Jerry Lee Lewis was the last man standing, the final survivor of the original rock and rollers. His was an improbable longevity, given his vices and his years giving his all to his particular style of show business.
He was rock and roll’s first great showman, a powerhouse stage presence who hammered his piano like a man possessed. For about three years, in the late 1950s, Jerry Lee had a run of hits that are now deep in the DNA of rock music.
And then, scandal, in the form of taking a teenage cousin for a wife. It killed his career stone dead, but he returned a decade later to have hits with country songs.
Two of his seven wives died in suspicious circumstances, and there was much to dislike about this most polarising of figures. But he was an integral part of the rock and roll creation story.
Jerry Lee Lewis died in October. He was 87.
