With his parents, Elmo and Mamie Herron Lewis.
Courtesy of Jerry Lee Lewis
As a boy, at around the time his father took him out to the levee to see the party boats on the Mississippi. “That’ll be you on there someday,” Elmo told him. “That’ll be you.”
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The young conqueror loose on the streets.
The bar at Haney’s Big House, with proprietor, Will Haney, second from right. “I just introduced myself to the atmosphere,” says Jerry Lee.
Concordia Sentinel
With Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (above), who tried to convince Jerry Lee that he could save souls as a “rock-and-roll exponent,” and Sam’s brother Jud (below)
who served, at various times, as manager, drinking partner, and mentor.
Pictorial Press; Colin Escott
Jerry Lee with (left to right) Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash, around the piano at Sun, December 4, 1956: the afternoon jam session that went down in history as the Million Dollar Quartet. “I knew there was something special going on here,” Jerry Lee says.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Here he is, jumpin’ and joltin’: The Steve Allen Show, July 28, 1957.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Shining down from above: a mysterious Sun promotional photo.
Debuting “Great Balls of Fire” in the jukebox film Jamboree.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Signing autographs for fans at the Bell Auditorium, Augusta, Georgia.
Museum of Augusta
The Great Ball of Fire on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
“I thought to myself, I don’t like the look in these girls’ eyes, and the cops couldn’t do nothing about it.”
ValdoSta, Georgia, probably early 1958.
Courtesy of Pierre Pennone
With fan club president Kay Martin and a fan backstage at the Loews Paradise Theater in the Bronx, New York, March 31, 1958.
Courtesy of Kay Martin/Pierre Pennone
At the Granada Theatre in Tooting, South London: his last concert before leaving England, May 26, 1958.
Pierre Pennone
“Why don’t we leave our personal questions out of this, sir?” Greeting the press with Myra upon his return from England, Idlewild Airport, New York City, 1958.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Steve Allen Lewis, who died before his fourth birthday.
Kevin Horan/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
With Don Everly (center) and Buddy Holly (right), who asked him for marriage advice. Jerry Lee remembers Holly as “a real champion” and “a true gentleman.”
Pictorial Press
With his parents, Mamie and Elmo, 1959.
Bettmann/Corbis
At El Monte Stadium, Los Angeles, with DJ Art Leboe, June 20, 1958.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
REX USA / Devo Hoffmann
The conqueror returns to Europe, early 1960s.
Marion Schweitzer/REX USA