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However, the health setback has forced Lewis,
83, to cancel some upcoming appearances, including an April 28
date at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, a May 18 show at the
Tennessee Theater in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a June 8
engagement at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, spokesman
Zack Farnum said.
Farnum quoted the performer's neurologist, Dr. Rohini Bhole, as
saying the prognosis for Lewis was promising, two weeks after
being hospitalized for a stroke.
"Jerry Lee is expected to fully recover with aggressive and
intensive rehab," Bhole said. "From what I have seen thus far,
he is heading in the right direction."
Farnum said the hospital and rehab center were both in Memphis,
about 20 miles (32 km) north of Lewis' current ranch home in
Nesbit, Mississippi.
It was in Memphis that Lewis got his big start in the recording
business at Sun Records in the 1950s, with the likes of Elvis
Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
Lewis, nicknamed "The Killer," was among the very first class of
musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and his
raucous piano style on such hits as "Great Balls of Fire" and
"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," was essential in shaping the
early sound of rock.
But his career has also been overshadowed by scandal, including
a marriage, in his early 20s, to his 13-year-old cousin, his
accidental shooting of his bass player in 1976 and costly
battles with the Internal Revenue Service.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
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