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    Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story
    Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story
    Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story
    Audiobook15 hours

    Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story

    Written by Rick Bragg

    Narrated by John Pruden

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 28, 2014
    ISBN9780062332370
    Author

    Rick Bragg

    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.

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    Reviews for Jerry Lee Lewis

    4.5/5

    19 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Being the rip-roaring life of the legendary rock musician and wild man, grounded in interviews conducted by the author with his subject. The book is enjoyable to the point of being difficult to put down; Lewis' clipped truculence is a strange bedfellow with Bragg's groomed, expansive, almost purple prose stylings, but the effect is a not unpleasant, you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter vibe. It must be said that investigative reporting is not this book's long suit; although Lewis and Bragg are plenty willing to 'fess up to some very wild rides, there are some limits, undoubtedly imposed by Lewis as a condition of his participation. Specifically, the sketchy adumbration of the death of Lewis' fifth wife under dubious circumstances is far from definitive and valuable mostly for a chance to hear Lewis' side of the story. That's basically all right with me, as Lewis' participation is vital to the book, and the voices who believe he should have been tried in that case have had their own outlets which are at least as widely read as this book will be. The book is frontloaded, which to me is a flaw; at its halfway point Lewis is all of twenty-one years old, and I doubt that too many readers would have minded if an editor had tightened this up by fifty pages or so, but books this fascinating don't come along that often, so I'm all in on this one.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I had to read this book. I love the blues, old country, old rock n’ roll and music period. Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg is the first time that I have read anything by this author. This biography is superb! This may be the only book that tells of his whole life so that is why I picked it. I remember seeing Jerry Lee Lewis on TV very long ago, can’t remember what show. But he stuck in my memory as a person who jumps into music with both feet and plays, plays, plays.I didn’t know anything about his background growing up, but what Rick Bragg wrote fits as neatly as a suit of clothes. His cousin is Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Lee Lewis was churched with the Assembly of God. There are no grays, it is either a sin or it is not. Jerry knows that he sinned. He also is sure that his music is a God given talent. Jerry Lee Lewis’s life is frenetic as his performances. Just count the number of marriages that he has had. His life is filled with troubles, deaths, addictions, falling out of favor with the press and with all but the most loyal fans.His music is unique as his life and influences by the pounding of the piano at Haney’s Nite Club, an all black risk your life, dance all night and bring your own booze club. When he gets an idea in his head, he focuses on it with steel determination so even though he was much too young and he was white, he kept sneaking in until finally, he didn’t have to sneak in any more. He had his favorites of the singers and music players of the past and it doesn’t require much thought as to where his roots were. Rick Bragg brought all that out flawlessly. Mr. Bragg separated the truth from the exaggerated and helped you understand what makes Jerry Lee Lewis tick and also why he failed so many times only to pick himself up and start over again.Rick Bragg does not hide anything about the bad stuff. Jerry Lee Lewis has tantrums, a well-developed roving eye when it comes to women, an addiction to drugs, drank too much alcohol and later pain killers. The author doesn’t sweep his infidelity under the rug or his affection for guns. There are lots of tales of his relationship with his parents, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, so many of the greats. Jerry Lee stayed loyal to those he respected but ridiculed those he didn’t.Don’t pass this book up. Each page is a treat, a bonbon steeped in history. Rick Bragg has written the ultimate biography of Jerry Lee Lewis. I highly recommend it.I received a copy of Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story from the publishers as a win from FirstReads. My thoughts and feelings about this book are 100 % my own.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I'm a unabashed fan of the Killer, Mr Jerry Lee Lewis, and own more books about him than could well be necessary. So, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Killer. "Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story" finds the Killer in his eighties, an old man surprised he's still alive, so much in pain that he can barely sit for more than a few minutes, but into his seventh marriage and his seventh decade as a living legend, author Bragg is still able to coax some eyebrow raising fare from the Killer.Bragg can also write well and while he is not the first to write about Lewis in Old Testament fire and brimstone way he pulls it off, making you believe Lewis nothing less than a Prophet who fears he will spend eternity in hell, away from his loved ones. Although it's sad to see the killer like this; aged, in pain, fearing for his soul, I feel the closest I've ever been to Lewis since I discovered him all those decades ago.