re: Did any of you, or your family, ever cross paths with Jerry Lee Lewis ?

The OT never ceases to amaze me on its reach into Louisiana celebrity lives.

My FIL (RIP) grew up in Ferriday and was cousins with JLL, Jimmy Seaggort, and Mickey Gilley.

My Uncle was his 1st cousin. He knew him well from family functions with Swaggart and Mickey Gilley. All closely related. so I have cousins that related to him and know him somewhat....they stay away.

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he wanted the biggest & fastest boat they had. Said he wanted to take it to Lake St. John to show off

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Please tell me he bought one and then proceeded to wreck it be hitting a stump going 60mph in LSJ

Some cool stories in this thread. My mom used to talk about going “across the river” to see him back in the days where the nightlife was livelier in Port Allen than in BR. Apparently there was a club there that he frequented as a performer.

On a tangential note- a while back I was at the FloraBama and happened upon this guy Brandon Giles. He is a piano player and singer with a full backing band. The dude had “it”- the energy, charisma, and stage presence that made me stop and listen and watch. Two comparisons came to mind: Jerry Lee Lewis and Fred Leblanc. At first I thought the guy was cooked out of his gourd. I looked him up and apparently he is in recovery and takes his sobriety very seriously. So it’s just his performance energy. As I was watching I kept thinking this must be what it was like to see Jerry Lee Lewis when he was young. If you ever run across this guy go and see him. It’s a fun show to go see.

I just so happen to be reading this right now. Came out in 82. It's really well written. Not like your usual music bios. It's from a different time

I'm about a third of the way through it

Main takeaways so far are...

Everyone knows he married his 13 year old cousin (they say she was the adult in the relationship), but nobody ever talks about how his sister Frankie Jean got married at 12 years old.

He hated being called Killer but he begrudgingly accepted it because it was so ubiquitous as time went on. People had started calling him that because he was such a good performer in the bars and clubs around Natchez

He was married twice before he married his cousin, and he was a bigamist because he hadn't divorced his first wife before he married the second. The second marriage was a shotgun wedding. He'd knocked her up and her relatives haf come to town with evil intent. His uncle Lee Calhoun, (both Jerry and Jimmy share a middle name in his honor) the big boss man of that area, had smothered things over but couldn't stop them having to get married

He spent three whole months at a Pentacostall Bible college a little bit south of Dallas before being expelled. He had a serious aversion to schooling of any sort.

Mickey was relatively normal, but Jimmy was always conflicted about the religious stuff.

That's all I've got so far.

My Mom worked at a bank in Memphis where Jerry Lee came in.

He threw a hissy fit over not being able to do a cash advance on his Discover card.

As Mom described it, he came across as one of the most terrible people on the planet.



ETA: that was just one person's opinion. Maybe he was having a bad day.

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he busted in Howard Griffin (Land of Toys) in Monroe

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Howard Griffin Land of Toys loads of fun for girls and boys. Bring the kids and look around, the biggest toy deal in the town.

Toys, boats, motorcycles, etc. They sold nearly everything.

H. Copeland?