Dressed casually in a white-and-red-striped Oxford shirt, blue jeans and comfortable brown loafers, he walked on stage following sets by Reverend Horton Heat and the Head Cat looking a little unsteady. But there was nothing tentative once he positioned himself at the keyboard, the microphone stand, as always, right in front of his chest so he had to work around it as he hands coursed up and down the keys.

He kept to the basics during a set that included just one song, "Rockin' My Life Away," from his new “Mean Old Man” collection of duets from such admiring luminaries as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Kid Rock, Slash, Merle Haggard, John Fogerty, Willie Nelson, Solomon Burke and others.

The rest of the 40-minute set ran from Hank Williams' “You Win Again” and Stick McGhee’s “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” to “See See Rider” and one of the hits from his long run on the country charts in the late '60s and '70s, “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye.”

The band that had now been accompanying Lewis for years — led by his cohort of several decades, fiddler-guitarist Kenny Lovelace and including guitarist Buck Hutcheson, bassist B.B. Cunningham Jr. and drummer Robert Hall — followed their leader expertly, giving him the reeling and rocking foundation he thrived on. They’ll also be with him Tuesday night when he drops into the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles for a question-answer session and brief performance on the eve of his birthday.

“Headstone,” a staple of his live shows for decades, was a textbook example of his (and the band’s) ability to turn on a dime. It started as a bluesy lament from someone looking without blinking into the face of mortality, suddenly halted and then jumped forward at double speed as a hard-driving rocker, Lewis pumping both hands over the keyboard with the abandon of a man having one final thrill ride before returning to the funereal tempo that recognized no one got out of this world alive.

When he spoke his signature closing line on the song — “I don’t want no headstone; I want a monument!” — it was with the assurance of one who is well aware that the musical monument he’s created over a lifetime is securely in place.

-- Randy Lewis

Photos, from top: Jerry Lee Lewis, guitarist Kenny Lovelace and drummer Robert Hall at Fox Theater Pomona. Members of opening act the Head Cat visit with Lewis backstage before his performance. From left, Danny B. Harvey, Lemmy Kilmister, Lewis and Slim Jim Phantom. Credit: Randy Lewis / Los Angeles Times

Jerry Lee Lewis will appear Tuesday at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., for a Q&A and mini-concert. The Grammy Museum theater holds 200 people. Tickets for the conversation and short performance are $60 and available via Ticketmaster.