Other Endeavors
Lawler has created some musical recordings. Among these are two late-70s singles: "Cadillac Man/Memphis", and "Bad News". During his feud with manager Jimmy Hart (Lawler is a factor for "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart entering professional wrestling; Lawler wanted to record a wrestling album with him singing and, since they had gone to school together, he called Hart and asked him to be a part of it) in the mid-80s, Hart became known as "The Wimp", a nickname given to him by Lawler and chanted by fans. Hart was the subject of the song "Wimpbusters", which was sung by Lawler to the tune of the popular hit Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.. A music video was also made, featuring Lawler, legendary announcer Lance Russell, and wrestlers such as Randy Savage, Jimmy Valiant, Dutch Mantel, Tommy Rich, and Rufus R. Jones, along with footage of "The King" beating Hart and his "First Family." A very young Brian Christopher also made an appearance as a young child being bullied, and another child is seen wearing a replica of Tully Blanchard's West Texas State jersey. He also recorded a CD titled "Memphis' Other King".
In 1998, Lawler appeared in the movie Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey. According to Lawler's autobiography, It's Good To Be The King... Sometimes, an incident involving Jim Carrey forgetting a line led to animosity between the two actors during filming. Between scenes Jim Carrey often remained in character as Andy Kaufman and at one point spit on Jerry, just as Kaufman had done in 1982. A 'stunned' Lawler reacted by grabbing Carrey by the hair and locked him in a sleeper hold and jerking his neck—supposedly sending Carrey to the hospital.
In 1999, Lawler ran for mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. His platform focused on making the streets safer for residents, beautifying the city, and improving the quality of education. In addition, he vowed to attract businesses to Memphis, improve the flow of traffic, create more parks, and decrease property taxes. Lawler ended up with 11.7% of ballots, beating twelve of the fifteen candidates. Ultimately, however, Mayor Willie Herenton was easily reelected.
In 2000, Lawler made a very brief cameo appearance in the music video of I Can't Lie To Me By Clay Davidson. In 2002, he released an autobiography titled It's Good To Be The King... Sometimes. On July 8, 2009, Lawler again ran for the position of Mayor of Memphis in a special mayoral election on October 15, 2009. He was in 5th with 4% of the vote.
Lawler is also an accomplished commercial artist, designing a lot of graphics for various companies, including WWE. In 2007, he painted the cover of the wrestling comic book, Headlocked.
Read more about this topic: Jerry Lawler
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