RIP Jerry Lee Lewis 1935-2022

There were only two artists totally banned in my father's house in the late 50s as I remember -- Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee. Both were the most sincere rockers I can think of, and both played a lot of blues.

Believe it or not, I didn't really get into JLL until after I had heard about Professor Longhair in the 1970s. I was so into blues in the 70s I missed everything else.

Once settled in Europe I got seriously interested in Jerry Lee. "Great Balls" was a tune everyone knew so I used it to "get people in" so I could then play anything else. It was so much fun that "Great Balls" became a signature tune for me. It almost never fails to wake everybody up. I quickly arrived at the highest level of respect for him as a performer and a pure Stylist, maybe The Most Copied Pianist of all time.

One remarkable trait was his authenticity about his feelings, his honesty and his unbelievable ability to be spontaneous. He could just sit there and I never knew what was coming next, but he was always genuine about it, and something always happened.

Although I never got to meet him, I was able to tell his niece Annie Marie Dolan about how I noticed so many musicians would swing between Jesus and the devil, but I wanted him to know there was only one Fire, Life, so we don't need to choose between two human figures, because Life is infinite.

With that in mind, I will end this with a story recounted in Breitbart's obit:

A classmate at Bible school, Pearry Green, remembered meeting Lewis years later and asking if he was still playing the devil’s music.

“Yes, I am,” Lewis answered. “But you know it’s strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the devil and they don’t.”

So I didn't need to tell him. He obviously lived and loved Life all the way.