Latest news with #JerryLeeLewis
Miami Herald
01-08-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Popular rapper files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Superstar singers are on the top of the world when their records are topping the charts. Artists' careers can come crashing down when their hits stop coming, forcing some stars to file for bankruptcy protection. The list of singers who have filed for bankruptcy over the years looks like it came from an oldies radio station playlist. Rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, country superstar Willie Nelson, rock icon David Crosby, pop star Cyndi Lauper, and hip-hop star MC Hammer, whose legal name is Stanley Burrell, each filed for bankruptcy at some point in their careers, according to law firm Levitt & Slafkes website. Related: Popular pizza and beer chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Superstar rapper and actor 50 Cent in July 2015 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut after losing a $5 million judgment in an invasion of privacy lawsuit, the Florida Times-Union reported at the time. Jerry Lee Hammer.50 Cent. The rapper, whose legal name is Curtis Jackson III, exited bankruptcy in February 2017 after paying off about $23 million in debts, The Guardian reported at the time. And now, popular rapper Phora has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure his debts owed to major creditors, including Warner Records. Related: Popular beverage brand files Chapter 11 bankruptcy The rapper, whose legal name is Marco Anthony Archer, filed his Subchapter V petition on behalf of his company Phora LLC in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California on Aug. 1, listing up to $50,000 in assets and $500,000 to $1 million in liabilities. More Bankruptcy: Major iconic food brand files for Chapter 11 bankruptcyPopular Dairy Queen rival franchisee files Chapter 11 bankruptcyPopular vision care chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy The debtor's largest creditors included Oren Lang, owed $400,000 in a contingent, unliquidated, disputed claim; Warner Records, owed $200,000 in a contingent, unliquidated claim; and Nixon Peabody, owed over $77,000, according to the petition. Phora also listed Kobalt Music Publishing as a creditor. Oren Lang, owed $400, Records, owed $200, Peabody, owed over $77,689. The rapper's petition did not indicate a specific reason for filing for bankruptcy. The rapper Phora, 30, began rapping in 2011 and landed his first major recording contract with Warner Records in 2017, releasing his debut album "Yours Truly Forever," which rose to No. 44 on the Billboard 200 album chart in September 2017. Two subsequent Phora albums hit the Billboard 200 chart, "Love Is Hell" at No. 87 in October 2018 and "With Love II" at No. 160 in November 2020. Phora left Warner Records in 2019 to launch his own label, releasing his first independent album on Yours Truly Records, "Bury Me with Dead Roses," according to The rapper is on a 19-show tour that begins in Oklahoma City on Aug. 1 and ends Sept. 28 in Palm Springs, Calif. A show scheduled for Austin, Texas, on July 31 was cancelled. Oklahoma City, Aug. Aug. Calif., Aug. Aug. Aug. Idaho, Aug. Lake City, Aug. N.M., Aug. Calif., Sept. Ariz., Sept. 6Brawley, Calif., Sept. 7Fresno, Calif., Sept. Calif., Sept. Sept. Francisco, Sept. Calif., Sept. Calif., Sept. Diego, Sept. Springs, Calif., Sept. 28. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Forbes
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Jacob Tolliver, Known For His Mesmerizing Piano Style, Releases Randy Travis Cover
Singer, composer, and pianist Jacob Tolliver releases his version of "Honky Tonk Side Of Town." He's a singer, songwriter and performer with a strong social media following, thanks to viral videos showing his rapid-fire approach to playing the piano, in a style similar to the legendary Jerry Lee Lewis. Jacob Tolliver was just 18 when he got the part to play Lewis in a Las Vegas production of Million Dollar Quartet, a show based on the legendary night Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee famously came together for an impromptu jam session at Sun Studio in Memphis. Rock and roll musicians Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash as "The Million ... More Dollar Quartet" December 4, 1956 in Memphis, Tennessee. This was a one night jam session at Sun Studios. (Photo by Michael) When Lewis himself saw a video of Tolliver playing one of his songs, he invited him to Memphis so they could meet in person. It was the start of a special friendship that saw the two men play music and spend a lot of time together. Tolliver even traveled with Lewis on tour for a while. And many have seen the video of Tolliver, front and center, helping Lewis celebrate his 85th birthday. In recent years, even more so since the passing of Lewis in 2022, Tolliver has worked hard to carve out his own path in music, even while continuing to keep that one-of-a-kind Jerry Lee Lewis style alive. It helps that Tolliver is a multi-talented artist, musician, and composer. He's constantly touring, performing, writing, or working on new music. He even has a full album of original music set aside for release sometime in the future. He also occasionally joins the Randy Travis More Life Tour. The shows features singer James Dupre' performing a host of songs recorded by the country music legend, as well as guest artists doing their version of a Travis song. (Travis can no longer sing following a stroke in 2013 stroke, but he appears on stage with wife, Mary, at every performance.) When Tolliver takes the stage, he performs 'Honky Tonk Side of Town.' It's a more obscure Randy Travis album cut a lot of fans don't know. It provided Tolliver with a way to honor Travis and reimagine one of his songs, while allowing Tolliver to add his own unique spin. 'When they asked me to be part of the show,' Toliver says, 'I thought, I can't go out and try to sing like Randy, in that deep velvet voice. So, I went through his whole discography. I listened to every sing track on every album, and out of hundreds of songs, I found this one from the 90s. I thought, I could put all of the bells and whistles on this one and really tear it up!' Jacob Tolliver releases cover of "Honky Tonk Side Of Town" And that's exactly what he does. It's been so well received people started asking where they could get a copy of Tolliver's version. So, with Travis' blessing, Tolliver went into the studio to cut it. It turns out a couple of people who were for the original 90s recording, ended back for this one. 'We got Kyle Lehning on board to produce it,' Tolliver says, 'and it took me a while to connect the dots, but I thought, wait a minute, he must have been the producer on the original track. And sure enough he was. Then, we had this legendary session drummer, Paul Leim, in the studio. He's been on so many hits through the years, and he was also there for the original recording, too. You'll see them in the music video. But it was incredible to have Randy, the original producer and the original drummer, all there. And the rest of the band was phenomenal.' Tolliver says getting to record a Randy Travis song serves as a fantastic, full-circle moment for him. 'When I was three or four years old, I remember watching a Hey Arnold cartoon on Nickelodeon and Randy did a guest spot on an episode where he was the singing voice of one of the characters. He did a song called 'Simple Things' and I asked my mom who was singing, and she said it was Randy Travis. Now, here I am all these years getting to record a Randy song with him involved. And we've also developed a friendship. It's just so special.' Just like his dynamic, high-energy presence on stage, Tolliver is always on the move. In the past year, he's released two cinematic-type music videos of original music that are a departure from what he's done in the past, with the promise of more to come. He's enjoying venturing down different creative paths and exploring where the music takes him. 'One thing that bothers me a lot about modern artists is they find something that works and keep beating a dead horse, without trying to find the next sound. I believe you can do that and still remain cohesive. So, when you ask what's next for me, it's had to say because it could be anything.' Whatever he does next, you can bet it'll be entertaining. Tolliver has a handful of tour dates currently listed on his website with plans to add more in the weeks and months to come. And his version of 'Honky Tonk Side Of Town' is available now on all streaming platforms.
Irish Examiner
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
My Life: Jerry Lee Lewis borrowed cash from me. I never got my fiver back
THEY say you should never meet your heroes. I never imagined that mine would relieve me of a fiver. Jerry Lee Lewis was, after all, a pioneer of rockabilly music — and probably not short of a few bob. Rewind almost 30 years when I was a teenager in the 1950s. The musical landscape was barren for kids my age. Our Spotify was a wireless with a choice between opera or crooners like Bing Crosby. Rock n roll pianist Jerry Lee Lewis was the saviour young music fans had been waiting for. As the years went on his fame hit the stratosphere. Signature tunes like Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On became mere background noise in the bedroom of almost every Irish teenager. I was no exception. Nearly three decades later, I came face to face with rock n' roll's first great wild man . It was 1983 and his career had taken something of a battering. A litany of scandals including a wedding to his considerably younger second cousin and a visit to Elvis Presley's home with a shotgun, had all but eroded the 'killer's' appeal. A celebrity in this day and age would sink without a trace, but he somehow managed to stay afloat. News of his arrival to the real capital sent rock n' roll fans into a frenzy. Meanwhile, I had received an invitation from Beamish and Crawford to assist with The Carling Country Music festival. The event was a notable one in Cork that attracted world renowned performers. To my delight, Jerry Lee Lewis was the headline act that year and my role was to liaise between the tour managers and sponsors. I'll never forget the first time I met Jerry Lee Lewis. He shied away from fans for the most part but I did become great friends with his tour manager JW Whitton. We didn't see much of Jerry. A lot of his time was spent in his room with his secretary. I think he tired of the tedious and perfunctory exchanges. 'I'm your biggest fan. Your records are the greatest.' It was the same conversation on loop every day. Through an outsider's lens, this didn't seem like much of a life at all. I'm not sure Jerry even realised which city he was in. Moreover, he was a man, who was very detached from the real world. This was evident from his rider which demanded that a chef be on call for him 24 hours a day. If he woke up at 3am and decided he wanted a roast dinner with all the trimmings his request would need to be honoured. When he wasn't playing concerts Jerry was unapologetically reclusive. He outright refused to meet with fans and sought refuge in his dressing room. There was just one man he made an exception for. To this day I wish I'd brought a camera with me. There were chaotic scenes outside Cork Opera House that night. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the star after his concert. Among the crowd was Hugh Coveney who was Lord Mayor at the time. It just so happened that he was also a diehard rock n roll fan. However, even his request to meet Jerry Lee Lewis was met with disinterest. JW was steadfast in his disapproval repeatedly stating: 'Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't meet with fans.' Suddenly an idea struck me. Hugh had brought along the trademark chain which was sitting in a wooden box for safekeeping. I removed the piece from its container and placed it around JW's neck. 'You're wearing the Lord Mayor's chain now,' I informed him with authority, 'and as the Lord Mayor of Cork you get to make the decisions.' His expression immediately softened and he let out a hearty laugh. Next thing we knew Hugh Coveney and I were being bundled into Jerry's dressing room where the star was nursing a glass of scotch. It appeared that the tides had turned and now Jerry was the one who was starstruck. 'Wow!' the star exclaimed. 'You are the best looking mayor I have ever seen.' We all basked in his admiration for Cork's first citizen. It was a proud moment. Of all the Lord Mayors Jerry Lee Lewis had ever met, he thought ours was the most handsome. This was high praise indeed, given all the countries he had performed in. Two days later I had the enviable task of accompanying Jerry and JW to the airport. It was no easy feat and at one point I found myself hauling out a superfan who had snuck into the back of their limousine. That was at 7am and we were attempting to leave the Metropole Hotel. Luckily, we made it to the airport without incident. JW wandered off at one stage, leaving me standing outside the airport shop with Jerry Lee Lewis. I tried my best to make conversation. 'That was a great concert,' I opined. 'I really enjoyed it.' 'Gee thanks,' Jerry replied, finally showing some semblance of enthusiasm. What happened next was the most baffling encounter of my life. 'Old Jerry Lee doesn't carry money,' he told me. JW takes care of these things. I need some money for pipe tobacco. His helpless expression was lamentable. Here was this big star, who had little idea how to do anything for himself and didn't even carry around his own money. I didn't waste any time and immediately produced a fiver from my pocket. 'You tell JW you gave old Jerry Lee tobacco money and he'll take care of it,' he reassured me. It was just before they boarded the plane that I uttered those pitiful words. 'Jerry said to tell you that I gave him £5 for tobacco.' Sadly, JW didn't take the hint. 'Another generous gesture, thank you so much Patrick. You Irish are terrific.' With that, they were gone. I might never have got my fiver back, had it not been for the legendary Johnny Cash, who was headlining the festival two years later. His tour manager was a different animal to JW and was very urbane. Cash had 12 stage suits which needed to be dry cleaned. It was Easter so everywhere was closed but I knew a friend with a dry cleaners who opened up especially. The fee was £120 but they gave me an extra £30 for my troubles. My faith in human nature had been restored. It's true what they say about meeting your heroes. Most of them inhabit a completely different world so they will never quite live up to your expectations but that's just my two cents-or rather five pounds-worth.
South China Morning Post
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Jimmy Swaggart, US televangelist undone by prostitute scandal, dies at 90
Jimmy Swaggart, who was one of America's most influential televangelists in the 1980s before an affair with a prostitute brought his career crashing down, has died at the age of 90. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries confirmed his death on social media, and his family thanked medical staff at Baton Rouge General Medical Centre in Louisiana. It did not share details of the cause of death. In his heyday as a fundamentalist Pentecostal preacher, Swaggart had an estimated global audience of 200 million. Then came the prostitute scandal in 1988. With tears gushing down his cheeks, Swaggart admitted to his congregation that he had sinned – without providing details – and begged forgiveness. Swaggart, born March 15, 1935, grew up in the rough-and-tumble and racially segregated Louisiana backwater of Ferriday with two cousins who also would become famous – rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley. As a boy, Swaggart was surrounded by the fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal version of Christianity he would later take to the airwaves. His father, a grocer and a tough disciplinarian, preached himself from time to time and Swaggart was only nine when he claimed he was first 'called' to the ministry. 'You will preach my Gospel all over the world. You will even take it to Africa,' was the command that Swaggart said God gave him.
Leader Live
01-07-2025
- Leader Live
Prostitution scandal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dies at 90
His death was announced on Tuesday on his public Facebook page. A cause was not immediately given, although he had been in ill health. The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a sex worker in New Orleans in 1988, one of a string of major TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and 1990s by sex scandals. He continued preaching for decades, but with a reduced audience. Mr Swaggart encapsulated his downfall in a tearful 1988 sermon in which he wept and apologised but made no reference to his connection to a prostitute. 'I have sinned against you,' he told parishioners nationwide. 'I beg you to forgive me.' He announced his resignation from the Assemblies of God later that year, shortly after the church said it was defrocking him for rejecting punishment it had ordered for 'moral failure'. The church had wanted him to undergo a two-year rehabilitation programme including not preaching for a full year. He said at the time that he knew dismissal was inevitable but insisted he had no choice but to separate from the church to save his ministry and Bible college. Mr Swaggart grew up poor, the son of a preacher in a music-rich family. He excelled at piano and gospel music, playing and singing with talented cousins who took different paths: rock 'n' roller Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley. In his home town of Ferriday, Louisiana, Mr Swaggart said he first heard the call of God at the age of eight. The voice gave him goosebumps and made his hair tingle, he said. 'Everything seemed different after that day in front of the Arcade Theatre,' he said in a 1985 interview with the Jacksonville Journal-Courier in Illinois. 'I felt better inside. Almost like taking a bath.' He preached and worked part time in oil fields until he was 23. He then moved entirely into his ministry: preaching, playing piano and singing gospel songs at Assemblies of God revivals and camp meetings. He started a radio show and a magazine, and then moved into TV with outspoken views. He called Roman Catholicism 'a false religion. It is not the Christian way', and claimed that Jews suffered for thousands of years 'because of their rejection of Christ'. 'If you don't like what I say, talk to my boss,' he once shouted as he strode in front of his congregation at his Family Worship Centre in Baton Rouge, where his sermons moved listeners to speak in tongues and stand up as if possessed by the Holy Spirit. Mr Swaggart's messages stirred thousands of congregants and millions of TV viewers, making him a household name by the late 1980s. Contributors built Jimmy Swaggart Ministries into a business that made an estimated 142 million dollars in 1986. His Baton Rouge complex still includes a worship centre and broadcasting and recording facilities. His downfall came in the late 1980s as other prominent preachers faced similar scandals. Mr Swaggart said publicly that his earnings were damaged in 1987 by the sex scandal surrounding rival televangelist Jim Bakker and a former church secretary at Mr Bakker's PTL ministry organisation. The following year, Mr Swaggart was photographed at a hotel with Debra Murphree, an admitted prostitute who told reporters the two did not have sex but that the preacher had paid her to pose nude. She later repeated the claim — and posed nude — for Penthouse magazine. The surveillance photos that crippled Mr Swaggart's career apparently stemmed from his rivalry with preacher Marvin Gorman, whom Mr Swaggart had accused of sexual misdeeds. Mr Gorman hired the photographer who captured Mr Swaggart and Ms Murphree on film. Mr Swaggart later paid Mr Gorman 1.8 million dollars to settle a lawsuit over the sexual allegations against Mr Gorman. More trouble came in 1991 when police in California detained Mr Swaggart with another sex worker. The evangelist was charged with driving on the wrong side of the road and driving an unregistered Jaguar. His companion, Rosemary Garcia, said he became nervous when he saw the police car and weaved when he tried to stuff pornographic magazines under a car seat. He was later mocked by the late TV comic Phil Hartman, who impersonated him on NBC's Saturday Night Live. The evangelist largely stayed out of the news in later years but remained in the pulpit at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, often joined by his son Donnie, a fellow preacher. 'There's been no greater example of a good and faithful servant than my father. No ifs, ands and buts about it. A man who lived his life for the cause of Christ,' Donnie Swaggart said in a video message. His radio station broadcast church services and gospel music to 21 states, and the ministry developed a worldwide audience on the internet. The preacher caused another brief stir in 2004 with remarks about being 'looked at' amorously by a gay man. 'And I'm going to be blunt and plain: if one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died,' Mr Swaggart said, to laughter from the congregation. He later apologised. He made few public appearances outside his church, except for singing Amazing Grace at the 2005 funeral of Louisiana secretary of state Fox McKeithen, a prominent name in state politics for decades. In 2022, Mr Swaggart shared memories at the memorial service for Lewis, his cousin. The pair had released The Boys From Ferriday, a gospel album, earlier that year.
