Pioneer Still in the Club -- Billy Lee Riley Still 'Red Hot' Despite Bypass, Hip Surgeries

Summary

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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.

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.

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Pioneer Still in the Club -- Billy Lee Riley Still 'Red Hot' Despite Bypass, Hip Surgeries

"We're like a club, and it's a club nobody else can join," said Donn from the stage, before taking the...

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