It’s still hard to think about the fact that Jerry Lee Lewis passed away back in October at the age of 87.
The man has one of the most recognizable names in both rock & roll and country music history, and was a true pioneer in the rock & roll genre, making it popular to the mainstream with his hits like “Great Balls Of Fire,” “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On,” and more.
Not to mention, he had one of the most electric live shows around, with his out of this world piano playing abilities.
And on top of that, the guy wasn’t afraid to get down, have a good time, and party his ass off, either… one of the OG rockstars.
I mean, the man was nicknamed “The Killer,” and we’re not talking about his killer musical talent or “killing” the crowd with an electric show… it actually came from a schoolyard fight where he tried to choke out a grown man with a necktie.
With that being said, I came across this wild story from Mike Judge’s Tales from the Tour Bus, that truly puts into perspective how wild ol’ Jerry Lee was back in his prime.
On this episode, Jerry Lee’s former drummer and former brother-in-law Rusty Brown recalled a story about the time the famed artist had an office in Memphis, Tennessee that he rented out, so he had a place he could go to before the clubs reopened at night.
The episode then transitioned to discussing Jerry Lee’s notable struggles with alcohol and drug use, particularly cocaine and pills.
And on one particular night at the Memphis office, he had been up for 2 or three days straight during a drug bender, and began shooting up the place, and throwing knives.
On the third night, people were starting to finally crash, and simply couldn’t keep up any longer.
That’s when Brown said Jerry Lee went and grabbed a machine gun, that originally used to belong to legendary gangster Machine Gun Kelly (no, not the rapper).
Brown recalled:
“He bought it from a collector. He was proud of that ol’ machine gun.”
So, in an effort to wake everybody back up, he began spraying the ceiling with several rounds from the antique machine gun, scaring the ever livin’ hell out of everybody in the place.
Brown continued:
“Next day, boy they were having a fit. He shot up the dental lab that was next door. He shot up $50,000 worth of false teeth. That was the end of his little office right there.”
Yeah, I’d say that would wake ya up a bit… bullets from a machine gun spraying over your head.
Check out the full video below:
