American singer, songwriter and pianist, nicknamed “the Killer,” whose greatest hits include “Great Balls of Fire” (1957), “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” (1957) and “High School Confidential” (1958). Lewis had a dozen gold records in rock and country. He won four Grammy awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and two Grammy Hall of Fame Awards.
A dynamic vocalist and pianist of rock ‘n roll since the ’50s, he was self-taught on the piano. He projected arrogant self-confidence on stage and used his whole body in his performance. He started playing piano by ear at age eight and was a pro from the time he was 14. In the early ’60s, he mainly did pop and rhythm and blues and changed to county western in 1968. Lewis played over 250 engagements a year until 1981 when he was hospitalized with stomach problems. After 1986 he did mostly club work.
Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022. In 1989, his life was chronicled in the movie Great Balls of Fire, starring Dennis Quaid.
Lewis married seven times, divorced four times and was widowed twice. He had six children. He went through a period of bad publicity when he married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, his third wife, whom he divorced in 1970. He took his sixth wife, Kerrie, in 1984 and they had a son, Jerry Lee Lewis III, born in 1987. On 15 June 2005, their divorce was finalized in Hernando, Mississippi. Lewis married his seventh wife Judith Lewis (née Brown, Myra Gale Brown’s brother’s former wife) on 9 March 2012.
On 28 February 2019, Lewis had a minor stroke in Memphis. He fully recovered after several canceled appearances. He died at his home in Nesbit, Mississippi following a bout of pneumonia on 28 October 2022 at the age of 87.
Link to Wikipedia biography