Jerry Lee Lewis - 'Hail Hail Rock ‘n’ Roll' Movie, 1986 Full Interview Chuck Berry Taylor Hackford

chuckle my berry go ahead jerry we are doing a film about chuck berry and you two really are the pioneers we did little richard uh in this film but three of you really were the ones that started this thing out uh what was it like at that period in those in the early 50s with this music did you think it would last it was great keller it was the beginning of a whole new i mean like 1953 for instance up to 1960 after that it went downhill but it's coming back i knew it would i couldn't get out of it the chuck berry is the greatest rock and roll thing in the world what did you just say charlie lewis i don't know about when you first uh well big didn't it when did you first meet chuck berry i never have maddie i first met chuck 1957 in new york city paramount theater now i don't know what i needed done a 56 day tour with him and it got so ridiculous no he wanted to fight me when we got in a fight that's when we become friends he whipped my butt why do you want to fight him he said he was kind of rocking though i said i was and he said he wasn't he proved he was i didn't argue with it no more what do you think was distinctive about chuck's talent god given talent course he has a certain chuck berry is the greatest he's hank williams for rock and roll that's something for you to say sure that's something for you to say though well it's the truth i'm on that piano boy man uh kylie rich in that time where you were where did the sound come from where did this music come from my third wife [Laughter] no the music from fairday louisiana from a little assembly of god church pentecostal church that's where it comes from elvis presley and jared he lives that's your basics of rock and roll chuck berry little [ __ ] that's domino pete found he's great on clarinet he'll see you pete go ahead when uh when this music came out and people started listening to it and they started buying records did you think it was going to last today before i knew it was going to last for me i don't know why i haven't had a hit in years but i knew it was going to last no i i've done pretty good for myself yes yes too between my wives irs chuck berry and elvis presley and little original i've done pretty good i'll come out with about a dollar i'm breathing but i am rocking this mother hump or you have ever seen in your life when i get on that stage i'll probably pass out tonight have the audiences changed yeah they died awake and you and i've seen three uh three generations come and go mostly ago are you talking to me or him talking to you well i know what he was talking about distracting me i just play a killer [Laughter] but what were you saying about about the audiences today artists have changed completely i have renovated them all the way now my audience is my life that's that's they come first and then i come the audience is when you first started were very young how was it in the sense when so young i had to marry one of them god edit this out right uh the audience was very young but very tempting and let me explain that they were very wild and they said that i was corrupting the youth of america and here come nixon for the dope off the market man elvis wasn't bad of people maybe we were a little squirty maybe but we like the women my god if he made anything i created anything better than a lady kept it for himself didn't he why am i talking about women anyway i must be horny if you're listening to me baby it's not true if you send this to my wife i'm dead send it to her i want to deal on this tell me on uh at the time when you went out what what is the sound what was the distinct sound of rock and roll do you think what made it different than other music i did i made rock and roll different it was rockabilly up and them i had a lot of shaking going on then they called it rock and roll after then it was rhythm and blue and rockabilly you making me think you know you today i think come on over baby a whole lot of shaking going on [Music] stand it in one little spot and wiggle it around a little bit they banted my record i said well uh hell uh he said i was cursing in the record i did i didn't think nothing about it where i come from people curse but not on record like my first wife you know she said jerely you ought to put out one of these records with a little bitty record with a big hole in the middle of it we've never seen a 45 record i said you must be crazy baby they don't make them like that have a little video two weeks later i saw one how did you feel when uh you did a record it went out and it became a hit how did you feel when you first heard on the journey fell with my fingers but i felt great when i heard my record played on air for the first time i couldn't believe it but anything it sounded bad other than my god if unleash somebody i know what mean no i knew it was me but just me and piano instead of drums crazy arms so 300 000 records on it wasn't very much but then become a whole lot of shaking going on i mean boy he's a bad boy evil we know how to be eagle watch me get out of this one now what were you saying about chuck berry i was saying right but but in terms of this does it you know when you when you he's digging for something in there i'm interested you you're going to get a preacher don't you when you came out with uh when you came out with your records and they turned around and attacked you and said he's evil did that hurt a little girl until then what did you say did that hurt ain't nothing hurt me i'm hurtless you couldn't hurt me if you hurt me and they broke my heart but you couldn't hurt me i mean you've got a lot of headlines and press and you know they it was nice to be the bad boy someone they quit talking about you they ain't coming to see you you ain't doing no good they ain't talking about you if they're putting you down you're all right but if they start bragging on you but look at you ain't got nobody i mean they crucified christ you know at least i'm breathing i'm a hero well i've outlived them all if i get rid of the wrestler maybe i'll make it what's your name david nice to meet you nice to meet you sir in um in this film we interviewed sam phillips and we're talking about that sun record sound and how many amazing singers came out of that what was that like in those days well sam phillips and jed phillips's brother sam phillips i would say would be the keenest sharpest a hr man or producer or whatever behind the board of any person i've ever seen in my life he can he can hear grass growing you know weeds are dying rose is blooming but he's got such an ear for music and such a brainy person you know i guess that's why he's worth a hundred million dollars i wish he paid me my royalties he paid me a lot of money but he owes me 18 million and admits it that's ridiculous i've never sued a person in my life and every some [ __ ] in this world excuse me i've been collecting the different things what was it like sitting i mean now looking back you say elvis jerry lee lewis roy orbison johnny cash carl perkins it's like an amazing array of sun records at the time did you think that you were creating history well i knew i wouldn't like those cats at least i hoped i would i mean uh i love carl i love john i love these people roy and these people but these people are hillbilly people they're not rocking real quick i like rock and roll let's put another one on we're just running out all right all right he's digging this brother i get my life thrown away go ahead i want to ask that question again about sun records and all the illustrious people that were there and what the difference you were talking about them being they were good people they still are what's left of them um like myself they're not getting any younger we're all growing older at least uh i think i'm pickled i don't know but i know johnny looks good the car looks good uh charlie looks bad here lady i believe something wrong with him she was saying that they were out of a different world they were at hillbilly well they're different people they come from arkansas bad bad what makes it what makes a difference between that hillbilly music and rock and roll when is it class i mean let's see then that says i play the villain judy lewis a villain no way a hillbilly uh-uh country singer yeah well i'm a country boy i thought i got some class too i cut up and joked around with a bunch of bologna but i can get just as serious as hell everybody don't go to hell but nobody wants to die but i i'm about to talk about hell you know well the fire never quenches the worm never die weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth speak chuck berry there you go again chuck berry had a sound what maybelline 1953. i thought it was the greatest thing i ever heard and still do matter of fact the various records on those records i listened to except my own a couple elvises that's about it one buddy a couple hank williams a couple of jokes jimmy roger and i said that's something to tell kind ted you know that in that era the interesting thing was uh you know i guess in the big band here you had integration of artists but you know in that rocket holder you had white artists and black artists traveling together what was that like whether we depend on honor or not what do you mean i guess anyway julie lewis went out with a colored girl or something no i if you did you're right i'm gonna tell my mom about it this is on pam in it excuse me but uh those bus tours and so forth uh what what was the response of your touring uh various parts of the country where you had keller we had great tours i mean we we had alan was a great just talking a great person uh dick clark a real [ __ ] up you know excuse me he's one of my best friends but he quit playing my records because i married my but i didn't break up with him and uh i created a thing called pale i shouldn't have said that to her i think years ago i think i passed the limit can't get me now can i okay i started pale that's a lie [Laughter] made it that's what made it sound records jeff phillips and myself i have to admit cracked pale off and started paying off this jacket to play records i said mr phelps you shouldn't do that that's a sin he said it'll pay off son so he went to jail but those records were great records so you still had to pay to have them played well yeah but everybody wants to money everybody wants to be paid to be appreciated not just to draw eighty dollars a week for playing record and a star whoever he is makes a hundred thousand dollars off a record and he gets eighty dollars a week we see it different i like to share the money share the wealth i found like uh what's his name more assassinated he didn't move down it he would belong here my man share the wealth everybody be rich that's ridiculous ain't nobody gonna be rich but preachers what about the the business of rock and roll and uh when you first started out i mean everybody talks about people being taken advantage of check circle chuckster they've talked about it well i've been wrecked a couple of times but not about it i liked it and what do you mean taking advantage of it well at the point where rock and roll was first starting you have you know you we took the advantage they thought they were taking advantage we took the advantage at least we thought we were taking the advantage i'm beginning to wonder if it was really worth it how do you feel now when rock and rollers people uh the english rock and rollers whoever look and say that i think that the american disc jockeys turned chicken i ever started trying to sign like being crosby and uh i said if y'all stick more with rock and roll and no i can't do that now i said okay me and chuck rear stayed rocking around we kept pounding and pounding we could get no records play to get nothing going but we kept playing well there was blue pretty bobby bobby did bobby denton bobby benton bobby b bobby head by that's all you could read on the radio charts now well here come the beatles and shot everybody right out in the middle of the left field that was the end of that i thought i told you boys somebody's going to show you a trick here they come it's been a hard day tonight he's recording me it now won't steal that song you girls doing that hmm do you do you like the uh do you like the the fathers of rock and roll image that uh that they give you i mean do you do you look back down i don't care to be no father i can know i'm just the daddy of it grandpappy at it i started it and i'll end it tonight probably what's uh what's your favorite chuck berry song what's your favorite chuck berry song yeah i have several songs uh chuck berry has written so many great songs i would say sweet little 16. i brown eyed handsome man he had 40 number one record and he wrote every one of them you know that's tough there's nobody to top that [ __ ] he wrote his own songs we'd be riding on a plane you know and chuck would be sitting right by me and he'd be writing and this thing is here a little tape recorder what are you doing and i'm writing us up i said what are you writing i think i'll sweet little 16. trying to be good i know he brought the record in and played it for me and said i don't like it what's one other side thank god johnny be good you won't like that he played department there's your record and he got made on the fight about it but he ain't gonna be chuck he's rock and roll and his head just toes he's king rock and roll my mommy said that she said what about me mom said well my son you know you very you're different you you sang slow song i'm saying chuck berry is rocking low i said well all this time i thought i would but now you gonna have us are pretty good but you know chuck berry when you were first starting out did you did you have a day job i've been asking people this i was a thief i thought i was jesse james i'm joking i was sorely missing yourself i was i sold sewing machines good morning lady my name is jerry lee lewis from atlas sewing center out of baton rouge louisiana you are the happy winner this week or fifty dollars off on a 200 machine by that time i've been the door is your husband home chef prayer here so when you first uh started when did you first become a professional entertainer musician when i lost my virtue that screwed it up been downhill they were saying no repeats the question i'm sorry when you first started getting paid and became a professional when you quit your day job and became i was i was a professional before i even started that at eight years old my boy i started picking the piano at eight years old picking in a grinning that's the deep hit isn't it no eight years old i'm like van bond and huntsville alabama who designed this rocket when he's 14 years old he put on the moon i was well i don't have any light here as well okay back to the question what do you think of uh the music of today [ __ ] [Laughter] great i don't like it i think it's well in left field it's [ __ ] it's great talent but being misused but i think they're getting in it together now they're beginning to play my records again and chuck berry these are your basic artists elvis presley he's dead god rest his son finally got rid of him took a long time but now he was a fine person he was he was great and he was rocking us what was it because you all met in memphis when you were recording there what were you what was the sound that you were all creating what was the music you'd heard that you were well the office heard my record on the radio he was i never met him before you know and he was just driving down the road and he pulled outside on stop and listen to it he said i've got to meet this cat who is this you know he said what does he look like anyway he's a funny guy and he come on down to some records and i met him and that's where we put this album down and record a lot of stuff together you know i'm going down and up i'm growing up but elvis presley was the greatest one of my best friends that i you know he he was great what can i say that son of a [ __ ] could get it anybody try to follow him on stage being a nut or him off was it a surprise when you elvis other people that were around record these records and then when you went out and appeared in front of an audience and they went so crazy how did you feel i didn't know how to feel about it when i tore my clothes off one night i got excited about it because it hurt me i mean it scratched me up and i was bleeding in places and it pulls all my hair out it was real long man and to all everything everything nothing left to be seen i didn't like that too much ten thousand women on top of me once well it was great think about it darling hang about a good old day but it may give you a sense of uh of the power of what you were doing were you surprised yeah i was that night that scared me and elvis he asked me he says you think i'm playing a devil's music how the hell you are the devil boy he said jerry don't you say that to me anymore you got it and you're very sensitive and i'm very sensitive about going to hell well that was interesting at that time though because there were a lot of people that said rock and roll was the devil's music and so on but it just you know i couldn't visualize jesus christ laying a lot of shaking going on couldn't visualize satan's thing who was singing it where'd it come from well now you got me there i've often wondered that myself well it had to come from god the creator well it could have come from satan he could have something to do with the music i don't know i would say he must have a lot to do with the way it sounds today the lyrics are using songs tonight i mean they they've got surviving left field with cursing and suicides and i don't know it's not music it's crap but the music that you were singing had exuberance i mean it was also about people well jerry lewis was a stylist creative yeah every song every number one record i've ever had there's been one take on it one day just one cut i know otherwise you can say that that's amazing it's a fact i swear to god and then you just too jerry lewis don't lie you know not much [Laughter] are you still in that baby all right go ahead and another thing in the sense of those in of those records which were so amazing what's your what's your favorite record of yours big legged woman keep your dresses down cause you got something baby a bulldog hug a hound and it went number one i couldn't believe this and i just put the record down playing you know cutting up and they released it and these kids listen to this record huh you know jeremy lewis in addition to the singing and uh that's not jeremy lewis though no but the singing and the records and all that performance style that's the other thing about rock and roll is performance style and you have a performance style as strong as anybody ever has i mean how did you perfect that where'd it come from i'll never tell from the soul from the depths of the soul using this whole body that god gave me here on earth to project and deliver the message i'm a soul and that worries me if i'm wrong or right if i'm really using my talent in the right direction i don't want to mislead anybody say what i mean julie louis is very dangerous [Music] how so i don't know women music i love you baby watch me get out of this one do you have a sense of power though when you're up there performing in front of those kids in the 50s and they responded that way watch me tonight pass out probably my first thing [Music] i'm the greatest artist sitting in this chair food you didn't i started saying the world but what i'm not you know in terms of style in terms of rock and roll styles that percussive piano using the piano is an instrument with the voice when you and i guess richard pioneered that the richest verse yeah he was so great he still is he's coming back you know he couldn't preach anything went back to rocking again he i like me he gets a little confused sometimes what do you want son well i can't read finger sign you you using my hack now wiggle it around a little you got to well go gonna jack me up while jack mom's up out there we'll wrap this uh we'll wrap this up one just one last question jerry in terms of you were just talking about that in terms of jurlie lewis al jolson hank williams jimmy rogers there's your stylist the rest of them were just musicians you flirted from rock and roll to country why i go country i go rock easy listening pop gut bucket blues uh religious music i can't do any of it classical i can play piano with my ass with my legs within my feet with my elbow and i'm not pushing it any further i'm gonna close my last show i've been playing it with my dick i don't believe i said that we're gonna double that all right uh you shouldn't have cut me off i gotta hurt my feelings you gotta go on stage thank you i'm gonna show you a trick come here damn leggings every time i pop it don't pick it up jerry

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Length: 31min 34sec (1894 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021