SEPTEMBER 29th - Life Lessons from Jerry Lee



On this day in 1976, Jerry Lee Lewis was celebrating his 41st birthday by shooting at some soda bottles. Because, goodness gracious, how else would should a rock star celebrate. I mean great balls of fire, popping a few rounds at some unruly soda pop bottles seems completely reasonable. Of course, I’m not sure what seems unreasonable to a man who married his 13 year-old cousin when he was 22. I would venture to guess that firing those rounds when your bassist was in the vicinity may have, in hindsight, seemed like a bad idea. Or maybe Norman the bassist wasn’t near the bottles, and Lewis just had a whole lotta shakin going on. Whatever the case poor Norman Owens got his ass shot. Twice. In the chest. By his boss. Who was shooting soda bottles. Fortunately Owens survived. That would be a pretty miserable way to go out. It’s not as bad as getting eaten alive by ants, or getting stoned to death by millions of weak-armed prepubescents, but the sheer stupidity of the situation would probably tick me off just a tad. Unless the whole band was tripping on acid and Owens was trying to prove he was Superman. That’s slightly better. But it certainly does seem like you can look at much of Jerry Lee Lewis’ life for things not to do. Don’t marry your 13 year-old cousin. Don’t shoot your bassist in the chest. Twice. Twice? How did he do it twice? I’m sure they may be others. You should also try to remember that you are not Superman.

This day has been Marked.

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