Brown first met Jerry Lee Lewis when Lewis was a small child but did not see him again until 1955 when Brown traveled to Natchez to watch Lewis perform at a local club.[9] Brown suggested they form a band but it was not until he was recovering from injury suffered while working as a telephone wire repairman in Memphis that he visited Lewis again and convinced him to start a band.[10]
Lewis moved into Brown's house in Memphis, where he first met Brown's 12 year old daughter Myra Gale.[10] Shortly after, Lewis was signed by Sun Records and following Lewis's debut single "Crazy Arms", Lewis and Brown were back at Sun Studios, recording the follow-up single, "It'll Be Me", when Brown suggested recording "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", a popular song in Lewis's live shows, as the B-side.[11]
Following the release of "It'll Be Me"/"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", Lewis and his band were invited to perform "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" on the 28 July 1957 edition of the Steve Allen Show, where Brown became the first person to play an electric bass guitar (a Fender Precision) on television.[1] Amid further touring, Brown appeared in the films Jamboree[12] and High School Confidential.
Jerry Lee and Myra Gale (then 13) married in secret in Hernando, Mississippi on 12 December 1957.[13] Upon learning of the marriage three days later,[14] Brown grabbed his pistol and drove to Sun Studios with the intention of killing Lewis. Lois rang the studio and warned Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, who bundled Lewis into a car and drove him to the airport, booking Lewis on the next flight to Alabama.[15] Brown and Lewis next met on 26 December 1957 when they played a concert at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York when Lewis accidentally hit Brown in the head with a poorly thrown shoe while performing "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On'".[16]
Brown initially left Lewis's backing band in 1959[17] but occasionally returned for recording sessions[18] and tours, with their final performance together taking place in May 2010 in Cherokee, North Carolina.[19] Brown continued to perform live as a solo act, including opening for Bill Monroe[20] and as a member of the house band for the Memphis Holiday Inns and the El Capitan Club.[21]
In 1962, as Jay Brown, he recorded "So Long, I'm Gone", backed with "I'll Keep On Loving You" for Briar International, which earned a five star review from the Nashville Music Review,[20] and in 1966 released "That's How Much", written and produced by Roland Janes, backed by "Don't Push Me Around", for Atco Records.[22]
Outside of music, Brown owned a piano tuning and repair business[21] before starting a trucking business with his son Rusty.[23]
Brown was portrayed by John Doe in the 1990 movie Great Balls of Fire![24] and appeared on an 2017 episode of Mike Judge Presents: Tales From the Tour Bus.[25]
In 2010, Brown released his autobiography Whole lotta Shakin', in which he wrote of his surprise at the number of famous musicians who were fans of his, including Kenny Rogers[26] and Eric Clapton, and demand skyrocketed for Fender Precision bass guitars after his appearance on the Steve Allen Show.[1]
Brown died in Gwinnett County, Georgia on 10 October 2022, aged 95. He and Lois had been married 78 years.