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* Lewis grew up with his cousins, future
country singer Mickey Gilley and evangelist-to-be Jimmy Swaggart,
in Ferriday, Louisiana, where Lewis made his performing debut at
age 14, singing "Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" at the opening of
an auto dealership in 1949.
* Lewis's father, Elmo, went to prison twice for bootlegging.
* As a boy, Lewis developed his love of boogie-woogie and blues
by sneaking into a Ferriday nightclub that featured the era's
best blues musicians.
* Lewis was expelled after only three months at Southwestern
Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, reportedly after
performing a rowdy version of "My God Is Real" at a church
assembly.
* Myra Gale Brown, Lewis' cousin and the daughter of his bass
player at the time, was only 13 in 1957 when she married the
singer, who was then 22. She claimed on the marriage license to
be 20 and the controversy of their marriage brought Lewis'
career to a halt.
* Lewis ended up in jail in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1976 after he
was found brandishing a pistol and demanding to see Elvis
Presley outside Presley's Graceland mansion. Earlier that year
Lewis had accidentally shot his bass player.
* Rolling Stone magazine reported in 2006 that Lewis still owned
the Starck upright piano that his father bought for him in 1945
after mortgaging the family home to pay for it.
* Lewis's career got a boost in 1989 when he sang his songs for
the movie "Great Balls of Fire!" in which Dennis Quaid portrayed
him while Winona Ryder played Myra.
(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Diane Craft)
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