Jerry Lee Lewis Returns to Music: 'I Thought I Would Never Play Again'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

When Jerry Lee Lewis entered a Nashville recording studio late last month, he had no idea what was going to happen. He had not played music since February 2019, when he suffered a serious stroke at his home in Nesbit, Mississippi. Though his team described the stroke as “minor” at the time, it wasn’t; Lewis was left with mobility issues, and those around him feared he wouldn’t survive. Lewis was more concerned about whether he would ever be able to play the piano again; he spent three months in a rehab facility relearning to walk and trying to gain use of his right hand. It was a struggle.

Late last month, the 84-year-old Lewis booked a recording session — his first in more than five years — to see if he could still make music. The idea was to begin a long-planned album of gospel classics that he’d known since his childhood in Ferriday, Louisiana — songs he knew before he helped kick-start rock & roll with hits like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.” Before the session, Lewis told his team and producer T-Bone Burnett that he didn’t want a piano in the room at all: his right hand wasn’t working, and he just wanted to sing. But they kept one in the room just in case. When Lewis sat on its stool, he couldn’t help but lift his right hand onto the keys. To his own surprise, his fingers started moving.

“I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it,” Lewis says now, reflecting on that moment. “I never experienced anything like that. There I was playing piano with my right hand. I thought I would never play again.”

With his wife, Judith, sitting next to him, Lewis spent two days laying down tracks with a band that included guitarists Kenny Lovelace (who has played with Lewis since 1966) and James Burton, plus gospel legends the McCrary Sisters on backup vocals. After shaking off nerves, Lewis eventually loosened up; at one point, he told the band about the time, when he was a kid, he walked across a narrow bridge 150 feet above the Mississippi River on a dare. Though his vocals could be rough, there were flashes of his old power, and his piano playing remained loose, confident, and unmistakably the Killer.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/jerry-lee-lewis-returns-thought-would-never-play-again-953592/

[msongs]

1. great news for jerry lee and his fans nt

[luvs2sing]

2. I think he's the only one surviving..

of the great Sun recording artists. For a while, it was him and Sleepy LaBeef, but Sleepy died a month or so ago.

I never would have expected Jerry Lee to have survived this long, but thank goodness he has.

[kskiska]

5. I think Little Richard is still alive.

I would have loved to see Jerry Lee. If he comes to town I'll definitely go. I have a friend in NOLA who took a ride up to Ferriday to check it out. Jerry Lee's sister runs a drive-thru liquor store up there.

[Norbert]

6. Little Richard never recorded for Sun.

[Prof. P.E. Name]

3. Jerry Lee and I had words in 1962

I was fresh out of my two years of Sam’s military in 1962, age 21, legal to drink in my hometown, in my old neighborhood, in Monreal’s Bar on 16th & National Ave.in Milwaukee. Jerry Lee was in one his “down cycles,” which happened more than once in his life and explains why he was playing in Monreals.

He played that night with his usual incomprehensible level of energy output. He could hit chords in stride with his hands, elbows, his butt, and other parts of body not usually used on the 88’s.
When break time came, he sauntered over to the bar and ordered a beer. What amazed me was that in the packed bar no one came over to chat him up. He looked alone and lonely. Alone. Jerry Lee had numerous legal, personal and professional issues that might have warranted that.

My natural human reaction was to change the setting. We made major league small talk til the next set. No manly, man-bro, hugs. Just two sad sacks clincking the necks of two Blatz Beer bottles in a bar.

Play on Jerry Lee.

[kentuck]

4. Good story.

Thanks!