Legendary Southern writer Rick Bragg spent 2 years with legendary singer/piano player Jerry Lee Lewis. The result is this entertaining biography. JLL is one the most amazing entertainers in our time. He may be the best combination of personality and talent of all time.
Lewis was perhaps set to take Elvis's place when The King was drafted and was sent to Germany for 2 years, but Jerry Lee married his 13 year old cousin, took her to Great Britain in 1958 where he was slammed unmercifully, and his career nosedived. It took him 10 or more years to recover, and it never was really the same.
It seems like Lewis has been haunted all his life by his fundamentalist upbringing. This is both sad and humorous.
He lives in Nesbit, Mississippi, just below Memphis. After years and years of abusing his body, how is this man still alive at 79? Elvis is gone. Roy Orbison is gone. Carl Perkins is long gone. But Jerry Lee Lewis endures.
He's a self-centered narcissistic jerk. Okay, we got that out of the way.
Because he was Jerry Lee Lewis he always did what he pleased. P. 390
In his peer group Jerry Lee Lewis is the last man standing.
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