Rocky wrote:I agree with Tony. Many artist retire long before they reach 83. Poor examples of ones that did not are Chuck Berry and Little Richard, who's shows were terrible in their latter years of performing. Fats did it right retiring at age 67 while still in good voice and shape. I know there are people out there that think Jerry is going to live forever...he's not. He's been walking unsteady for years now with a cane, and sometimes using a wheelchair. He's bent over and had many operations through the years. He has plenty of money and doesn't need this crap of doing shows. We'll never know an old Elvis (dead at 42) or and old Ricky Nelson (dead at 45) and others who died young...EX: Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, etc. but we'll always remember them in their prime ... not as old geezers trying to die on stage.
Long after ALL of us are dead and gone, no-one's going to remember Chuck Berry fumbling to find the right notes or Little Richard pushed on stage in a wheelchair. Instead, they will be remembered for the musical pioneers and incredible performers that they were in their prime, and the same applies to Jerry Lee Lewis.
Ironically, one artist who will, in part, be remembered for being past his prime, is Elvis. That's because he was still a big success when he died, as well as the fact that people insist on impersonating him as a fat middle-aged man in a baby-gro, rather than the outrageous wild man of the 50s or the handsome movie star of the 60s.