Gilley, a first cousin of both rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, “had just come off the road … having played 10 shows in April,” his Facebook page said.
A native of Natchez, Mississippi, Gilley grew up in Ferriday, Louisiana, son of Arthur Fillmore Gilley and Irene Gilley, who taught him to play piano. He moved to the Houston, Texas, area, where he worked day jobs and sang and played piano in bars at night. The mechanical bull, known as El Toro, was an integral part of the “Urban Cowboy” movie that made Gilley’s known around the world and one of the Houston area’s top tourist attractions.
Gilley had a cameo appearance in the movie and had two songs – “Here Comes the Hurt Again” and “Stand by Me” – on its successful soundtrack album. He later appeared in television shows such as “Murder She Wrote,” “Fantasy Island” and “The Dukes of Hazzard.”Article content Lewis would go on to be one of rock’s innovators in the late 1950s with hits such as “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” Swaggart, a theatrical Pentecostal preacher, developed an international television ministry before being brought down in a 1988 scandal involving a prostitute.