Billy Lee Riley still 'Red Hot' despite bypass, hip surgeries

Billy Lee Riley still 'Red Hot' despite bypass, hip surgeries

By John Beifuss (Contact)
Monday, May 5, 2008

Rockabilly pioneer Billy Lee Riley, 74, returned to the stage Sunday at the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival for his first performance since a third hip replacement operation and quintuple-bypass emergency heart surgery in February threatened to silence the Sun Records legend forever.


Photos by Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal

As the sun sets over the Sams Town Stage,
the crowd is reflected in Jerry Lee Lewis' piano as he performs Sunday at the Beale Street Music Festival.


A worn-out Clay Rushing, 4,

takes a nap on his mother, Tiffany Rushing, while waiting
for Michael Franti & Spearhead to perform on the Budweiser
Stage Sunday.

Riley and two of his band members -- drummer J.M. Van Eaton and keyboardist Larry Donn -- are among the last survivors of the 1950s rockabilly era that also produced Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. Lewis performed on the Sam's Town Stage in Tom Lee Park two hours after Riley.

"We're like a club, and it's a club nobody else can join," said Donn from the stage, before taking the mic for a version of his obscure but prized 1959 single "Honey Bun." "When we're gone, that's it."
Backstage, Riley -- whose onstage antics in the 1950s and '60s made Elvis look tame -- affirmed Donn's sentiment. "Better get this while you can, 'cause we're dropping," he said.

Sunday Riley showed no signs of dropping any time soon, despite an occasional hitch in his vocal delivery that matched the hitch in John Wayne's step. He tore through classics from his catalog such as "Red Hot," "Trouble Bound" and "Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll," recorded at Sun in 1956 and 1957 with his band, The Little Green Men. In a Good & Plenty-colored pink and black suit and two-toned shoes, and his upswept silver mane of hair, Riley was resplendent.

Riley's lead guitarist, Ronnie Vandiver of Bolivar, Tenn., who has played with Billy Lee for eight years, said the singer needed a cane to take the Memphis in May stage two years ago. "He was really on the edge there for a while," said Vandiver, 52.

During what he called "my first show after my ordeal," Riley was watched from the wing of the stage by family members, including his wife of 33 years, Joyce Riley; his daughter, Angela Johns, 31; and his granddaughter, Lauryn Johns, 5, who refused to join her grandfather onstage for "Red Hot" despite coaxing by Riley and the crowd.

Joyce Riley said her husband entered St. Vincent's in Little Rock Feb. 20 for his third right-side hip replacement in recent years. The next day, he experienced chest pains. A heart attack followed, and an emergency quintuple-bypass was performed Feb. 25. If he hadn't already been in the hospital when he had the heart attack, he may have died, "so that third failed hip turned out to be a blessing in disguise," Joyce Riley said.

Said Riley, to cheering fans after concluding with his signature song, "Red Hot": "That's our show for this year, and we hope we'll see you again next year."
--John Beifuss: 529-2394


Source : http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/may/05/pioneer-still-in-the-club/