MY NIGHT WITH THE KILLER- RIP Jerry Lee

[No Horse Hair, SASS #77464]

It was probably the summer of 1969, I wasn't old enough to drink, but my 2 running buddies were. They grabbed me up, said come on, we're chasing tail tonight and you're going with us to see Jerry Lee Lewis. It was a place called Midway in Southern Indiana. Just an old roller rink beside the two lane out by itself. Rundown place with a large gravel parking lot, mostly unlit, where you could drink out of your trunk and wander in to listen to music.  We showed up, waited inside with a small  pretty rough crowd, waiting for some rock n' roll. The time for him to appear slipped past and the juke box played on, the crowd wandered in and out to the parking lot and got more restless. I was standing a few feet from a doorway when the juke box stopped and the door burst open. "The KILLER" had arrived! Surrounded by 4 Indiana State policemen was a wild looking man headed for the stage which was just a marked off spot on the rink floor not 15' from me. I don't know if he was drunk, hopped up or just normally crazed, but when he hit the piano the show started! No introduction, he just bit, clawed and chewed his way through his hit songs, stopping occassionaly to throw in a little Gospel for us rock n'roll sinners!

I doubt that there was 200 people in the rink, and it had to be the lowest part of his career, but he played like a madman with a crowd of 10,000.  We left that night with our ears ringing, no tail caught, and an illegal smile. We had truly been in the grasp of "The KILLER".