Jerry Lawler Shares Gut-Wrenching Details About His Son Brian Christopher’s Passing, Doubts Official Story

Despite his son Brian Christopher tragically and unexpectedly passing away less than two weeks ago, Jerry “the King” Lawler and co-host Glenn Moore took to their Dinner with the King podcast to share details about Christopher’s passing.

An audibly heart broken Jerry Lawler said,

Without a doubt, [it is] the roughest thing that I’ve ever been through in my life. I lost my Dad when I was 19. I lost my Mom 7 years ago. I lost my brother 3 years ago. Any time you lose a family member, everybody out there knows it is very emotional and it is very tough. The old saying is no parent should ever have to bury their child and until something like that is experienced, you can’t really wrap your head around it. You don’t really know what it’s like until it happens…I never dreamed it in a million years…It was just devastating.

Lawler went on to recount the events leading up to Brian Christopher’s passing,

The phone rang. There was a gentleman on the other line. He said he was a Hardeman Count deputy sheriff and he said, ‘Mr. Lawler, I just wanted to call you and tell you that your son Brian has hung himself at the jail.’ When you hear something like that it’s just nothing; but, disbelief.

Lawler asked the deputy sheriff to repeat his statement and was given an update about his ailing son,

It was as if somebody was actually telling him in the background that at first he didn’t have a pulse; but, now they’ve got a pulse and he’s trying to breathe on his own.

Christopher was air lifted to the Med in Memphis, Tennessee, the main trauma hospital in the southeast.

When Lawler arrived at his son’s side he was informed that the situation was dire,

I knew the minute I saw him that basically all that was keeping him alive was the breathing machine. That’s just something you just never think that you’re gonna see in your life, your son on his death bed. The only way I could keep describing it is it’s like a nightmare. I just kept thinking, ‘This can’t be real. This can’t really be happening.’

After some time passed, the entire trauma and neurology team entered the room and informed the family that Christopher was being kept alive primarily by machines,

The neurology people said that his brain stem was still intact. Your brain stem is responsible for keeping your heart beating and keeping you breathing; but, the rest of his brain had been deprived of oxygen for enough of a length of time to where there was no activity there. They didn’t rule out a miracle; but, they said they’d never seen anyone come back from where Brian was and that basically all that was keeping him alive was the breathing machine.

Christopher was administered a medication that kept his blood pressure artificially elevated. Lawler was informed that if the IV was stopped, Christopher’s blood pressure would plummet until his heart eventually stopped.

Lawler then confided in Christopher’s mother,

I don’t think I could live with the fact that I tell somebody to turn off a machine that’s keeping my son alive.

The couple waited a couple of hours; but, Christopher’s blood pressure began to fall on its own. Lawler held his son’s hand as he passed.

The situation is tragic; but, Lawler believes there may be more to the story regarding his son’s passing,

There’s some things that went on while Brian was in jail. It was his third DUI and in Tennessee, I believe, it’s a mandatory 90 days in jail. We spoke with the sheriff and this is the crazy thing, he said, ‘This is gonna be the best thing for Brian. He needs to get straightened out. He needs to admit he needs some help. We’re gonna get him some help. We’re gonna get him into a rehab program from here. Jerry, my jail is gonna be the best place for Brian the next few weeks.’

According to Lawler, the sheriff promised to personally keep an eye on Christopher and vowed to keep him safe.

Lawler continued,

There’s more to this than we can really talk about now. A lot of people have expressed, as I have, doubts as to whether Brian actually did commit suicide. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating what went on at the jail. I don’t have any results yet; but, I have my doubts as well. We’ve been contacted by inmates that were in the jail with Brian that said they don’t believe what was told is actually what happened. We were contacted by another person who witnessed….I probably shouldn’t say anymore because this investigation is gonna be ongoing and it may take a long time for this to all get sorted out. I don’t want to believe that Brian committed suicide; but, by the same token, if there was something else involved….we just really want to know what happened because right now there’s a lot of doubts and a lot of questions that are gonna have to be answered in the next few months.

Lawler closed the show with the following parting words as his voice cracked with emotion,

If you’ve got kids, tell them you love them because I didn’t do that enough with Brian.

Readers may listen to the entire Dinner with the King episode below:

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