Jerry Lee Lewis’ story is filled with scandal, drug and alcohol abuse, and, above all, music. Even if you don’t like his music, you know who he is. Rick Bragg sat with the legendary musician, listening to his stories and reminiscences, and created a very readable, fairly honest, biography.

I knew very little about Lewis before starting Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, and most of what I knew was from the 1989 movie Great Balls of Fire, which stars Dennis Quaid and chronicles Lewis’ life from his rise through the music world to his ultimate fall from grace. However, that movie was based on the book by the same name, written by Lewis’ ex wife, Myra. Her version of Lewis’ story is obviously biased, but how much of it was true and how much was revenge and bitterness? I wondered if Lewis was really that outrageous, and that much of a jerk? What was the story behind marrying his 13-year-old cousin (Myra)? And, most obviously, that movie chronicled his “downfall,” but he had hit songs after the film was released, so how did he regain his status?

Bragg does a great job of not only relaying Lewis’ life story, but also in making the man’s thought processes and actions somewhat understandable, perhaps even rational. He takes us through Lewis’s childhood to his rise and fall (and subsequent rises and falls) and into his old age (Lewis turns 81 next Thursday). Bragg manages to remain impartial to his subject, giving the reader an unvarnished depiction of the good times and the bad, though it’s obvious that he enjoyed Lewis’ company and the interviews he conducted. I really recommend this one to fans of Jerry Lee Lewis, Rockabilly, music history, and/or biographies in general.

Note: I read this as an audiobook, and my only complaint on that format is that the snippets of song lyrics included in the text of the biography were read in a weird style by the narrator – not quite singsong but not really straight reading. I’m sure it would have been a licensing nightmare, but it would have been amazing to actually mix recorded snippets of the songs/lyrics in those sections. As it was, I kept stopping the audiobook to look up videos on youtube. Which is not, altogether, a bad thing.