Jerry Lee Lewis Suffers Stroke
Country music legend and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jerry Lee Lewis has suffered a minor stroke. The 83-year-old suffered the episode on Thursday night (2-28), but is expected to make a full recovery. Lewis is not expected to miss any touring commitments due to the health ailment, but doesn’t have a public appearance scheduled until late April.
“He is with his family, recuperating in Memphis and the doctors expect a full recovery,” says Jerry Lee’s publicist, Zach Farnum. “The Killer looks forward to getting back into the studio soon to record a gospel record and on the road performing live for his fans. His family requests privacy at this time. Well wishes and prayers are greatly appreciated. He’s a devout Christian. We’re just asking for prayers and support and privacy.”
Jerry Lee Lewis’s next public appearance is scheduled to be April 28th at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He’s also has scheduled appearances on June 8th at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, and at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville on July 1st.
Though know mostly as a rock & roll icon, the career of Jerry Lee Lewis caught a second wind as a country music performer, transitioning to the genre in 1968, and logging 17 Top 10 hits and four #1’s by 1977. His name is regularly considered in the running for the Country Music Hall of Fame, who will likely announce their 2019 inductees later in March.
March 1, 2019 @ 7:08 pm
Here’s hoping “The Killer” makes a full recovery. He’s survived far greater health scares, including quad-bypass surgery in 1981; and his career has survived all the turmoil and self-abuse he’s put himself through.
It should be said that while most of his chart activity from 1968 onward was on the country side of things, those records he released in that style nevertheless still held appeal with rock and roll fans, because he could never be mistaken for anyone else, country or otherwise. His version of the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace”, which spent five weeks at #1 on the C&W chart in early 1972, just narrowly missed getting onto the Top 40 on the pop charts.
March 1, 2019 @ 7:43 pm
Enough stories about people having heart attacks. Review some more albums. I know you hate when people demand that, but that’s what the readers want. And besides, it’s a compliment. People respect what you have to say.
March 2, 2019 @ 12:09 am
Hey Hayes – couldn’t agree more, been loving your new music. Would love to hear what Tigger thinks too!
March 2, 2019 @ 4:50 am
Did you log on to my laptop again, Gramma?
March 2, 2019 @ 11:02 am
I appreciate that everyone wants to read album reviews. I have been posting just as many album reviews as I ever have. The problem is—and it’s something that is becoming a massive issue in the independent music industry—is there are certain dates that get circled by everyone on the calendar when EVERYONE releases their records, clogging up the system, and diminishing the attention each album gets individually. In previous years, it would be unheard of for Hayes Carll and Ryan Bingham to release albums on the same week as each other, let alone on the same week as Dale Watson, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Boo Ray, Charles Wesley Godwin, Robert Ellis, and literally a dozen others so they all compete with each other. I will always get around to the important releases, but I’m not going to slop out bad reviews just to stay on timelines that are unhelpful to the artists and the public in the first place.
March 2, 2019 @ 11:44 am
Then lets cut out the pop country reviews of albums we already know are steaming piles of crap. I’d much rather read a Hayes Carll or Ryan Bingham review.
I know, I know……“but nobody reads those”.
March 2, 2019 @ 1:32 am
Prayers and hope for one the last true legends
i guess this song pretty much says it all:
https://youtu.be/JFZC1lW1Kt8
March 2, 2019 @ 5:20 am
With respect to JLL, i’d like to hijack this thread in lieu of there not being a message board on here..
What is everyone’s top 5 Connie Smith songs? I don’t think she gets enough respect.
March 2, 2019 @ 6:43 am
WOW…actually he’s a Roll & Roll legend….period.
SOME of his later music was aired on country radio but he’s NOT a country legend.
March 2, 2019 @ 7:02 pm
He is in my opinion. He’s got some classic country albums which are some of my all time favorites. Country Songs For City Folks, Another Place Another Time, She Still Comes Around, She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye, and Touching Home are some of the finest country albums of that time.
March 5, 2019 @ 2:16 pm
I call BS that Jerry Lee is a Rock & Roll legend only. Lewis was singing country music while still on Sun Records. You can’t get more country than Jerry Lee’s versions of the iconic songs “Crazy Arms” and “You Win Again.” Jerry Lee had a lot of airplay during the mid-1960s and ’70s on the major country stations.
March 2, 2019 @ 10:31 am
Rock on Jerry! God speed to recovery. A little bump in the road, and we’ll soon be hearing from you! Take care.
March 3, 2019 @ 1:41 am
I have to suspect that Jerry Lee is blackballed from the Country Music H-o-F because of his rather troublesome early “history”–(the marriage to his very young distant cousin and a couple of other wives dying under odd circumstances). That would hardly be a grave injustice.
March 5, 2019 @ 2:27 pm
Luckyoldsun: Most of those industry folks who would have been inclined to ban or blackball Jerry Lee from the Hall have mostly pretty much died off. If lifestyle choices were a factor, the Hall would be a fairly empty place. Several of the legendary figures who have HoF status had vices that included substance abuse (both alcohol & drugs), serial adultery, and even a few bastard children.
March 5, 2019 @ 3:58 pm
“Even a few bastard children.”
You’re some piece of work.
What you call “Bastard children” are commonplace now, and stars and other have children out of wedlock, openly.
Jerry Lee had scandals of an entirely different dimension. There may well be industry powers in their 40s and 50s who choose not to involve the Hall in revisiting the Jerry Lee saga.
March 3, 2019 @ 5:31 am
Trigger, carry on with news about legends like Jerry Lee. If it weren’t for people like him music would have been boring and the current crop of artists wouldn’t have no one to inspire them.
I seem to recall a story when Jerry Lee celebrated his 40th birthday that many in the business were very surprised that he’d survived to see that day due to his wild lifestyle. It’s great to see that he’s still around and hopefully will be for some time yet.
It’s really mean that some folk here don’t seem to care about a legend like the Killer. That’s not the type of country fan I’m familiar with.
March 5, 2019 @ 6:38 pm
Luckyoldsun: I understand completely norms and times have changed with regard to children out of wedlock. I didn’t express myself as articulately as I should have and am passing no judgment on said issue. My point was situations that would have been a deal-breaker 60-70 years ago had fans been aware of an artist’s personal life might just have impacted their popularity and, ultimately, their status as potential Hall of Famers.
March 7, 2019 @ 6:39 pm
Has anyone listened to the podcast Disgraceland and the episode about Jerry Lee Lewis and the death of his wife (wives)? It was recommended to me but it sounds a bit sensationalist. Not that the story isn’t true just a little to gotcha headline for my tastes.