Word: ferriday
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Raised in Ferriday, La., Mickey Leroy Gilley boasts two famous cousins: Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart. After moving to Houston at age 17, Gilley worked in construction until a meeting with Jerry Lee made Gilley think, "If he can do it, why can't I?" ("The Killer," as Jerry Lee was known, famously pulled a roll of cash from his pocket to stir young Gilley.) But it wasn't easy. For more than a decade, he played at a string of honky-tonks, earning a reputation as a solid journeyman pianist, albeit a clone of the cousin...
...When asked to compare himself and Elvis, Jerry Lee used to say, "We are entirely different performers. 'Bout the only thing we got in common is that we're from Tennessee." Except that Presley was from Tupelo, Miss., Jerry Lee in Ferriday, La. He was born September 29, 1935, 274 days after Elvis, in Ferriday, La. Among his cousins were Swaggart and Mickey Gilley, who much later would mimic Jerry Lee's style and sell far more singles than the Moloch...