D.J. Fontana

JUNE 13, 2018 - D.J. Fontana Has Died aged 87: EIN has terrible news as DJ Fontana, Elvis' legendary drummer, has died aged 87.

The last of the 'Blue Moon Boys' has now left to join his fellow musicians - the creators of the Rock'n'Roll big-bang.
Dominic Joseph Fontana passed away in his sleep last night.
His son David Fontana, wrote: “My dad passed away in his sleep at 9:33 tonight June 13. He was very comfortable with no pain. We ask for privacy at this time. Thank you for your love and prayers.”

DJ Fontana, who was born in Shreveport Louisiana on March 15 1931, originally began backing Elvis Presley, Bill Black and Scotty Moore when he worked at the Louisiana Hayride as early as 1954.

Sun Records Sam Phillips originally assembled Elvis' Blue Moon Boys without a drummer and so it wasn't until the key RCA session of January 10 1956 that DJ Fontana joined the band on recordings.
That session produced 'Heartbreak Hotel' and the music world would never be the same.

In an later interview with WGBH Fontana remembered the first night he, Elvis, Moore and Black played together as the quartet that would go on to launch and define rock and roll.

"Well, the first night people were polite, kinda' like at the Grand Ol' Opry. But it was a country, older crowd, and I think what they did, they went home and told their kids, 'There's a boy down at the Louisiana Hayride you got to go see.' The next couple weekends we had nothing but kids, so that was the breaking point actually. The kids would scream and holler, crying and all that stuff. And I think that's what really got it started."

In 2009 Mr. Fontana, along with Bill Black, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the sideman category. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame the same year.

In 1999 Fontana married Karen Arrington, with whom he lived in Antioch, Tenn. In addition to her and his son David, he is survived by another son, Jeff, and 10 grandchildren.

EPE posted the following.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend and legend D.J. Fontana.
“Lisa and I, and the entire Presley family, join the staff of Graceland in expressing our deepest condolences on DJ Fontana's passing.  DJ was Elvis' original drummer and good friend.  He was a tremendously talented musician and a wonderful man. Together with Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, DJ made history as part of the legendary "Blue Moon Boys" creating music that will live forever and influence generations to come," said Priscilla Presley.

“The staff of Elvis Presley's Graceland is deeply saddened by the passing of Elvis' friend and legendary drummer, D.J. Fontana," said EPE CEO Jack Soden. "D.J.'s groundbreaking recordings and performances with Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black launched Elvis’ career and forever changed music and the world. D.J. was a dear friend to all of us at Graceland. We send our heartfelt condolences to D.J.'s family, friends and his millions of fans worldwide.”

Larry Geller (of the Memphis Mafia) noted..
"I'm deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend DJ Fontana.
With the sadness, though, comes a flood of wonderful memories from over the years, as we shared many great moments. DJ was not only a legendary drummer but a close and dear friend to Elvis."

“I Tell You What, Elvis Loved Gospel Music” Back in 2006 Thomas Melin (of the 'Elvis Today' website) met the great D.J Fontana. Here is his story.. Eleven years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Elvis’ first drummer D.J Fontana. I was working as a reporter at a radio station, when, one day in April, 2006, a press release caught my eye. It announced that Fontana was touring Sweden as part of a Swedish group called The Cadillac Band that would be playing my home town that very night. As my news editor didn’t seem to understand the significance of this, I practically had to beg him to let me interview the drummer instead of doing the news piece he had in mind for me to do.

As luck would have it, I was planning a one-hour radio program titled Rock Me Lord dedicated to Elvis’ religious songs to be broadcast on Easter that year. Not only could I do a short news piece about Fontana coming to town, this would also be a golden opportunity to ask him a couple of questions about Elvis’ love for gospel music that I could use in the program.

So, off I went, first swinging by my apartment to pick up my Elvis Presley LP, so I had something D.J. Fontana could sign. I then met him and his wife Karen at his hotel before the show where he kindly answered all my questions. I found him very friendly, and he seemed to enjoy talking about his time with Elvis. Afterwards, he signed my record and his wife took a couple of photos of us together. It was a magic moment.

The program about Elvis’ religious music was broadcast nationwide a few weeks later, as planned on Easter, 2006. For Elvis fans, here is my interview with D.J. Fontana about Elvis and gospel.

Thomas: What did gospel mean to Elvis?

D.J. Fontana: I tell you what, he loved gospel music, that was his first choice of songs. Course, he couldn’t sing them all the time, you know, the RCA Victor wouldn’t go for that, but he cut three gospel albums, and that’s the only ones he won a Grammy on, the other stuff, not even a mention. But he loved gospel music, and if you listen to it closely, you can see the feeling he puts into his voice when he sings those songs, he almost cries, he does, he’s serious about it.

Thomas: He often played a lot of gospel before the recording sessions, didn't he?

D.J. Fontana: He did, we’d sit around maybe a couple of hours, just jam, he knew every gospel song that was ever written, I think.  He’d just go from one to another, maybe repeat one that he’d liked, it would maybe last a couple of hours. Now the big wheels, they didn’t like it, it cost them too much money, and the movie companies. But he didn’t care, he’d say, “I’ll sing when I get ready, and when we get ready to perform we’ll do it.”

Thomas: I read somewhere that once, I think it was during the Jailhouse Rock sessions, he got angry when he couldn’t play gospel.

D.J. Fontana: He did. We were sitting there, and the guys, the higher ups, the big wheels, they’d come up and say, “You know, tomorrow when Elvis comes in, guys, we’re wasting a lot of time and money, don’t sing with him, don’t play with him, don’t do anything.” So we’d say, “OK.” So he’d come in, sit down and start playing, and nobody moved, didn’t play, the voices didn’t sing. He said, “What’s the matter, guys, are you mad at me or something?” And we told him, the higher ups didn’t want us to play and sing. He said, “OK, so I got a sore throat, I’m going home.” So he went home. Once he had a sore throat or something wrong they couldn’t say anything to him, see. So they didn’t say another word after that. “Do what you want to do.”

Thomas: You played on many of his gospel recordings. Do you remember anything particular about it?

D.J. Fontana: No, they all run together after a while, after this many years, in fact. No, you go and you might cut five or six songs, maybe ten, and you hardly remember what you did from this minute to the last minute. It’s gone away. You do another song, you have to concentrate on what you do that moment, you know.

Thomas: I’m also gonna tell in the program that he sang “Peace In The Valley” on television, on the Ed Sullivan show.

D.J. Fontana: Yeah he did, yes, he told his mother he would do it. And it wasn’t Ed Sullivan at all, it was the producers and directors and all that stuff, they said, “No, you can’t sing it, we don’t have gospel on our show. So when Ed came in, he asked, “Mr. Sullivan, I told my mother I would do this for her” and he said, “Let the boy sing what he wants to sing.  That was Mr. Sullivan, he was pretty good about it, he let him sing.

Thomas: Do you like Elvis’ sacred recordings?

D.J Fontana: Oh yes, absolutely, I love them all. Like I said, he had so many, really. It’s hard to keep up with them all nowadays, you can’t do it. But I think if people would listen to his gospel, his religious tunes, they would fall in love with his religious side.

Thomas: Do you have any particular favorites?

D.J. Fontana: I like “Peace In The Valley” … what’s the other one? “How Great” [Thou Art]. Those are two of my favorites, yeah.

D.J. Fontana was voted 13th Best Drummer of all time in Rolling Stone’s 2016 survey - just above Buddy Rich and Ringo Starr.
The Band’s Levon Helm stated, "Fontana had incredible technique and fast hands, so he could deploy those Buddy Rich press rolls whenever he wanted to. He played like a big-band drummer — full throttle. Now Elvis had a real foundation, some architecture, and he made the most of it. D.J. set Elvis free."

Tom Petty Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch explained, “When you hear D.J. Fontana playing his drums you are hearing a kid from Shreveport, LA tell you what he thinks music should sound like. Rock ’n’ Roll had a clean slate. There were no drum parts written for him on those Elvis records. He dictated the groove and made you feel it. There is no one on this earth that can make music move the way he did. He set the standand."

Larry Geller new interview with EIN: From 1964 until the very final days Larry Geller was a close friend to Elvis. Perhaps Elvis might have lived longer had he paid more attention to Geller's healthy life-style and managed to shake off the excessive demands of Colonel Parker. With the 30th Anniversary fast approaching Larry was kind enough to answer a lot of questions that fans have raised with EIN and to also tell us something about his new book. Larry has multiple projects happening at this very moment, so EIN extends its sincere thanks to him for sparing us the time for this interview. (Source: EIN, June 2007)