(Republicaninformer.com)- Legendary rock ‘n roller Jerry Lee Lewis died last Friday at the age of 87, two days after TMZ falsely reported his death.
TMZ had reported that Lewis had died in his Memphis home last Wednesday, but later retracted the story claiming it was based on an erroneous tip.
Zach Farnum, a representative for Jerry Lee Lewis, told the New York Post that the singer was alive and the TMZ report was based on a “bullsh*t anonymous tip.”
Then two days later, Lewis really did die.
Before reporting his death, the New York Post emailed Zach Farnum just to make sure that this time the singer was dead and Farnum confirmed it.
Jerry Lee Lewis’s official Facebook page last month posted that the singer had been dealing with health issues.
In an October 19 post promoting Lewis being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the official page added that Lewis was “too ill with the flu to attend the ceremony.”
Famously dubbed “The Killer,” Lewis was part of a group of legendary early rockers that included Elvis Pressley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard.
After Elvis was drafted into the Army in 1958, Lewis was a contender to replace him as rock’s prime hitmaker.
But then his questionable private life changed all that.
While he was touring England, the press discovered that he was married to his teenage cousin, Myra Gale Brown despite already being married. Brown was only 13 (or possibly 12) at the time.
The news was so scandalous that his tour was canceled and Lewis was blacklisted from the radio, effectively dropping his earnings to nothing.
Over the decades that followed, Lewis struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, physical illness, and legal problems.
He was married seven times and had six children, two of whom died tragically at a young age.
