My parents recognised my talent at a young age and were willing to bet the farm on me, actually mortgaging their farm so that they could get me my own piano although they didn't expect it to get me banned from the local Christian school after i did a boogie woogie version of 'My God is Real'.
Knowing that their farm now depended on me making it, my parents drove me to Memphis, Tennessee to meet Sun Records producers and they signed me up but despite the first song tanking, 'Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On' got me known. I had to use my middle name, Lee, because there was another entertainer who became a star at the same time.
Sun records at that time was a haven of young talent and i was asked to play piano on a Carl Perkins song and met Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley who became my friend although he later had me arrested.
My love life was a little more complicated, i first got married at 16 at stayed married for just over a year and a half and even got remarried 20 days before my divorce was finalised although that one lasted 4 years which was an accomplishment because she was a lunatic, one time she tried to mow him down with her car, pushed me down a flight of stairs and threw a hammer at me. If i hadn't moved quite so quick when she came at me with a box of matches and some paraffin then the song Great Balls of Fire would have been a true story.
It was my third wife which caused a bit of a problem, her only being 13 and my cousin although being in a relationship with a relative wasn't such a problem especially in the southern states of America, hell, in Texas it's considered weird if you are not in a boinking someone you can go halfsie with on your Grandma's Christmas present.
It was different in the UK and my managers warned me to leave my teen-cousin bride at home and when my tour there was cancelled before it even began and radio stations stopped playing my songs, i probably should have listened. Turns out, marrying your 13-year-old cousin isn’t exactly the best career move and my career went into a tailspin and i was reduced to playing shows in dingy bars and clubs for $250/night.
I was out of the loop for over a decade and it wasn't until the late 60s that i started making a comeback as a country and western singer and i had a shiny new wife to go with my new career but divorce number 4 loomed 4 years later or would have done if she hadn't been found dead in a friend’s swimming pool.
I turned to booze and drugs and decided it would be a good idea to see how long i could go without sleep. The answer was 12 days and 12 nights and my 41st birthday party came to a loud and bloody end when playing with a loaded .357 Magnum in my bedroom, i aimed at a Coke bottle and the bullet ricocheted and hit bassist Butch Owens in the chest.
I drank enough to float a mid-sized battleship although i spent much if 1981 in hospital with a ruptured stomach but that didn't stop the IRS coming after me for an overdue tax bill of and seized my motorcycles, jewelry and cars.
I was lucky enough to meet some great stars and unlucky enough to meet some not so great ones, i had an actual physical fist-fight with Janis Joplin and almost got to meet Elvis once he was really famous but i got drunk and drove my car into a ditch and i was arrested for driving while intoxicated, driving
without a license, and reckless driving and on my release i celebrated by drinking heavilly and drove into Graceland’s front gates and Elvis called the cops and i was back in the cells to sober up.
A minor stroke shake my nerves and rattled my brain which slowed me down but now i'm slowed down permanently but goodness gracious it was fun while it lasted.
3 comments:
he also had 2 very talented and successful cousins...
Yep, he married one of them
the two i was thinking of were men. don't think he married either of them
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