Jerry Lee Lewis Biography

Fast Facts

• Took piano lessons as a child with two of his cousins, future country singer Mickey Gilley and future televangelist Jimmy Swaggart
• Received most of his musical education by sneaking into a black rhythm-and-blues club called Haney's Big House, owned by his uncle, Lee Calhoun
• Made his public debut at 14 in a Ford dealership parking lot, performing "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" with a local band
• Attended the Southwestern Bible Institute as a teen, but was asked to leave for performing a boogie-woogie rendition of the hymn "My God Is Real
• " Rose to fame in 1957 with the early rock & roll hits "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire
• " Marriage later that year to his 13-year-old second cousin, Myra Gale Brown, erupted into a scandal that nearly destroyed Lewis' career
• Reinvented himself as a country-and-western singer in the late 1960s, starting with the hit "Another Place, Another Time
• " Along with Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Ray Charles, was included in the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class in 1986
• Re-recorded many of his hits for the 1989 biopic Great Balls of Fire, starring Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder