Jerry Lee Lewis, the iconic rock and roll performer who became a major country music star and still maintains a home at the Lewis Ranch in Nesbit, is one of the latest additions to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The announcement of the latest inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame was made on the Hall of Fame website and at an event in Nashville, Tennessee.
The website announcement called Lewis a performer “with a distinctive and dynamic style as a singer and pianist. Between 1968 and 1981, he had 34 Top Twenty country hits.”
Lewis will join Joe Galante, one country music’s most successful record executives, and influential singer Keith Whitley as the newest members of the Hall.
Galante helped steer the careers of Alabama, Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, the Judds, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, and many other artists during his four decades in the record business.
Whitley helped define country music’s new traditionalist resurgence of the 1980s. In five years, he recorded a dozen Top Twenty solo country singles, including five consecutive #1 hits. His career was cut tragically short at age thirty-four.
The newest members-elect will be honored during a private, invitation-only Medallion Ceremony at the Museum in October 2022.
Photo: The entrance to the Lewis Ranch, the Nesbit home of legendary musician Jerry Lee Lewis, who will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October. (Bob Bakken/DeSoto County News)
