Early life
Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday, in Concordia Parish, in eastern Louisiana, and began playing piano in his youth with two cousins, Mickey Gilley (later a popular country music singer) and Jimmy Swaggart (later a popular TV evangelist).
His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Lewis was influenced by a piano-playing older cousin, Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from Haney's Big House, a black juke joint across the tracks. On the live album By Request, More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth, Lewis is heard naming Moon Mullican as an artist who inspired him.
His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Lewis was influenced by a piano-playing older cousin, Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from Haney's Big House, a black juke joint across the tracks. On the live album By Request, More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth, Lewis is heard naming Moon Mullican as an artist who inspired him.
He
signed with Sun Records and became a rockabilly star. In 1958 Lewis
married his 13-year-old cousin causing a record boycott but Lewis
continued performing and made a comeback. He was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
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