Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story

Rick Bragg

Oct 2014 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

New York Times Bestseller

The greatest Southern storyteller of our time, New York Times bestselling author Rick Bragg, tracks down the greatest rock and roller of all time, Jerry Lee Lewis—and gets his own story, from the source, for the very first time.

A monumental figure on the American landscape, Jerry Lee Lewis spent his childhood raising hell in Ferriday, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi; galvanized the world with hit records like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire,” that gave rock and roll its devil’s edge; caused riots and boycotts with his incendiary performances; nearly scuttled his career by marrying his thirteen-year-old second cousin—his third wife of seven; ran a decades-long marathon of drugs, drinking, and women; nearly met his maker, twice; suffered the deaths of two sons and two wives, and the indignity of an IRS raid that left him with nothing but the broken-down piano he started with; performed with everyone from Elvis Presley to Keith Richards to Bruce Springsteen to Kid Rock—and survived it all to be hailed as “one of the most creative and important figures in American popular culture and a paradigm of the Southern experience.”

Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story is the Killer’s life as he lived it, and as he shared it over two years with our greatest bard of Southern life: Rick Bragg. Rich with Lewis’s own words, framed by Bragg’s richly atmospheric narrative, , this is the last great untold rock-and-roll story, come to life on the page.

Ratings and reviews

I was a fan of his music and I am old enough to have heard all the stories as they unfolded. The book is well done and easy to read because I grew up listening to the musicians he talks about. In the end I felt sorry for the life he lived. How much more great music could he have created if he had some discipline and self control?

One, if not, the best book I've ever read. The man, the music, the legend. Brilliant writing. I felt like I lived every moment of Jerry's life page by page. Thank you, sir, for such a raw and inside journey through the life of a man who will never be duplicsted.

Too much descriptive language and not enough action.

About the author

Rick Bragg is the author of a trilogy of bestselling books on the people of the American South. He is a professor of writing at the University of Alabama.