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Photograph withheld pending rights review
Jerry Lee Lewis smiling, chin on his hand, in a striped shirt
Jerry Lee Lewis, Sun-era portrait, Maurice Seymour. Maurice Seymour, Chicago · Public domain
A 1957 trade-paper advertisement with a round photograph of Jerry Lee Lewis
Cash Box, 16 November 1957. Sun Records (advertisement) · Public domain

Ferriday · Memphis · London · Hamburg · Nesbit

Jerry Lee Lewis

Ferriday had a club three cousins were too young to go into. They listened from the sidewalk, went home and played it back on the piano.

Ferriday, Louisiana · the 1940s

Music through a wall.
Three cousins on the sidewalk.

Three boys on one sidewalk. Pick one and follow him.

A blue roadside marker in front of a brick building
The Blues Trail marker for Haney’s Big House, outside the Delta Music Museum, 2021. Firecruise · CC BY-SA 4.0

Haney’s Big House · Ferriday; the club is gone

He sneaked out at night to the Black nightclub with his cousins Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart, and called it like strolling through heaven.

Will Haney opened a barbecue joint on Highway 84 in the 1930s; it grew into Haney’s Big House, a barroom and nightclub. Ray Charles, B. B. King, Little Milton, Solomon Burke, Big Joe Turner and Irma Thomas played there.

Fire destroyed the club in 1966 and Haney did not rebuild; firemen blamed an ice machine, and many in Black Ferriday believed the Klan had targeted him.

Nothing is left of the club and accounts differ on its exact lot, so it is not on the map. A Blues Trail marker for it stands outside the Delta Music Museum.

Where this comes from
A green street sign reading Jerry Lee Lewis above a grassy field
The street sign for Jerry Lee Lewis Drive, Ferriday, 2008. Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0

Ferriday, Louisiana

His parents, Elmo and Mamie, scraped a living from a small farm; the family sang hymns every Sunday at the local Assembly of God church.

At eight he played a piano in his aunt and uncle’s parlour, and his father mortgaged the family home for $300 to buy him a rebuilt upright. He took one piano lesson, and it ended badly.

Where this comes from
A red-brick building with a Delta Music Museum sign
The Delta Music Museum in Ferriday’s old post office, 2008. Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0

Delta Music Museum · 218 Louisiana Avenue, Ferriday

The museum tells the story of Ferriday’s famous three cousins, and names Jimmy Swaggart and Mickey Gilley as two native sons of the town.

Free. Listed as open Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 4pm; hours vary, so ring 318-757-4297 before you drive. Groups book ahead.

Where this comes from
A small-town theatre with an upright ARCADE sign
The Arcade Theatre next to the museum, 2008. Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0
Delta Music Museum & Arcade Theatre

Delta Music Museum

218 Louisiana Avenue, Ferriday · Free · ring 318-757-4297 first

Ferriday’s museum of its three cousins, with the Blues Trail marker for Haney’s Big House outside.

Plan a visit
A low brick college building with a sign for Southwestern Assemblies of God University
The Shaffer Center on the Waxahachie campus, 2016, when it was still called SAGU. Fkbowen · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Bible school, Waxahachie · 1200 Sycamore Street, Waxahachie, Texas

His mother enrolled him at the Assemblies of God school in Waxahachie, Texas. The story goes that he was expelled for playing boogie-woogie at a church assembly.

The school took the name Nelson University in 2024, after its founder, P. C. Nelson.

A working university campus: look from the street, and ask the university before going in.

Where this comes from

Ferriday to Memphis · autumn 1956

Memphis cost 33 dozen eggs.
Sell them.

Crate one

Crate two

Crate three

Three crates on the porch, and 350 miles to Memphis.

Each crate holds eleven dozen. Empty one and the road moves on.

706 Union Avenue · Tuesday 4 December 1956

Hired for the afternoon.
Then the room filled.

A booked session, a piano and a tape machine.

Where this comes from
Four singers in a row on a television stage
Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis on the Johnny Cash Christmas special, 1977. CBS Television · Public domain

In 1977 Perkins, Cash and Lewis shared a stage again, with Roy Orbison, on a Johnny Cash Christmas special.

Their own Worlds: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. Elvis’s first Sun session is in Elvis at Sun Studio.

The Steve Allen Show · Sunday 28 July 1957

Television’s first look.
The bench went.

Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On, live, and a piano bench behind him.

Where this comes from
  1. 1Country and R&B, September 1957: Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On (number 3 pop)
  2. 1Country, January 1958: Great Balls of Fire (number 2 pop)

Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On topped the country and R&B charts in September 1957 and reached number three on the pop chart. Great Balls of Fire was a number one country and number two pop hit in January 1958.

Where this comes from
A 1957 trade-paper advertisement with a round photograph of Jerry Lee Lewis
Sun’s trade advertisement for Great Balls of Fire, Cash Box, 16 November 1957. Sun Records (advertisement) · Public domain

London · May 1958

Thirty-seven dates on the sheet.
He played three.

On 12 December 1957 he had married Myra Gale Brown. She was 13, his first cousin once removed and the daughter of his bass player, J. W. Brown, and his divorce from his second wife was not yet final.

He landed at Heathrow on 22 May 1958; asked her age, he told a reporter she was fifteen.

Where this comes from
  1. 24 MayEdmontonRegal
  2. 25 MayKilburnGaumont State
  3. 26 MayTootingGranada
  4. 27 MayBirminghamOdeon
  5. 28 MayPrestonPublic Hall
  6. 29 MayGlasgowOdeon
  7. 30 MayEdinburghNew Victoria
  8. 31 MayNewcastleOdeon
  9. 1 JuneLiverpoolOdeon
  10. 2 JuneManchesterOdeon
  11. 3 JuneCoventryGaumont
  12. 4 JuneWorcesterGaumont
  13. 5 JuneCardiffCapitol
  14. 6 JuneCheltenhamGaumont
  15. 7 JuneWolverhamptonGaumont
  16. 8 JuneBradfordGaumont
  17. 9 JuneNottinghamOdeon
  18. 10 JuneLeedsOdeon
  19. 11 JuneSheffieldCity Hall
  20. 12 JuneNorwichCarlton
  21. 13 JuneIpswichGaumont
  22. 14 JuneWoolwichGranada
  23. 15 JuneEast HamGranada
  24. 16 JuneLeicesterDe Montfort Hall
  25. 17 JuneDoncasterGaumont
  26. 18 JuneHanleyGaumont
  27. 19 JuneChesterGaumont
  28. 20 JuneSloughAdelphi
  29. 21 JuneSalisburyGaumont
  30. 22 JunePlymouthOdeon
  31. 23 JuneTauntonGaumont
  32. 24 JuneSouthamptonGaumont
  33. 25 JuneBournemouthGaumont
  34. 26 JuneRochesterGaumont
  35. 27 JuneSouthendGaumont
  36. 28 JuneElephant & CastleTrocadero
  37. 29 JuneGuildfordGaumont

The tour sheet as a Bradford concert timeline lists it; History.com counts 27 bookings.

Friday 23 May: the sheet is full. The first night is tomorrow in Edmonton.

Where this comes from
A black and white 1958 cinema advertisement
Newspaper advertisement for MGM’s High School Confidential!, with his name on the bill, 29 May 1958: the week the tour fell apart. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (advertisement) · Public domain
A busy road junction with traffic lights and vans
Fore Street at the North Circular, Edmonton, 2013: the corner where the Regal stood. David Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Regal, Edmonton · Corner of Fore Street and Sterling Way, Edmonton

Jerry Lee Lewis played it on 24 May 1958, the first night of his British tour, with the Treniers and the Hedley Ward Trio. The Regal opened on 8 March 1934 at the corner of Silver Street, now Sterling Way, and Fore Street, with 2,940 seats. Rank closed it as a cinema in 1972, and it was demolished in late 1985 for a supermarket.

Demolished in 1985. Its exact footprint is not checked here, so it is not on the map; the photograph is the Fore Street junction.

Where this comes from
A tall pale art deco tower with the word STATE at the top
The tower of the Gaumont State, Kilburn High Road, 2009. Jim Linwood · CC BY 2.0

The Gaumont State, Kilburn · 199 Kilburn High Road

The tour’s second night, 25 May 1958, was at the Gaumont State. It opened on 20 December 1937 with 4,004 seats, designed by George Coles; it is now listed Grade II*. A church bought it in January 2008 and reopened it as Ruach Ministries Church on 10 July 2010.

Now a church: see the tower from Kilburn High Road. Inside only for services and events.

Where this comes from
A cinema front with tall arched windows on a high street
The Granada, 50 Mitcham Road, Tooting, 2017. Chrisstine22 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Granada, Tooting · 50 Mitcham Road, Tooting

The third night, 26 May 1958, was at the Granada, Tooting. It opened on 7 September 1931 as a Granada theatre, with 3,104 seats, and is listed Grade I. It closed as a cinema in 1973 and became a bingo club in 1976.

See it from Mitcham Road, where a blue plaque names him among its performers. It has been a bingo club; check whether it is open before you go in.

Where this comes from
A round blue plaque listing performers at the Tooting Granada
The Tooting Granada plaque, 2026: Jerry Lee Lewis is among the names. Spudgun67 · CC0
A gilded hall with chandeliers and Gothic arches
The Granada’s hall of mirrors, Tooting, 2017. Paul the Archivist · CC BY-SA 4.0

Große Freiheit 39, Hamburg · April 1964

No band of his own.
A borrowed one, and a late tape.

In April 1964, on a tour of England and Germany, he was paid so little that he could not bring his own band. In Hamburg the Nashville Teens, a British group, were waiting at the Star-Club to back him, and Siggi Loch of Philips decided to record the show.

The Nashville Teens are on; the first song has started.

Smash would not release it in America; imports were sought after until a US release in 1980.

Where this comes from
A black commemorative plaque on a wall
The Star-Club plaque, Große Freiheit 39, Hamburg, 2011. Lipinski · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Star-Club site · Große Freiheit 39, St. Pauli

The club is gone: find the plaque in the backyard at Große Freiheit 39, off the Reeperbahn.

The Beatles played the same stage: The Beatles.

Hotel am Beatles-Platz

Hotel am Beatles-Platz

St. Pauli, Hamburg

A 53-room hotel in St. Pauli, a few steps from the Reeperbahn and the top of Große Freiheit. It claims no Lewis history. Pictured: the Star-Club plaque.

View the hotel
An iron gate between brick pillars with a black grand piano cut-out in it
The ranch gate on Malone Road, with its grand piano, 2012. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0

Malone Road, Nesbit, Mississippi · 1973–2022

A grand piano in the gate.
Home for nearly fifty years.

The house was built in 1967; he bought it in 1973 and lived there until his death in October 2022. He died on 28 October 2022 at his Mississippi home near Memphis, aged 87.

New owners have opened it as the Lewis Ranch Experience: his awards, the piano-shaped swimming pool, his Cadillac and a gold grand piano lent by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Now the Lewis Ranch Experience: hourly tours by reservation, Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm (last tour 4pm), Sunday 9am to 3pm. Adults $39.95, children 5–13 $24.95. Not mapped here; follow the address to the gate.

Where this comes from
A white-columned ranch house up a lawn
The ranch house, Malone Road, Nesbit, 2012. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0
The Lewis Ranch Experience

The Lewis Ranch Experience

1595 Malone Road, Nesbit, Mississippi · Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–3pm · adults $39.95

Hourly tours of his Nesbit home: the awards, the piano-shaped pool, the Cadillac. Check in at the welcome centre at the foot of the drive.

Book a tour
The museum seen across a lawn, a long curved building with a round rotunda
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, May 2022. Antony-22 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum · 222 Rep. John Lewis Way South, Nashville

When his Sun contract ran out in 1963 he moved to Smash Records, a Mercury label. Jerry Kennedy’s country session gave him Another Place Another Time, number four on the Billboard country chart; from 1968 to 1981 he had 34 country top twenty hits.

Jerry Lee Lewis in a bright shirt playing a piano on stage, a bassist behind him
On stage in 1977. Photograph: Klaus Hiltscher. Klaus Hiltscher · CC BY-SA 2.0

He was inducted on 16 October 2022. On his doctor’s advice he did not attend; Hank Williams Jr. and Kris Kristofferson accepted for him. His plaque was to be placed in the Hall of Fame rotunda.

Open daily, 9am to 5pm. Adult admission $31.95; under-18s free. His plaque hangs in the rotunda.

Where this comes from

Where it is now

7 places on the map, in Ferriday, Waxahachie, Memphis, London, Hamburg and Nashville. Ferriday and Haney’s are a town and a lost club, the Regal is demolished and the ranch is reached by its address, so they are not pinned.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free. Listed as open Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 4pm; hours vary, so ring 318-757-4297 before you drive. Groups book ahead.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working university campus: look from the street, and ask the university before going in.

  1. A red-brick building with a Delta Music Museum sign
    The Delta Music Museum in Ferriday’s old post office, 2008. Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0

    218 Louisiana Avenue, Ferriday

    Delta Music Museum

    The museum tells the story of Ferriday’s famous three cousins, and names Jimmy Swaggart and Mickey Gilley as two native sons of the town.

    Free. Listed as open Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 4pm; hours vary, so ring 318-757-4297 before you drive. Groups book ahead.

    Where this comes from
  2. A low brick college building with a sign for Southwestern Assemblies of God University
    The Shaffer Center on the Waxahachie campus, 2016, when it was still called SAGU. Fkbowen · CC BY-SA 4.0

    1200 Sycamore Street, Waxahachie, Texas

    The Bible school, Waxahachie

    His mother enrolled him at the Assemblies of God school in Waxahachie, Texas.

    A working university campus: look from the street, and ask the university before going in.

    Where this comes from

Stay

Sleep near Sun, or off the Reeperbahn.

A hotel in Memphis’s 1914 railway station, and one a few steps from Große Freiheit.

Central Station Memphis, Curio Collection by Hilton

Central Station Hotel

545 South Main Street, Memphis

The 1914 Grand Central Station at 545 South Main, still an Amtrak stop, now 123 rooms and a bar with a vinyl collection. Not a Lewis address; a base for Sun and the ranch. Pictured: Sun Studio.

Check rooms
Hotel am Beatles-Platz

Hotel am Beatles-Platz

St. Pauli, Hamburg

A 53-room hotel in St. Pauli, a few steps from the Reeperbahn and the top of Große Freiheit. It claims no Lewis history. Pictured: the Star-Club plaque.

View the hotel

Go there

Stand in the rooms.

Sun Studio, the ranch at Nesbit, the museum in Ferriday, the Hall of Fame in Nashville, and Memphis by tour.

Sun Studio

Sun Studio tour

706 Union Avenue, Memphis · Daily 10am–5.15pm · adults $20

Forty minutes in the room where Jack Clement recorded him in 1956 and the four played on 4 December.

Plan a visit
The Lewis Ranch Experience

The Lewis Ranch Experience

1595 Malone Road, Nesbit, Mississippi · Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–3pm · adults $39.95

Hourly tours of his Nesbit home: the awards, the piano-shaped pool, the Cadillac. Check in at the welcome centre at the foot of the drive.

Book a tour
Delta Music Museum & Arcade Theatre

Delta Music Museum

218 Louisiana Avenue, Ferriday · Free · ring 318-757-4297 first

Ferriday’s museum of its three cousins, with the Blues Trail marker for Haney’s Big House outside.

Plan a visit
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Nashville · Daily 9am–5pm · adults $31.95

His plaque is in the rotunda with the other members of the Hall.

Plan a visit
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Memphis music tours

Memphis

Live marketplace results for music-history tours in Memphis. Check each itinerary for Sun Studio.

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What’s on

At the Hall.

Talks and shows in the building where his plaque hangs.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Books and records.

His own story as told to Rick Bragg, Nick Tosches’s Hellfire, his first Sun LP and the Hamburg record.

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Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story

Rick Bragg

His life in his own words, as told to Rick Bragg, 2014.

Find the book
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Hellfire

Nick Tosches

The 1982 biography, here in Grove’s 1998 edition.

Find the book
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Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis · LP, Sun, 1958

His first LP, issued by Sun in May 1958, the month of the London tour.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy
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Live at the Star-Club, Hamburg

Jerry Lee Lewis and the Nashville Teens · LP, Philips, 1964

The German Philips LP of the Hamburg show.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The road log

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

11 of 11 places · 17 of 17 Moments

  • Ferriday, Louisiana

    Concordia Parish, across the Mississippi from Natchez

    • Born in Ferriday

      He is born in Ferriday, Louisiana.

    • A $300 upright

      His father mortgages the house to buy him a rebuilt piano.

    • Fourteen dollars

      His first public performance, at a car dealership, at thirteen.

  • Haney’s Big House

    Ferriday; the club is gone

    • On the sidewalk at Haney’s

      He and his cousins listen outside the Black nightclub, then play it back at home.

  • Delta Music Museum

    218 Louisiana Avenue, Ferriday

    • The Bible school, Waxahachie

      1200 Sycamore Street, Waxahachie, Texas

      • Boogie at the Bible school

        At the Assemblies of God school in Waxahachie, the story goes, boogie-woogie gets him expelled.

    • Sun Studio

      706 Union Avenue, Memphis

      • Thirty-three dozen eggs

        His father sells eggs to pay for the trip; Jack Clement records him while Sam Phillips is away.

      • The Million Dollar Quartet

        Hired to play piano on Carl Perkins’s session, he is in the room when Elvis Presley drops in and Johnny Cash arrives, and the tape keeps running.

      • The bench goes

        Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On reaches television on The Steve Allen Show, and he kicks the bench away.

      • Great Balls of Fire

        Number one country, number two pop.

    • The Lewis Ranch, Nesbit

      1595 Malone Road, Nesbit, DeSoto County, Mississippi

      • Nesbit

        He buys the ranch south of Memphis and lives there for nearly fifty years.

      • Home

        He dies at home in Mississippi, twelve days after the induction.

    • The Regal, Edmonton

      Corner of Fore Street and Sterling Way, Edmonton

      • The first night

        The British tour opens at the Regal, Edmonton, days after the press learn that his new wife is thirteen.

    • The Gaumont State, Kilburn

      199 Kilburn High Road

      • The second night

        The tour plays the Gaumont State.

    • The Granada, Tooting

      50 Mitcham Road, Tooting

      • The last night

        The Granada, Tooting; the remaining dates are cancelled after three shows.

    • The Star-Club site

      Große Freiheit 39, St. Pauli

      • Live at the Star-Club

        With the Nashville Teens behind him, Philips records a show in Hamburg.

    • Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

      222 Rep. John Lewis Way South, Nashville

      • Another Place Another Time

        A country record for Smash goes to number four, and 34 top twenty country hits follow.

      • The Hall of Fame

        He is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; Kristofferson and Hank Williams Jr. stand in for him.

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