Rock n’ roll star Jerry Lee Lewis, best known for 1957 hit Great Balls of Fire, has died at the age of 87

Lewis died at home in Memphis, Tennessee, his representative Zach Farnum
confirmed.
The rock n’ roll pioneer – who called himself The Killer – was also known
for the song Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and was the last survivor of a
generation of groundbreaking performers that included Elvis Presley, Chuck
Berry and Little Richard.
He was once described as “a one-man stampede”. During a 1957 performance of
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On for a TV show, chairs were thrown at him.
“There was rockabilly. There was Elvis. But there was no pure rock ‘n ‘roll
before Jerry Lee Lewis kicked in the door,” he famously said about himself
after the show.
But while Lewis toured in England, the press discovered he was married to
13-year-old (possibly even 12-year-old) Myra Gale Brown. She was his
cousin, and he was still married to his previous wife.
His tour was cancelled, he was blacklisted from the radio, and his earnings
dropped overnight to virtually nothing.
“I probably would have rearranged my life a little bit different, but I
never did hide anything from people,” Lewis told the Wall Street Journal in
2014 when asked about the marriage. “I just went on with my life as usual.”
Over the following decades, Lewis struggled with drug and alcohol abuse,
legal disputes and physical illness.
Two of his seven marriages ended in his wife’s early death. Brown herself
divorced him in the early 1970s, and would later allege physical and mental
cruelty that nearly drove her to suicide.