He Could Have Been the King of Rock 'n' Roll Instead of Elvis—Until He Married His 13-Year-Old Cousin and Lost Everything in a Week (15 photos)

In 1957, a Louisiana pianist was the only artist capable of rivaling Elvis Presley in popularity. Fetching $10,000 per show, scoring back-to-back hits, and earning a spot in the legendary "Million Dollar Quartet," Jerry Lee Lewis was on the brink of rock 'n' roll royalty. But in the spring of 1958, on the tarmac at a London airport, a reporter asked his young companion a single question—and the musician's career imploded within a week. Here is the story of how the pianist from Ferriday nearly became the ultimate rock legend, and why it all fell apart.





The Boy from Ferriday

Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29, 1935, in the small town of Ferriday, Louisiana—home to just over two thousand people at the time. His family struggled financially: his father, Elmo, bootlegged moonshine to make ends meet, which eventually landed him behind bars. When Jerry turned nine, Elmo mortgaged the family farm to buy his son a piano—a gamble that quickly paid off.



Jerry Lee Lewis early in his career

The young Lewis taught himself to play, imitating street preachers and Black musicians he listened to outside Haney’s Big House, a local juke joint. His cousins—future country star Mickey Gilley and future televangelist Jimmy Swaggart—also frequented the spot to soak in the blues. At age 14, Lewis gave his first public performance at a car dealership grand opening, and by 16, he had married a preacher's daughter, Dorothy Barton. The marriage dissolved a year later, and in 1953, Jerry remarried Jane Mitchum—notably 23 days before his divorce from his first wife was finalized.

The Rise to Fame

In early 1956, Lewis headed to Memphis to audition for Sun Records, which had recently sold the contract of its biggest star, Elvis Presley, to major label RCA for $35,000. Producer Jack Clement recognized the brash pianist's raw talent and let him record. Lewis’s debut single, a cover of the country hit "Crazy Arms," sold 300,000 copies across the American South.





At the piano, Lewis was a force of nature—playing with his elbows, feet, and standing up

On December 4, 1956, four future legends spontaneously converged at Sun Records: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Their impromptu jam session would go down in history as the "Million Dollar Quartet." Within months, Lewis proved he belonged in their ranks on his own merit, not just by sheer coincidence.



The "Million Dollar Quartet": Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins at Sun Records, December 4, 1956

A $10,000 Night

In 1957, the hit singles "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire" took American airwaves by storm. Lewis performed standing up, hammering the keys with his elbows and feet, and as rock lore has it, even set his piano on fire during one show.



Audiences reacted to Lewis's high-octane performances with wild excitement

His performance fee surged to $10,000 per night—an astronomical sum for the era. When Elvis Presley was drafted into the U.S. Army on March 24, 1958, the throne of rock 'n' roll stood vacant. Sun Records executives had no doubt: Jerry Lee Lewis was the rightful heir.

In the spring of 1958, the musician embarked on his first tour of the UK—a 37-date run meant to cement his international stardom.

A Secret Wedding and a Fateful Flight to London

The public was unaware that Lewis was already on his third marriage. On December 12, 1957—before his divorce from his second wife was finalized—the 22-year-old musician secretly wed 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown in Hernando, Mississippi. Myra was his second cousin once removed and the daughter of his bass player, J.W. Brown. For five months, the marriage remained a closely guarded secret.



Jerry Lee Lewis with his third wife, 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown

On May 22, 1958, Lewis and his young bride landed at London Airport. Right at the steps of the plane, British reporter Ray Berry asked the teenager who she was. Having never been instructed to keep quiet, Myra answered truthfully: she was Jerry Lee Lewis's wife. In a split second, a secret kept for five months unravelled.

"Cradle Robber"

The British press pulled no punches. Headlines branded Lewis a "cradle robber," demanding his deportation and calling for a boycott of his tour. Reporters quickly uncovered another damning detail: Lewis’s divorce from his second wife hadn't been finalized when he married Myra, making him a bigamist.



Lewis was genuinely bewildered by the hostile media response

Lewis was genuinely confused by the outrage. "I married her, didn't I?" he kept telling reporters. Coming from rural Louisiana, marrying young and within extended family was hardly uncommon to him. Indeed, that same year, 23-year-old Elvis Presley began pursuing 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, which raised few eyebrows back home.

From Superstar to Outcast

Out of 37 scheduled shows, Lewis managed to play only three. Audiences booed him off the stage, and ticket sales plummeted. The tour was canceled, and Lewis fled back to Memphis with his teenage wife—but the scandal crossed the Atlantic faster than his flight. American radio stations dropped his tracks from rotation, and TV host Dick Clark pulled Lewis from his show (a decision Clark later regretted as cowardly).



British tabloid headlines destroyed the rock 'n' roll star's reputation overnight

His performance fee plummeted from $10,000 to just $250 a night. Instead of packed arenas, Lewis was reduced to playing roadside bars and dive clubs.



Within a week, the scandal transformed a global superstar into an industry pariah

It would take Lewis more than a decade to rebuild his career; true commercial success wouldn't return until 1968, when he reinvented himself as a country artist.

Tragedy and Loss

While Lewis fought to regain his spot in the limelight, his personal life collapsed. In 1970, Myra divorced him, citing physical and emotional abuse. Just a year later, in 1971, Lewis married Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate—his fourth of seven marriages.



Jerry Lee Lewis in 1972, amidst personal upheaval

Tragedies haunted his family with haunting regularity. In 1962, his three-year-old son, Steve Allen Lewis, drowned in a swimming pool. In 1973, his eldest son, 19-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., died in a Jeep crash near his father's home. In 1982, while awaiting their divorce, his fourth wife, Jaren, also drowned in a pool. Then, in 1983, just 77 days after their wedding, his fifth wife, 25-year-old Shawn Stephens, died under mysterious circumstances.

Guns, Alcohol, and Hitting Rock Bottom

On September 29, 1976, his 41st birthday, an intoxicated Lewis decided to shoot Coke bottles inside his home. A bullet from his .357 Magnum ricocheted and hit his bass player, Norman "Butch" Owens, in the chest. Owens survived and later filed a $400,000 lawsuit against his boss.



Jerry Lee Lewis in 1977, shortly after some of the most notorious incidents of his life

Less than two months later, on November 23, 1976, Lewis was arrested outside Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion. Brandishing a handgun and visibly drunk, he demanded to see Presley, telling guards he had come to "kill the King." Five years later, in 1981, years of severe alcoholism led to a near-fatal stomach rupture, leaving doctors unsure if he would survive.



Lewis managed to return to the stage, though his comeback paled in comparison to his golden years

A Second Wind and the Hall of Fame

Jerry Lee Lewis refused to quit. Starting in the late 1960s, he re-emerged with a string of country hits—including "Another Place, Another Time," "What Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)," and "Chantilly Lace"—reclaiming a spot on the charts in a new genre.



One of Lewis's country albums released in 1969, at the height of his career resurgence

In 1986, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and other icons. That night, Lewis led an all-star impromptu jam session on stage—establishing a tradition that endures to this day. In 1989, the biopic

Great Balls of Fire!

starred Dennis Quaid as Lewis and Winona Ryder as Myra Gale Brown, introducing his tumultuous story to a new generation.

The Final Chapter

In 2012, at age 76, Lewis married for the seventh time—wedding Judith Brown, the ex-wife of his former scandal-bound wife Myra's brother. He spent his remaining years with her on his ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi. Despite suffering a minor stroke in May 2019, he continued to make occasional public appearances.



Jerry Lee Lewis at one of his last major concerts, São Paulo, 2009

Jerry Lee Lewis passed away on October 28, 2022, at his home in DeSoto County, Mississippi, at the age of 87. He was the last surviving member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s inaugural class.



One of the final photographs taken of the musician

In his hometown of Ferriday, a street still bears the name Jerry Lee Lewis Avenue—a lasting tribute to the boy who picked up the piano at age nine and shook the world.

What do you think? Had the British press not exposed his marriage to a 13-year-old, would the American public have turned a blind eye—or was an explosive scandal inevitable anyway?