His band, which for a time included a then-unknown
Jerry Lee Lewis on piano, provided backup for
Johnny Cash and
Roy Orbison while both were at Sun Records. When
Sam Phillips chose to promote Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire" instead of Riley's "Red Hot," a drunken Riley broke into the studio one night, kicked a hole in a string bass, and poured wine over the tape machines. Despite this, Riley and Phillips patched things up, and Riley stayed at Sun until 1960.