Jerry Lee Lewis is still alive, despite a report from TMZ that the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer has passed away. The story sparked a wave of mourning before the site retracted it on Wednesday.
“He’s alive. TMZ mistakenly reported anonymous bullshit information,” Lewis’ representative told diverse.
Lewis is known to have had the flu this month; He was unable to attend the Country Music Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony on October 16, where his wife accepted the honor to take his place, so saying he was “alive and well” might be an exaggeration of one of those two things. But TMZ acknowledged that they received a hint about his presumed death.
“Earlier today, someone claiming to be Lewis’ representative told us that he has passed away,” TMZ said in a review of its article. “This turned out to be not the case. TMZ regrets this error.”
A photo was posted after the Hall of Fame induction of Kris Kristofferson while visiting flu-stricken Lewis at home to present his medal in person.
The false report on Lewis marks the second time in recent weeks that a major music personality has been mistakenly reported to have died, after People magazine ran a story and tweeted that Joni Mitchell had died. In this case, it was easier to mark it as a bug, as the story had many “fill in the blank” elements that suggested it was posted in error.
[ad_2]
