:47.909 --> 00:14:50.190 piano. He didn't just play it. He attacked it. 00:14:50.269 --> 00:14:52.789 You have to visualize this. A piano is a stationary 00:14:52.789 --> 00:14:55.779 instrument. You sit at it. It's polite. Jerry 00:14:55.779 --> 00:14:57.639 Lee Lewis treated it like a wild animal he was 00:14:57.639 --> 00:14:59.980 trying to wrestle to the ground. Yeah. He pounded 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:02.100 the keys with his heel. He played standing up. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:03.940 He raked his hands up and down the keys in those 00:15:03.940 --> 00:15:06.679 famous glissandos. Yeah. And of course, the bench 00:15:06.679 --> 00:15:08.600 kick. Was that planned? Was it choreography? 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:10.960 He told the Pop Chronicles that the first time 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.240 he kicked the bench over, it was a total accident. 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:15.759 Yeah. He was just moving so violently that he 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:18.120 knocked it back. But the crowd went wild. They 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:20.240 loved the aggression of it. So we kept it. He 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:22.279 made it a signature move. If it works, it works. 00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:26.039 And then came the Steve Allen Show. In July 1957, 00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:29.460 that was the moment he demonstrated these moves 00:15:29.460 --> 00:15:31.720 to a national television audience. Up until then, 00:15:31.820 --> 00:15:34.039 people had mostly just heard him on the radio, 00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:37.879 seeing him. It was a revelation. Right. Kub Koda 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:40.200 called him rock and roll's first great wild man. 00:15:40.669 --> 00:15:43.370 Elvis shook his hips, but Jerry Lee looked like 00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:45.190 he was going to burn the entire building down. 00:15:45.370 --> 00:15:48.210 He was legitimately rivaling Elvis. In 1957, 00:15:48.490 --> 00:15:51.070 it was a toss -up. Who is the king? Jerry Lee 00:15:51.070 --> 00:15:53.049 was on top of the world. He was making thousands 00:15:53.049 --> 00:15:55.429 of dollars a night. He was unstoppable. And then, 00:15:55.450 --> 00:15:59.629 1958 happened. The crash. The fall from grace. 00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:02.129 Let's talk about the UK tour, because this is 00:16:02.129 --> 00:16:05.250 a cautionary tale for the ages. It's May 1958. 00:16:05.830 --> 00:16:08.149 Louis arrives in London. He's ready to conquer 00:16:08.149 --> 00:16:11.110 Europe. He brings his entourage. And crucially, 00:16:11.190 --> 00:16:13.450 he brings his new wife. Now, usually bringing 00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:16.169 your wife on tour isn't a PR disaster. Usually 00:16:16.169 --> 00:16:18.570 not. But there was a reporter at Heathrow Airport 00:16:18.570 --> 00:16:20.950 named Ray Barry. He was the only journalist there. 00:16:21.389 --> 00:16:24.149 He sees a very young girl with Jerry Lee and 00:16:24.149 --> 00:16:27.210 asks, who is this? And Jerry Lee being Jerry 00:16:27.210 --> 00:16:30.710 Lee doesn't lie. He's not subtle. No. He says, 00:16:30.830 --> 00:16:33.549 this is my wife, Myra. And Ray Barry starts digging. 00:16:33.980 --> 00:16:35.840 And the revelations that came out of this were, 00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:39.080 though they were career -ending, it was a trifecta 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:41.399 of scandal that the British press and then the 00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:44.379 American press absolutely devoured. Let's break 00:16:44.379 --> 00:16:46.620 down the facts that came out, one by one. Okay, 00:16:46.659 --> 00:16:49.679 fact one. Myra Gale Brown was his cousin. His 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.360 first cousin once removed. Now, in the rural 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:54.399 South at the time, this wasn't unheard of, but 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:58.419 in London, in 1958, it was shocking. Okay, that's 00:16:58.419 --> 00:17:01.360 strike one, a big one. Fact two. She was 13 years 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:03.960 old. 13. Lewis told the press she was 15. He 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:06.440 lied about her age. But the press found the birth 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:09.839 certificate. She was 13. He was 22. That is, 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:12.400 that's a hard stop for people. Even back then. 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:14.059 I think sometimes people assume, oh, it was the 00:17:14.059 --> 00:17:17.400 50s. Things were different. But 22 and 13, that 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:20.500 was not acceptable. No. He was considered cradle 00:17:20.500 --> 00:17:23.059 snatching. The British press called him a monster. 00:17:23.619 --> 00:17:26.500 They called for him to be deported. The headlines 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:29.180 were brutal. And there was a third fact, right? 00:17:29.609 --> 00:17:32.789 Just to add fuel to the fire. Fact three. He 00:17:32.789 --> 00:17:34.730 hadn't finalized his divorce from his second 00:17:34.730 --> 00:17:38.390 wife, Jane Mitchum, before marrying Myra. So 00:17:38.390 --> 00:17:41.990 technically, he was a bigamist. So the trifecta. 00:17:42.609 --> 00:17:46.230 Incest, pedophilia by modern standards, and bigamy 00:17:46.230 --> 00:17:49.509 all at once. It caused an absolute uproar. He 00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:51.210 tried to play his first concert and the audience 00:17:51.210 --> 00:17:53.650 booed him off the stage. They threw things at 00:17:53.650 --> 00:17:56.269 him. The tour was canceled after only three concerts. 00:17:56.509 --> 00:17:58.549 He was basically chased out of the country. And 00:17:58.549 --> 00:18:00.210 he probably thought, OK, the British -Europe 00:18:00.210 --> 00:18:01.970 tie, I'll go back to America where they left 00:18:01.970 --> 00:18:03.930 me. That's what you'd think, right? You'd think 00:18:03.930 --> 00:18:06.950 so. But the news had crossed the Atlantic. When 00:18:06.950 --> 00:18:08.970 he landed back in New York, the scandal was waiting 00:18:08.970 --> 00:18:11.789 for him. The reception was ice cold, and the 00:18:11.789 --> 00:18:14.569 industry reaction was swift and brutal. How brutal. 00:18:14.990 --> 00:18:17.730 Radio playlists dropped him instantly. Dick Clark 00:18:17.730 --> 00:18:20.670 dropped him from American bandstand. His fee 00:18:20.670 --> 00:18:22.839 plummeted. What does that look like for an artist? 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:25.140 I mean, practically speaking, it looks like complete 00:18:25.140 --> 00:18:28.019 financial ruin. He went from playing arenas and 00:18:28.019 --> 00:18:30.819 making $10 ,000 a night, which is like $100 ,000 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:33.640 today, to playing dive bars and juke joints for 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:37.049 maybe $250 a night, if he was lucky. He went 00:18:37.049 --> 00:18:39.990 from being Elvis' only real rival to a pariah 00:18:39.990 --> 00:18:43.069 in a matter of weeks. The fall was that fast 00:18:43.069 --> 00:18:45.890 and that hard. That is a staggering fall. Most 00:18:45.890 --> 00:18:47.210 people would have quit. Most people would have 00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:49.069 changed their name and become a plumber. Most 00:18:49.069 --> 00:18:52.029 people would have. But Lewis had this grit, this 00:18:52.029 --> 00:18:55.089 refusal to accept defeat. He entered what we 00:18:55.089 --> 00:18:57.990 now call the wilderness years. His contract with 00:18:57.990 --> 00:19:01.349 Sun ended in 1963, and he moved to Smash Records. 00:19:01.670 --> 00:19:04.490 But nothing was working. Why not? He was trying 00:19:04.490 --> 00:19:06.329 to record rock songs, but the world had moved 00:19:06.329 --> 00:19:08.329 on. The Beatles had arrived. The British invasion 00:19:08.329 --> 00:19:10.650 was happening. Jerry Lee Lewis looked like a 00:19:10.650 --> 00:19:12.990 relic of a scandalous past. No one wanted to 00:19:12.990 --> 00:19:15.750 touch him. So he's a relic of the 50s, disgraced, 00:19:15.750 --> 00:19:17.650 playing small clubs where fights break out. It 00:19:17.650 --> 00:19:20.630 sounds miserable. It was. But this period, this 00:19:20.630 --> 00:19:23.210 desperate, angry period, produced one of the 00:19:23.210 --> 00:19:26.089 most legendary albums in rock history. Live at 00:19:26.089 --> 00:19:29.329 the Star Club, Hamburg, recorded in 1964. I've 00:19:29.329 --> 00:19:31.509 heard about this. It's legendary for being raw. 00:19:31.710 --> 00:19:34.670 Raw is an understatement. It is feral. It's unhinged. 00:19:34.710 --> 00:19:36.769 Yeah. He was backed by a British band called 00:19:36.769 --> 00:19:39.910 the Nashville Teens. And critics regard it as 00:19:39.910 --> 00:19:42.450 one of the wildest, greatest live rock albums 00:19:42.450 --> 00:19:45.089 ever recorded. Period. Why? What makes it so 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:47.190 special compared to his studio hits? It's the 00:19:47.190 --> 00:19:50.170 aggression. I have to imagine. He's angry. He's 00:19:50.170 --> 00:19:52.490 got nothing left to lose. He's playing to a crowd 00:19:52.490 --> 00:19:55.069 in Hamburg, the same city where the Beatles cut 00:19:55.069 --> 00:19:57.670 their teeth. And he just unleashes this torrent 00:19:57.670 --> 00:20:00.150 of sound. The recording quality isn't pristine, 00:20:00.349 --> 00:20:03.869 it's loud, it's distorted, but that adds to it. 00:20:03.970 --> 00:20:06.470 It captures the energy. It does. Milo Miles, 00:20:06.670 --> 00:20:08.809 writing for Rolling Stone, had the best description 00:20:08.809 --> 00:20:11.349 of it. He said, it is not an album, it's a crime 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:14.089 scene. A crime scene. That is quite a review. 00:20:14.369 --> 00:20:16.910 He said, Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals 00:20:16.910 --> 00:20:20.470 in a 13 -song set that feels like one long convulsion. 00:20:20.789 --> 00:20:23.269 That is so evocative. It sounds like he was trying 00:20:23.269 --> 00:20:25.269 to destroy the piano and the audience simultaneously. 00:20:25.970 --> 00:20:28.710 He was. If you listen to it, he plays the songs 00:20:28.710 --> 00:20:31.609 faster than ever before. He's shouting, he's 00:20:31.609 --> 00:20:34.690 badgering the audience between songs. It proved 00:20:34.690 --> 00:20:37.509 that even if his fame was gone, his talent hadn't 00:20:37.509 --> 00:20:39.930 diminished one bit. In fact, the anger might 00:20:39.930 --> 00:20:42.190 have made it sharper. He was proving he was still 00:20:42.190 --> 00:20:44.450 the killer. But critical acclaim for a live album 00:20:44.450 --> 00:20:46.670 doesn't pay the bills if radio won't play you. 00:20:46.789 --> 00:20:49.950 He needed a change, a real change in strategy. 00:20:50.609 --> 00:20:53.569 Which brings us to the pivot, the great reinvention. 00:20:54.250 --> 00:20:57.569 By 1968, He'd been in the wilderness for a decade. 00:20:57.990 --> 00:21:01.470 A full decade. A promotions manager named Eddie 00:21:01.470 --> 00:21:04.910 Kilroy pitched a radical idea. Yeah. Stop trying 00:21:04.910 --> 00:21:06.789 to be a rock and roller. The world doesn't want 00:21:06.789 --> 00:21:09.470 a 33 -year -old wild man anymore. Cut a pure 00:21:09.470 --> 00:21:11.309 country record. Now, Lewis had country roots, 00:21:11.369 --> 00:21:14.089 obviously. Crazy Arms was his first recording 00:21:14.089 --> 00:21:16.369 at Sun. Right. But he was the killer. He was 00:21:16.369 --> 00:21:18.769 the rock guy. Going country felt like a defeat 00:21:18.769 --> 00:21:21.069 to him initially. It felt like admitting he was 00:21:21.069 --> 00:21:23.529 old. that he'd lost. But he was broke. He was 00:21:23.529 --> 00:21:25.490 broke, so he agreed. He recorded a song called 00:21:25.490 --> 00:21:28.410 Another Place, Another Time. It shot to number 00:21:28.410 --> 00:21:30.529 four on the country charts. It was a smash hit. 00:21:30.950 --> 00:21:33.890 And suddenly, Jerry Lee Lewis was back. But he 00:21:33.890 --> 00:21:36.069 was a different Jerry Lee Lewis. How so? What 00:21:36.069 --> 00:21:39.079 was different about it? The voice changed. In 00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:41.720 the 50s, he was shouting, great balls of fire. 00:21:41.940 --> 00:21:45.000 It's all upper register, pure energy. In the 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.660 late 60s country records, he's crooning. He's 00:21:48.660 --> 00:21:51.859 using this rich lower register baritone. He sounds 00:21:51.859 --> 00:21:54.180 weary. He sounds like a man who's lived through 00:21:54.180 --> 00:21:56.619 a scandal. Right. And the country audience loved 00:21:56.619 --> 00:21:58.700 it. They love a redemption story, or at least 00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:01.160 they love a tragedy they can dance to. Exactly. 00:22:01.660 --> 00:22:03.359 And this wasn't just a one hit wonder situation. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:08.140 This was a dynasty. Between 1968 and 1977, he 00:22:08.140 --> 00:22:12.259 had 17 top 10 country hits. 17? Wow. Songs like 00:22:12.259 --> 00:22:14.940 What's Made Milwaukee Famous has made a loser 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:18.099 out of me. Me and Bobby McGee to make love sweeter 00:22:18.099 --> 00:22:20.500 for you. I love that title. What's Made Milwaukee 00:22:20.500 --> 00:22:23.299 Famous has made a loser out of me. It's the quintessential 00:22:23.299 --> 00:22:26.000 country drinking song. It is. And the production 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:28.480 was key. It wasn't that slick, polished Nashville 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:30.920 sound with the string sections and the background 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:32.980 choirs that was popular at the time. No, it was 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:35.299 grittier. It was what they called hard country. 00:22:35.579 --> 00:22:37.500 What does hard country mean in this context? 00:22:37.900 --> 00:22:41.119 It means sparse. Just a fiddle, a steel guitar, 00:22:41.299 --> 00:22:43.700 and that piano front and center. It was called 00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:46.380 hard not because it rocked, but because the emotions 00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:49.420 were hard. Rick Bragg, his biographer, noted 00:22:49.420 --> 00:22:51.839 that it was substantial music. It was heavy. 00:22:52.279 --> 00:22:54.819 Critics started comparing him to George Jones 00:22:54.819 --> 00:22:57.940 and Merle Haggard, the serious vocalists of country 00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:00.960 music. So he proved he could be a serious vocalist, 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:03.480 not just a piano -smashing showman. He had a 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:06.099 second act that was arguably more successful, 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:09.220 at least chart -wise, than his first act. Statistically, 00:23:09.259 --> 00:23:11.579 yes. He had way more hits as a country artist. 00:23:11.819 --> 00:23:14.160 But the wild man was still in there. You can't 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.319 just turn that off. Yeah. And we have to talk 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:18.119 about his appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in 00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:21.319 1973. The Opry. The mother church of country 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:23.480 music. Very strict, very traditional. They have 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:25.740 rules. They have lots of rules. And he had always 00:23:25.740 --> 00:23:27.480 been ambivalent about Lewis. He didn't fit the 00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:30.680 family values vibe. He was a drinker, a pill 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:34.000 popper, a scandalous figure. But he was having 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.900 so many hits, they had to book him. Now, usually 00:23:36.900 --> 00:23:39.440 when you play the Opry, you get two songs. Maybe 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:41.660 eight minutes of stage time. They were in a tight 00:23:41.660 --> 00:23:44.839 ship because it's a live radio broadcast. Commercial 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:46.980 breaks are sacred. I have a feeling Jerry Lee 00:23:46.980 --> 00:23:49.000 didn't care about commercial breaks. He played 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.700 for 40 minutes. No way! On a live radio show. 00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:54.700 He just kept going. He just hijacked the show. 00:23:55.259 --> 00:23:57.859 The stage manager was frantically signaling him 00:23:57.859 --> 00:24:00.119 to stop from the wings, and he just ignored them. 00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:03.059 He played his new country hits, but then he said, 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:05.119 I'm the killer, and I'm going to play rock and 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:07.960 roll. And he blasted through a whole lot of shaking 00:24:07.960 --> 00:24:10.799 and great balls of fire. Wow. He desecrated the 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:13.460 temple of country music with rock and roll. The 00:24:13.460 --> 00:24:16.039 crowd went nuts. That is incredible. He couldn't 00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:18.400 resist. And in a really touching moment amidst 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:20.920 all that rebellion, he invited Del Wood out on 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:23.220 stage to sing with him. She was an Opry member, 00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:25.319 a piano player. She's the only person at the 00:24:25.319 --> 00:24:27.079 Opry who had been nice to him when he was a teenager 00:24:27.079 --> 00:24:29.640 trying to break in years before. That's a nice 00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:32.940 bit of loyalty. But also a massive middle finger 00:24:32.940 --> 00:24:35.250 to everyone else who snubbed him. I'm going to 00:24:35.250 --> 00:24:36.910 do what I want, and I'm going to honor the one 00:24:36.910 --> 00:24:39.710 person who is decent to me. It sums him up perfectly. 00:24:39.829 --> 00:24:42.349 He demands respect. But while his career was 00:24:42.349 --> 00:24:45.230 soaring again in the 70s, his personal life was, 00:24:45.309 --> 00:24:48.730 well, turbulent, as putting it mildly. It was 00:24:48.730 --> 00:24:50.529 a horror movie. Yeah, reading through the source 00:24:50.529 --> 00:24:53.150 material, the list of tragedies is just relentless. 00:24:53.230 --> 00:24:56.029 It stops being scandalous and starts being heartbreaking 00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:59.130 and just dark. It really is. Yeah. We mentioned 00:24:59.130 --> 00:25:02.109 he was married seven times, but the loss he endured 00:25:02.109 --> 00:25:05.359 is hard to comprehend. Let's just list it. His 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:08.000 son, Steve Allen Lewis, drowned in a swimming 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.200 pool at age three. God, that alone, that breaks 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.019 a person. His other son, Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., 00:25:14.019 --> 00:25:16.400 played drums for him in his band. He died at 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.220 19 in a Jeep accident. So he loses two sons, 00:25:19.380 --> 00:25:22.619 both of his sons. Both of them. Then his fourth 00:25:22.619 --> 00:25:24.960 wife, Jaron Pate, drowned in a swimming pool 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:27.420 right before their divorce was finalized. His 00:25:27.420 --> 00:25:30.000 fifth wife, Shawn Stevens, died of a methadone 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.519 overdose just 77 days after they got married. 00:25:32.859 --> 00:25:34.779 It's like a curse. I mean, people started whispering 00:25:34.779 --> 00:25:37.400 that, right? That the killer nickname was some 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:39.640 kind of curse. It certainly felt that way. There 00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:42.160 was a cloud of death around him. And the divorce 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:44.680 from Myra Gale Brown, the cousin he married, 00:25:44.859 --> 00:25:47.440 the one who caused the initial scandal, that 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:51.180 happened in 1970. And it was ugly. What came 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:53.960 out in the divorce? She cited adultery and, quote, 00:25:54.099 --> 00:25:57.180 every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable. 00:25:57.259 --> 00:25:59.900 She said she had been subject to a reign of terror. 00:26:00.190 --> 00:26:02.250 So behind the hits, behind the comeback, there 00:26:02.250 --> 00:26:04.869 was just this domestic chaos. And financial chaos. 00:26:05.190 --> 00:26:07.309 The IRS came after him hard. He wasn't paying 00:26:07.309 --> 00:26:10.670 his taxes. In 1979, they raided his home. They 00:26:10.670 --> 00:26:14.150 seized his property for a tax debt of $274 ,000. 00:26:14.410 --> 00:26:16.450 What did they take? Everything. They did his 00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:18.670 cars, his motorcycles, his jewelry, his musical 00:26:18.670 --> 00:26:20.750 instruments. They put a for sale sign on his 00:26:20.750 --> 00:26:22.589 life. He eventually fought for bankruptcy in 00:26:22.589 --> 00:26:25.730 1988 with $3 million in debt. And amid all this 00:26:25.730 --> 00:26:29.089 chaos, the deaths, the divorce, the IRS. The 00:26:29.089 --> 00:26:31.089 behavior becomes more erratic. The pill usage 00:26:31.089 --> 00:26:34.109 amps up. And there are guns. Lots of guns. He 00:26:34.109 --> 00:26:36.490 loved guns. And he was incredibly careless with 00:26:36.490 --> 00:26:39.670 them. There was the incident in 1976 with his 00:26:39.670 --> 00:26:42.029 bass player, Butch Owens. This is the one where 00:26:42.029 --> 00:26:45.269 he shoots him? Accidentally. Lewis is in his 00:26:45.269 --> 00:26:48.509 bedroom. He's holding a .357 Magnum. He decides 00:26:48.509 --> 00:26:50.410 he wants to shoot a Coke bottle across the room. 00:26:50.529 --> 00:26:53.289 In the bedroom. As a party trick. In the bedroom. 00:26:53.450 --> 00:26:56.539 He fires. The bullet ricochets off the bottle 00:26:56.539 --> 00:26:59.019 or the wall and hits his bassist, Butch Owens, 00:26:59.099 --> 00:27:02.319 in the chest. Did he survive? Miraculously, yes. 00:27:02.599 --> 00:27:04.960 Owens survived. But it just shows the level of 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.380 recklessness. He was living in a reality where 00:27:07.380 --> 00:27:09.599 firing a magnum in a bedroom was a reasonable 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:13.019 activity. But the most famous incident, the one 00:27:13.019 --> 00:27:15.460 that has become absolute folklore, is the trip 00:27:15.460 --> 00:27:18.519 to Graceland. If you know one story about Jerry 00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:21.339 Lee Lewis, it's this one. November 23, 1976. 00:27:22.190 --> 00:27:24.069 This is the collision of the two kings. It's 00:27:24.069 --> 00:27:26.910 legendary. Take us through it step by step because 00:27:26.910 --> 00:27:29.430 the details matter so much. Okay, so the premise, 00:27:29.549 --> 00:27:31.869 according to Lewis, was that Elvis had been calling 00:27:31.869 --> 00:27:34.390 him. Elvis was reclusive by this point, locked 00:27:34.390 --> 00:27:37.109 away in Graceland. But Lewis claimed Elvis wanted 00:27:37.109 --> 00:27:39.809 him to come out to the house to talk. Okay, so 00:27:39.809 --> 00:27:42.309 in his mind, he thinks he's invited. Lewis is 00:27:42.309 --> 00:27:44.549 at a nightclub in Memphis called The Vapors. 00:27:44.789 --> 00:27:47.190 He's drinking champagne. He's popping pills. 00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:51.329 He's a mess. And someone gives him a gun, a Derringer. 00:27:51.630 --> 00:27:55.150 As you do. Here's a gun, Jerry. Exactly. So at 00:27:55.150 --> 00:27:58.049 3 a .m., he decides it's time to go see Elvis. 00:27:58.690 --> 00:28:02.130 He gets in his Lincoln Continental. And he puts 00:28:02.130 --> 00:28:05.950 the gun, a loaded pistol, on the dashboard. Why 00:28:05.950 --> 00:28:08.029 on the dashboard? So he wouldn't be charged with 00:28:08.029 --> 00:28:10.670 concealing it. In his mind, that was the legal 00:28:10.670 --> 00:28:13.710 loophole. If it's visible, it's legal. Incredible 00:28:13.710 --> 00:28:16.069 logic. He's a legal scholar. So he gets to the 00:28:16.069 --> 00:28:19.160 famous musical gates of Graceland. He pulls up. 00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:21.579 He has a bottle of champagne under his arm. He 00:28:21.579 --> 00:28:23.079 tries to throw the bottle out the window. And 00:28:23.079 --> 00:28:24.960 this is a detail I love because it shows how 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:27.059 out of it he was. The window was rolled up. Oh, 00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:29.700 no. He smashed his own car window with a champagne 00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:32.740 bottle. Glass everywhere. And then, frustrated, 00:28:33.059 --> 00:28:34.880 he smashed the car into the Graceland gates. 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:37.380 He rams the gates of Graceland. He rams the gates. 00:28:37.420 --> 00:28:40.059 The guards come out, obviously. Jerry Lee is 00:28:40.059 --> 00:28:41.799 waving the gun, waving the champagne bottle, 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:43.880 yelling, Where is Elvis? Tell him the killer 00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:46.079 is here. What happens next? Does Elvis come down? 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:48.140 Does he let him in? Elvis was watching the whole 00:28:48.140 --> 00:28:51.059 thing on his CCTV monitors. He saw the entire 00:28:51.059 --> 00:28:54.099 spectacle unfold. And this is the sad part, the 00:28:54.099 --> 00:28:57.359 tragic part. Elvis didn't come down. He didn't 00:28:57.359 --> 00:28:59.539 invite his old friend and rival in. What did 00:28:59.539 --> 00:29:01.640 he do? He told the guards to call the police. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:05.299 He reportedly said, lock him up. Wow. That must 00:29:05.299 --> 00:29:08.819 have stung. It hurt Louis deeply. He later said, 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:12.759 to be scared of me was ridiculous. He felt betrayed. 00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:15.279 He thought they were peers, brothers in arms 00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:18.539 from the Sundays. But Elvis saw a maniac at the 00:29:18.539 --> 00:29:21.539 gate. Right. The police arrived, found the gun, 00:29:21.619 --> 00:29:24.019 and arrested Jerry Lee Lewis for carrying a pistol 00:29:24.019 --> 00:29:26.359 and public drunkenness. And the mugshot from 00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:30.019 that night is legendary. He looks strangely happy, 00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:34.099 smirking. He looks defiant. But the coda to this 00:29:34.099 --> 00:29:36.079 story is that Elvis died just nine months later. 00:29:36.410 --> 00:29:38.250 They never spoke again. They never spoke again. 00:29:38.369 --> 00:29:40.930 It's a tragic end to that relationship. The two 00:29:40.930 --> 00:29:42.849 kings of rock and roll, one trapped behind a 00:29:42.849 --> 00:29:44.849 gate, the other in handcuffs outside it. Both 00:29:44.849 --> 00:29:46.609 prisoners of their own fame in different ways. 00:29:46.809 --> 00:29:50.930 It really is Shakespearean. So we move into the 00:29:50.930 --> 00:29:52.950 later years. You'd think with the bankruptcy, 00:29:53.150 --> 00:29:55.289 the arrests, the health issues, he'd just fade 00:29:55.289 --> 00:29:58.650 away. But he didn't. The survival instinct again. 00:29:58.750 --> 00:30:02.319 It's incredible. In 1986. The Rock and Roll Hall 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.819 of Fame is established. And who is in the inaugural 00:30:04.819 --> 00:30:08.099 class? Jerry Lee Lewis. Has to be. Along with 00:30:08.099 --> 00:30:11.900 Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Architects. 00:30:11.900 --> 00:30:15.240 He was undeniably one of them. And true to form, 00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:17.460 at the ceremony, he started an unplanned jam 00:30:17.460 --> 00:30:19.539 session. He couldn't help himself. He also had 00:30:19.539 --> 00:30:21.900 that movie come out, Great Balls of Fire. 1989. 00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:25.579 Dennis Quaid played him. It was a glossy Hollywood 00:30:25.579 --> 00:30:27.619 biopic, but it did something really important 00:30:27.619 --> 00:30:30.279 and reintroduced his music and his story to a 00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:33.259 whole new generation. Right. And Lewis re -recorded 00:30:33.259 --> 00:30:35.740 all his classic songs for the soundtrack because 00:30:35.740 --> 00:30:37.819 he didn't trust Dennis Quaid to sing them properly. 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:40.240 Smart move. His versions are definitive. It brought 00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:42.339 him back into the public eye in a big way. And 00:30:42.339 --> 00:30:44.799 he kept recording. He didn't stop. Last Man Standing 00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:47.880 came out in 2006. That title wasn't subtle. It 00:30:47.880 --> 00:30:51.339 was accurate. By 2006, Carl Perkins was gone. 00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:54.849 Johnny Cash was gone. Roy Orbison was gone. Elvis 00:30:54.849 --> 00:30:57.829 was long gone. Jerry Lee was the last one left. 00:30:57.990 --> 00:31:00.470 And the album was his best -selling release in 00:31:00.470 --> 00:31:03.630 decades. Sold over a million copies. And who 00:31:03.630 --> 00:31:06.670 was on it? It featured a who's who of rock elite 00:31:06.670 --> 00:31:10.809 Springsteen, Jagger, Clapton, Neil Young, all 00:31:10.809 --> 00:31:13.630 coming to pay the ring to play with the master. 00:31:14.119 --> 00:31:16.339 It was basically the music world acknowledging 00:31:16.339 --> 00:31:18.480 that he was the last connection to the Big Bang 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:20.599 of rock and roll. Exactly. And finally, after 00:31:20.599 --> 00:31:23.140 years of being snubbed, he got into the Country 00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:25.079 Music Hall of Fame, too. Just recently, right? 00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:27.579 Very late in life. In 2022, just a few months 00:31:27.579 --> 00:31:29.559 before he died. What was his reaction to that? 00:31:29.640 --> 00:31:31.759 After being the wild man for so long, did he 00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:34.019 care about the establishment honoring him? He 00:31:34.019 --> 00:31:35.839 did. He was humble. He said he was overwhelmed. 00:31:36.279 --> 00:31:37.940 And he said something really interesting. He 00:31:37.940 --> 00:31:40.440 said his career taught him to be a good person 00:31:40.440 --> 00:31:42.900 and treat people right. Which is an interesting 00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:45.539 takeaway, given the life he led, given the shootings 00:31:45.539 --> 00:31:48.019 and the scandals and the abuse allegations. It 00:31:48.019 --> 00:31:50.599 is. Maybe it was a wish more than a summary. 00:31:50.920 --> 00:31:52.799 Maybe it was what he hoped he had learned by 00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:55.160 the end. He faced health issues at the end. He 00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:58.240 suffered a major stroke in 2019, which finally 00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:00.519 slowed him down. He couldn't play the piano the 00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:03.059 same way anymore. And he passed away on October 00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:07.819 28, 2022, in Nesbitt, Mississippi. He was 87 00:32:07.819 --> 00:32:10.710 years old. Which, frankly, is a medical miracle 00:32:10.710 --> 00:32:13.950 given his lifestyle. It defies all logic. I think 00:32:13.950 --> 00:32:15.950 Keith Richards looks at Jerry Lee Lewis and says, 00:32:16.049 --> 00:32:18.609 how did he do it? And in a moment of full circle 00:32:18.609 --> 00:32:20.869 that you couldn't script, who officiated the 00:32:20.869 --> 00:32:24.650 funeral? His cousin, Jimmy Swaggart, the televangelist. 00:32:24.730 --> 00:32:26.890 They started on that piano bench together as 00:32:26.890 --> 00:32:29.710 impoverished kids in the 1940s. And Swaggart 00:32:29.710 --> 00:32:31.839 was there at the very end to send him off. The 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:34.640 preacher and the killer finally reunited. Wow. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:37.200 So let's try to synthesize all of this. We've 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:39.279 covered the hits, the scandals, the theology, 00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:42.380 the tragedies. What is the legacy here? It's 00:32:42.380 --> 00:32:45.000 massive. It's the awards for Grammys, Rock Hall 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:46.960 of Fame, Country Hall of Fame, Memphis Music 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:48.920 Hall of Fame. But it's more than the awards. 00:32:49.180 --> 00:32:51.380 He was the bridge. He connected the sacred and 00:32:51.380 --> 00:32:53.759 the profane. He took the energy of the gospel 00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:56.200 tent and brought it into the bar room. He connected 00:32:56.200 --> 00:32:58.500 country and rock in a way that was violent and 00:32:58.500 --> 00:33:00.920 beautiful. And that quote from Robert Crisco 00:33:00.920 --> 00:33:03.619 really sticks with me. His absolute confidence 00:33:03.619 --> 00:33:07.380 in the face of the void make Jerry Lee the quintessential 00:33:07.380 --> 00:33:09.960 rock and roller. Confidence in the face of the 00:33:09.960 --> 00:33:13.059 void. That is powerful. It's the perfect description. 00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:15.980 He stared into the void, whether it was poverty 00:33:15.980 --> 00:33:20.119 or scandal or grief or his own genuine fear of 00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:22.839 hell. And he didn't blink. He just played louder. 00:33:22.980 --> 00:33:25.279 He kicked the bench over and kept on playing. 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:28.099 it raises a provocative thought for us to leave 00:33:28.099 --> 00:33:31.720 you with we often romanticize the tortured artist 00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:35.099 but when you look at a life this tumultuous the 00:33:35.099 --> 00:33:38.519 guns the seven marriages the sheer chaos We have 00:33:38.519 --> 00:33:41.240 to ask, was that chaos the fuel that made the 00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:43.619 music so exciting? Did he need to be on the edge 00:33:43.619 --> 00:33:46.700 to play like that? Or was the music the only 00:33:46.700 --> 00:33:48.880 thing that kept the chaos from consuming him 00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:51.440 entirely? Was he the killer because of the music? 00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:53.859 Or did he need the music to survive being the 00:33:53.859 --> 00:33:55.779 killer? That's something to chew on. And if you 00:33:55.779 --> 00:33:57.539 haven't, go listen to Live at the Star Club. 00:33:57.619 --> 00:33:59.640 Hear the crime scene for yourself. It is an education. 00:34:00.059 --> 00:34:02.339 It's worth a listen. Absolutely. Thanks for diving 00:34:02.339 --> 00:34:03.920 deep with us. We'll see you next time.