Short Stories and reminiscences about Elvis Presley
Compiled by Piers Beagley, (Updated April 2025)
Meeting ELVIS made an impression on everyone from the poorest fan to the world’s biggest superstars.
Even the briefest meeting or chance encounter with Elvis created some lovely memories as well as some fascinating stories.
It is stunning how much of an impact Elvis made on other Hollywood stars, fellow musicians, journalists or ordinary folk.
While they are often only the shortest of encounters not worthy of a full interview, the smallest memory and every personal reminiscence reveals more about Elvis Presley the man.
These smaller encounters often get lost or forgotten and sadly there are fewer and fewer people still alive who had personal encounters with our hero.
So EIN has gathered together multiple stories to help us understand and know more.
Compiled by EIN's Piers Beagley...
EIN's 'Talking Elvis' features reminiscences from people including Elton John, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Paul Simon, Cliff Richard, Cher, Linda Thompson, Suzi Quatro, Riley Keough, Ernst Jorgensen, PJ Harvey, Will Hutchins, Wink Martindale, Dolly Parton, Tom Jones, Muhammad Ali, Miley Cyrus, Nick Cave, Billy Smith, Ann-Margret, Barbara Stanwyck, Engelbert Humperdinck, Sam Thompson, Priscilla and many more...
Memphis Mafia's Marty Lacker was a good friend and frequent contributor to EIN until his untimely death in 2017.
For fans interested in short stories about Elvis please see 'Marty's Musings'
And for honest answers to your Elvis questions check out 'Ask Marty'
EIN's compilation of short stories and reminiscences about Elvis
April 2025 - some reminiscences from EIN archives
A story for all Elvis fans from Larry Geller... .. This is not an Elvis birthday story, but it is about how Elvis preferred to give rather than receive. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELVIS!
.... Late one Fall afternoon at Graceland in 1964, Elvis and I were sitting in the living room. Vernon came in and told Elvis about a young boy and his mother who had just arrived from Sweden. The young boy’s recently deceased grandfather had left him $500,000 plus two hotels and a jewelry store, and he wanted to give it all to Elvis! “Wait a minute. I don’t want his money or anything else, Daddy; it wouldn’t be right for me to take it.”
“I think you better see them, son. I just don’t know what to tell them. The mother’s frantic. She says her kid is threatening to commit suicide unless you take the gift from him.”
Elvis shook his head in disbelief. “Are they really serious, Daddy? Alright, alright, I’ll see them. But I’m gonna tell him the truth, that I don’t want anything from him.”
The next day, Vernon brought the slim, gangly blond 16-year-old boy and his mother to Graceland. The boy gulped when he saw Elvis; his eyes gave off sparks. His voice cracked as he told Elvis how much Elvis had done for him, and now he must now do something for Elvis. He knew all the lyrics of Elvis’ music by heart, and had
made his room in Stockholm a shrine plastered in Elvis memorabilia. His mother showed Elvis a photo of the room. “You see, Elvis, he lives for you. Please, you must accept his gift; he says he can’t live if you don’t.”
Holding back her tears, her voice barely audible, she revealed that his older brother committed suicide a year ago, and he’s all she had left. Elvis looked at his father and me for a minute. “Let me speak to him alone.”
Elvis took the boy off to the music room. About fifteen minutes later they emerged, both beaming. “It’s alright, he understands how I feel. He gave me this gold ring (with a diamond horseshoe set inside) and that’s how we’re going to leave it for now. Ma’am, I told your son I wanted him to stay in touch with me, and let me know how he is doing.” Elvis put his arm around the boy’s shoulders. “We’re friends now.”
When they left I asked Elvis what had happened.
He grinned, “I couldn’t have that kid outdoing me, right in my own backyard. I told him that he could best please me by going back to Sweden to take care of his mother, and by spending that money to get an education for himself, and to help other people. I told him that I had more money than I could spend, and his gift would only give me problems.” . . . . . From Jan 2020 EIN thanks Larry Geller for such a wonderful story. - (Go here for our 2019 interview with Larry)
Freddie Mercury and ELVIS: Freddie Mercury loved Elvis Presley from the beginning and in the book 'A Life In His Own Words' he revealed the truth about his personal tribute to The King.
The British star was always very open about performers he idolised, from Montserrat Caballe and Liza Minelli to Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie. But it all started with Elvis Presley.
Freddie's musical talent started emerging at a young age when he was encouraged to take piano lessons by his mother growing up in Zanzibar.
When he went away to boarding school in India he was exposed to Western music and soon discovered how much he liked to sing along.
He said: "When I was little I was in the choir and I just liked to sing. I would copy Elvis Presley songs, then I suddenly realised that I could actually write songs and make my own music – call it a natural gift, or whatever.”
Many years later he would pay tribute to ELVIS when he wrote 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love.'
It was Queen's first official No 1 single in America, which meant a huge deal to the British stars bearing in mind that Bohemian Rhapsody had only made it to No 6 and We Are The Champions had stalled at No 4.
Freddie was never one to miss a chance to reveal a cheeky trick and happily told everyone where the inspiration for the song hit him, as well as why he sounded like Elvis on the track.
He admitted: “My voice does sound a bit like Elvis Presley’s on 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'. That wasn’t something I was trying to do, naturally, it was pure coincidence. It’s all sung rather low, so then you soon come close to Elvis, especially with such a 50s-type song.
"I don’t mind telling you that my girlfriend thought it was a cover song, but that is absolutely not true. I wrote it… while taking a bath.”
Queen guitarist Brian May confirmed that his bandmates love for The King had lasted beyond his boyhood years.
He said of the classic rock 'n roll song: “It’s Freddie’s tribute to Elvis in a way... Freddie was very fond of Elvis.”
Mercury's personal assistant said that one of Freddie’s most prized possessions was a scarf belonging to Elvis that Lisa Marie had given him.
It was a year or two after Elvis’ death that Lisa Marie went to her first rock concert. She loved the band Queen and went to see them perform at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Lisa Marie explained, “I remember bringing Freddie Mercury a scarf of my Dad’s and I gave it to him after the show. I loved it. I loved the theatrics. I loved Freddie. He was very sweet, very humble and moved by my gift of Elvis' scarf."
Elvis' 'Jailhouse Rock' was a notable regular at Queen concerts for several tours.
(News, Source;Various/ElvisInfoNet)
Mark James Talking Elvis: Elvis Presley enjoyed his last US No.1 hit when “Suspicious Minds,” released the previous week, reached the top spot on Nov. 1, 1969. It was a massive transformation for the star, who’d endured a period in the doldrums before returning to the big time in 1968.
The song had been written and recorded by Mark James in 1968. Certain it would be a hit, he and his record label had thrown everything they could at it, but they lacked the scale to secure the required sales. Producer Chips Moman had retained a high regard for the song, however – it was said the label had given him a Rolls-Royce for his work on it – and his regard was to pay dividends.
Mark James noted, “Late one night, fooling around on my Fender guitar and using my Hammond organ pedals for a bass line, I came up with a catchy melody. I was married to my first wife then but still had feelings for my childhood sweetheart, who was married back in Houston. My wife suspected I had those feelings, so it was a confusing time for me. I felt as though all three of us were all caught in this trap that we couldn't walk out of.”
James had relocated to Memphis to become a house writer for Moman at American Sound Studio. When the producer told him that Presley wanted to work there – specifically so he could harness the country music power of house band the Memphis Boys – Moman also asked him to come up with songs for the King to consider. However, James was struggling for ideas. “We went to about two days before, I was down, man, because I still hadn't come up with anything.”
Then he thought of “Suspicious Minds.” “It was like seeing a golden number one and I knew that was the song I'd been looking for,” he said. “I knew most of the guys with Elvis, some of them working there, around Memphis – I felt like telling George Klein, Marty Lacker, I felt like even shaking Elvis and saying, ‘This is a great one for you, man, to record.’ But I knew probably everyone in the world had probably said that to him. So all I could do is tell all the guys around him, ‘Get him to cut this, this is a great one for him!’” James wasn’t in the room when Presley first heard the song – and immediately asked to hear it again. Moman recalled that he took to it so quickly that he’d already learned it by the time he left for home with a tape under his arm.
Recording began at 4AM on Jan. 23, 1969, and eight takes were recorded over three hours before Presley added his vocal track. Once again, James wasn’t present, having attended a previous session and felt as if it made Presley uncomfortable. “I went to the studio one time,” the writer recalled. “I went upstairs and I heard they were taking a break. … And I went in there and he happened to be leaning up against the baffle. … I said, 'Hey Elvis, I heard you might cut 'Suspicious Minds.'' And he said, 'Hey Mark, been thinking about it' – you know, just like Elvis would say it.” (News, Source: Ultimate Classic Rock)
Bobby Morris Talking Elvis: It was the opening night of the brand new International Hotel in Las Vegas on July 31, 1969 and Elvis Presley was backstage getting ready to perform his first show in front of a live audience in almost eight years. The crowd of 2,000 was star-studded with Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, Harry Belafonte and more in attendance for the huge event headlined by Elvis himself.
Backstage with him was Bobby Morris, a local drummer and host for the celebrities preparing for opening night.
"As I'm walking with Elvis since my dressing room right was right next to his, he asked me who was out there and I said 'Elvis you wouldn't believe the world every star is out there'," Morris said during an interview last week. "He said to me 'well I'm kind of nervous Bobby' and I told him to just think of everybody out there with no clothes on."
Elvis ended up putting on one of the best performances of his career, kicking off a four-week concert engagement at the International Hotel that broke every Las Vegas concert attendance record at the time.
That was sort of Bobby's specialty — being in the room with big names, at big moments.
Today, at age 92, he's sharing those moments with everyone in his new book, "Bobby Morris — My Las Vegas".
After rubbing shoulders with everyone from Elvis to Barbara Streisand to Liberace, Morris has stories to tell about the celebrities of the day and how he got to see Las Vegas grow through the years.
Born in Poland in 1927, Morris moved to the US three days before his tenth birthday in 1937 to escape the chaos unfolding in Europe.
"Things became very bad in Poland and we had to leave as people know now with the Holocaust, so we came to America and fortunately my father was an American citizen who fought in World War I so the United States let him retain his citizenship."
"So I'm sitting at Charlie's Tavern, which was a popular musicians hangout in Detroit, and a person came in and said 'I'm looking for a drummer to go to Las Vegas' and I said I would take it, I don't care how much it pays," Morris said. "I just wanted to get away from all that cold and so I moved to Las Vegas and got a job at the Last Frontier Hotel, where the opening act was Liberace."
When Morris moved to Las Vegas in 1950, he says that there were fewer than 25,000 people and only five hotels in the entire town that had more than one floor. "It was small and everybody knew each other," he said.
Morris says that during his time opening for Liberace, he was approached with a proposition that Morris be the drummer for his new show.
A year or two later, The Riviera Hotel opened in Las Vegas and Liberace went on to become the first act ever to make $50,000 a week after the success of his act landed him a network television show.
Despite missing his chance with Liberace, Morris continued to rise in notoriety, joining a relief band that played for some of the biggest celebrities in the world at the time and making $210 per week.
And by 1969 Morris was hit up by Bill Miller, one of his friends who was the entertainment director at the Flamingo Hotel back in Las Vegas.
Miller asked Morris if he wanted to be the musical director for the showroom of the new International Hotel, the tallest building in Nevada and biggest hotel in the world at the time of its grand opening July 1969.
Morris accepted but this would also mean he would have to conduct, which he had never done before.
After taking what he describes as a crash course in conducting, Morris was also asked to be the personal conductor for Elvis as he was making his return after his famous '68 Comeback Special by playing four weeks at the opening of the International Hotel.
In May of 1969, Morris was invited to Hollywood and RCA Studios so he could get acquainted with Elvis before opening night.
"They took me through the rooms that show the many million sellers of recordings, the gold records and platinum records and then we traveled by limousine and went up to Elvis' home in Beverly Hills," Morris said. "The gates opened and I spent a couple of weeks with Elvis going over the tunes for the opening"- prepping the songs and running down the plans for the biggest night in Las Vegas history on July 31, 1969. (News, Source;NP/ElvisInfoNet) - from 2019
February 2025
Elton John Talking Elvis: This week on CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Elton John appeared and in the later part of his interview talked about meeting Elvis...
At the end of the interview Stephen Colbert tried out his 'Q&A' game to discover some interesting alternate facts about Elton John.
The first few were basic questions, favorite sandwich, the first concert he attended etc before more intruiging ones including whether Elton had ever asked someone for an autograph, to which Elton replied affirmatively and that it was ELVIS!
Colbert teased, "Now hold on a second here, did you get it?
Elton John, "Yep"
Colbert, "More importantly, do you still have it?"
Elton John, "Yep!" and then explained, "It's on a tour program. I went to go see him in Washington, D.C., so I have his autograph."
Colbert, "Does it say 'To Elton....?"
Elton John, "No. He was not well at the time, and he was very shaky signing.... I was just so incredibly impressed to be in the same room as him, so I value it very much."
In previous interviews Elton John has also spoken about the effect Elvis had on his life.. "Elvis Presley changed everyone's life. Without him there'd be no
Beatles, there'd be no Hendrix, there'd be no Dylan, he was the man that changed music - without question. Elvis was the most influential musician in Rock'n'roll, without him groups would never have picked up guitars. I know he drew his influences from gospel and blues, country music and black soul music whatever, but he was the king and he was the one that started it all.
When I first saw him I was a little boy in a barber shop in Pinner Green (a suburb of outer London) and I looked at an old LIFE magazine and there was a picture of him and I thought he was from Mars or something. And then that weekend my mum came home with his single 'Heartbreak Hotel' and that changed my life - I'd never heard anything like that before in my whole life.
It completely changed the way I listened to music forever. It was just so primal.. I'd never been around music like that, music that was so powerful. I'd certainly never heard an electric guitar played like that. The echo on the record! Wow!
When I put the two together it was astonishing. Elvis looked amazing and sounded amazing and it changed everything for me. It was Rock'n'roll! It was what I wanted to be.
I saw him in Las Vegas and he was fantastic at the Hilton but the only time I ever met him was very briefly before he went on stage in Washington DC the year before he died and it was very sad. But even though it was very sad, even though he only went through the motions and he was not really there at that concert, in the end there was still flashes of brilliance. He was hugely overweight but emotionally when he sung a couple of lines he was still magical - and you don't lose that magic no matter how f**ked up you are. If you're brilliant, snatches of that brilliance will still come through.
What happened to him - and you forget that he died very early, he was only 42 for-Christ's-sake, only 42 - it is one of the great tragedies. He was surrounded by a manager who just closeted him and ripped him off and he never had enough people around to help him, I don't think anybody was there to say to him, "Hey Elvis, you can't do that, you mustn't do that."
In her recent Memoir, Lisa Marie talked about meeting Elton John....
... Aunt Delta knew how much I loved Elton John. One Christmas she got me some of his records. My dad watched me open the gift, said "That's nice," and went off through the swinging doors that led from the dining room into the kitchen. I found out later that in the kitchen he said to Aunt Delta, "Why did you get her those records? Who the hell is this son-of-a-bitch that she's wanting to hear?"
"She likes him," said Delta.
Soon after, before one of his shows, my dad met Elton backstage. He needed to meet this person whose records I was listening to. Elton and I have giggled about it ever since...
I finally met Elton a year later, for my ninth birthday. My mother arranged for me to go to his house. He showed me his clothes, his closet, his boots. He was very sweet. We had tea."
(News, Source;Colbert/ElvisInfoNet) - EIN thanks Elvis author Kieran Davis for the word-up
Cher Talking Elvis: Recently Cher appeared on BBC radio 'Desert island Discs.' She chose 'Love Me Tender' as her favourite Elvis song..
... Growing up during the 1950s it’s only natural that Cher came to worship the rock icon, who she referred to as “my Elvis” as a beacon of music and looks throughout her childhood. But among his seismic array of hits, there’s one particularly special Presley tune that Cher holds closer to her heart than any other. 'Love Me Tender''
.. “Most of my friends loved him, I wanted to be him". Seeing Elvis in concert in 1957, "he was just amazing, and he came out in his gold suit and I'm looking at the way he came out in the dark, and then they flash the lights, and I was thinking, ‘That must be amazing to be on that stage.’ And I just said, ‘Mom, I'm going to do that!’”
Cher also explains more in her new book 'The Memoir, Part One'
.. "Then someone whose songs I first heard on the radio blew a hole in my understanding of the world and I was never, ever the same.
As I stared at the TV with my mom watching The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular young singer named Elvis Presley filled the screen. Mom and I were two of the 60 million Americans who witnessed that historic performance in September 1956.
Even though Elvis was dressed quite traditionally that Sunday night, he looked and moved differently than any performer I'd ever seen. He began by singing "Don't Be Cruel," and by the time he broke into "Love Me Tender," I felt as if he was singing only to me. I wanted to jump right into the TV and be Elvis.
.. A year later Elvis gave a concert at LA's Pan-Pacific Auditorium..
I could feel my heart pounding.. a sensation I was to become all too familiar with later in life.
The stage was dark, but when the spotlights hit him, Elvis was there and he was magic. There was a roar from the crowd that was like nothing I had ever heard. An explosion of flashbulbs went off. Elvis was standing there in his famous gold suit, which was shimmering and changing color in the spotlights.
He was so handsome with that amazing smile and lustrous black hair, exactly the same color as mine. Everyone around us jumped to their
feet and started screaming so hysterically that we could hardly hear a word of "Heartbreak Hotel."
But, boy, we could see his moves — the way he gyrated his hips and shook his legs so that they quivered. Not content with making as much noise as they could, the girls began jumping up onto their chairs for a better view, which meant that from then on, we could only see Elvis's head and shoulders. Being in the middle of that shrieking crowd was like being caught up in a massive swivel-hipped tidal wave, swept along with the hysteria toward the stage. It was the most exciting experience I'd ever had because I knew that I wanted to be on that stage in the spotlight one day too.
Glowing with happiness, I tried to work out if Elvis would be too old to marry me by the time I was grown, so that he could sing to me every day. Dreaming of being Mrs. Presley, I couldn't stop talking to Mom about Elvis for weeks as I floated around on a gold lamé cloud." (News, Source;Various/ElvisInfoNet)
Annett Wolf 'Elvis In Concert' co-producer has died: Annett Wolf was the segment producer for the CBS 'Elvis In Concert' TV special.
She was was born in Copenhagen in 1936 and became a director, producer and writer who would end up filming and producing the "non-concert" footage in the 'Elvis In Concert' TV special.
Because of her role Wolf became the last person to professionally film Elvis alive which was for the segment at the Indianapolis Airport on June 26 1977 where he meets Todd Slaughter.
Annett Wolf sadly passed away last week, aged 88.
In her early years Wolf worked on Danish Radio & TV specials including in-depth profiles of actors such as Charles Chaplin, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, Peter Ustinov and also Alfred Hitchcock.
After her move to Hollywood she would set-up her own production company 'Mc Curry-Wolf enterprises', and produce "behind the scenes" documentaries for more than 50 films including, 'Jaws 2', '48 Hrs', 'Star Trek the Motion Picture' and 'Missing'. She also was co-Founder and President of LA's 'Women in Film International'.
Please watch this fascinating CTV interview with Annett Wolf from 2017 (News, Source;FECC/CTV/ElvisInfoNet)
Paul McCartney Talking Elvis: Elvis was one of the biggest influences for The Beatles and like the rest of the Fab Four, Paul McCartney was captivated by the sound and style of The King of Rock and Roll. Paul took inspiration from Elvis throughout his career, with the connection remaining deeply personal.
In a recent interview Paul McCartney revealed three songs which have stood out as his Elvis favourites. 1956's 'Heartbreak Hotel' established Elvis as a star and launched him into new heights of fame. Paul described the song as "electrifying". “You heard on the radio Elvis Presley’s 'Heartbreak Hotel'. It was like, ‘Oh my God, what is that?’- They weren't playing much of Elvis' stuff on the radio in those days. To hear 'Heartbreak Hotel' I had to go into a record shop in Liverpool and listen to it through headphones in one of those booths. It was a magical moment, the beginning of an era. Listening to it that first time was the start of my Elvis experience.
Of course, it's an amazing song. Lyrically, for starters, it was a real shock. Elvis is a truly great vocalist, and you can hear why on this song. His phrasing, his use of echo, it's all so beautiful. It's the way he sings it, too. As if he's singing it from the depths of Hell. It's a perfect example of a singer being in command of the song. Musically it's perfect, too. The double-bass and the walk-in piano create this incredibly haunting atmosphere. It's so full of mystery, and it's never lost that for me. The echo is just stunning.
Now that we know it so well, you think, ‘Oh, it’s Elvis singing Heartbreak Hotel.’
Another Elvis song thought of fondly by McCartney is 'All Shook Up' to Rolling Stone he recounted how the song once helped him shake off a headache in his teenage years. "I remember once, a friend of mine from Liverpool, we were teenagers, and we were going to a fairground. This girl was so beautiful. Everyone was following her — it was like a magical scene. I soon found myself with a pounding headache so I put on the Elvis song 'All Shook Up' it was so powerful that by the end of the song the headache had gone.
Another is 'I Want You, I Need You, I Love You' revealing that the song reduced him to tears when he listened to it as an adult. “I suddenly realised the last time I listened to this thoroughly was before The Beatles, before all that happened to me, and it just stripped it all away. It actually got me crying, wow. Really did it to me.
It was like I was a kid playing snooker again and listening, with Elvis singing, "Hold me close, hold me tight....” (News, Source;LiverpoolEcho/ElvisInfoNet)
December 2024
Elvis and Linda Thompson At Christmas: It is over fifty years ago that Elvis started dating Linda Thompson. For a recent Christmas Linda shared some of her Graceland Christmas photos via instagram.
She commented.. "This is a photo of our first Christmas together, and he had given me this coat, along with a beautiful platinum and diamond ring that I found in the coat pocket at his urging. He had taken the diamond from one of his rings and had it mounted in the beautiful ballerina ring he had designed & made for me. Christmas was his very favorite time of year… Because he was so inordinately generous, and he derived so much joy in giving to others. Elvis was so incredibly generous that we called him the real Santa Claus. Of course Christmas always reminds me of Elvis’s generous spirit and sensitivity to this special time of year."
Riley Keough Talks Elvis on ABC Australia; Australian's ABC network last night included a Riley Keough interview on their 7.30 report.
The interview highlights included.. "I think that she (Lisa Marie) just felt a desire to connect with people and share her life experiences, because she'd been through so much. And I think she kind of thought, what's the point of going through all of these things, like addiction and loss and, you know, very human things, falling in love and having children, if you can't share your story and help other people feel less alone in the world?"
Listening to her mother's voice on tapes after her passing was a surreal experience. "It was incredibly emotional because it was the first time I'd heard her voice since she'd passed away. I think when your loved ones pass away, typically you have some videos or maybe voicemails or a couple things left over, but to have like, 16 tapes of your parent who's passed away, telling their entire life story was really beautiful and also felt daunting to listen to when I first heard the tapes."
Lisa Marie's adoration of her father Elvis is a key theme in her memoir. "She was a daddy's girl. She felt incredibly loved by him and protected by him and just adored him, and he adored her and they had a really incredible bond, he was like her whole world, and I think she was his as well."
While she never met him, Keough says she feels an emotional connection to Elvis....
"He's just like my grandfather to me. And my mother's father who passed away, and my relationship with him was, is, very personal.
I'm aware that it's a different situation, and he's everywhere, and I'm reminded of him often, but the emotional connection is personal."
While Elvis' music pervasively surrounded everyone in America, Keough says her mother took years to play Elvis's music in front of her children. "Elvis' music was present in that it was always on the radio or in places I was walking into … but as far as her playing his music, she didn't really play his music until later in her life. I vividly remember the first time she turned on his music was in the car with my sisters. I would have been in my early 20s and she put on the radio and said, 'This is your grandfather singing.'
Prior to that, her relationship with his music was a very personal thing. And I think she would listen to it alone. And sometimes when she was drinking at the end of the night, she would listen to it and feel emotional." "Graceland is a special place and I do still feel the special energy in the house but visiting Graceland now is bittersweet. It used to be a place filled with joy and fun but now it's difficult since my mother and my brother are both buried there. So it's definitely an emotional experience, but I try to still have joyful moments with my family there and keep that alive because I think that's important".
Lisa Marie's son Ben Keough died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27. Keough said her mother couldn't cope with the loss of Ben. "I felt that she wasn't able to really recover from losing him and
being here without him. I've grown up with addiction around me a lot and strong-willed people. And one thing I know is that you can't, you know, force people to have a different fate than they're going to have."
The interviewer Sarah Ferguson signed off "Nice to spend some Monday with Elvis Presley" (News, Source;ABC/ElvisInfoNet)
"Elvis came to my parent-teacher conference!" From Here to the Great Unknown' Excerpt: Lisa Marie talks Elvis in the new People magazine which included an extract from her new book.
Lisa Marie writes...
.. Going to Elvis' shows was my favorite thing in the world.
I was so proud of him. He would take me by the hand and bring me out onstage, then get walked to wherever his place was on the stage, and I would be taken from him and brought to wherever I was going to be sitting in the audience. Usually with Elvis' father Vernon. The electricity of those shows. There’s nothing I’ve felt that’s been even close to that feeling, ever. Electrifying is such a generic word, but it really is what it felt like. I loved watching him perform. I had certain songs that I liked — “Hurt,” and “How Great Thou Art.” I would ask him to sing those songs for me and he would always say yes.
I did not, however, like having the limelight shone on me or being asked to stand up in front of everybody. In Vegas, during his residency, he introduced Vernon, then looked toward me and I remember thinking, Oh God oh God please don’t. “Lisa, stand up!”
It’s not that I wasn’t proud or that I didn’t love him. I just liked the limelight on him, loved it on him. It was not something that came to me inherently. I absolutely abhorred it.
But in other less public ways, I loved basking in his fame with him.
In Los Angeles I went to school at John Thomas Dye, up in the hills of Bel Air. I still sometimes drive by it just to remember the day my dad came to a parent-teacher conference. I knew he was coming, and I couldn’t wait. I could feel the teachers’ nervousness and excitement, too. My little student friends were so excited that I got even more excited — everybody was just running around crazy.
Then my dad showed up. Elvis got out of the car and he had on a respectable outfit — black pants and some kind of blouse — but he was also wearing a big, majestic belt with buckles and jewels and chains, as well as sunglasses.
He was smoking a cigar. I met him at the car, and I walked up the walkway with him, and I just remember that feeling of walking next to him, holding his hand."
'MEMPHIS' Elvis Week 2024 Listening Q&A: In celebration of Elvis new release fans today attended an Elvis Week highlight the "MEMPHIS Q&A and Listening Party".
Together with Tom Brown were producer Ernst Jørgensen, author Robert Gordon plus recording engineer Matt Ross-Spang.
You can now watch this interesting discussion on YouTube HERE - where they give backgrounds on the newly mixed tracks - and discuss the story behind the new box set.
Starts 15 minutes in. Runs 70 mins
(News, Source;EPE/ElvisInfoNet)
June 2024
PJ Harvey Talking Elvis: English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey has released ten studio albums and sold over 2 million records - she is also a big Elvis fan and has stated that she meditates on his songs.
She even created a fictional character who was inspired by Elvis’ “Love Me Tender" and had said that she could lose herself in Elvis Presley’s songs..
In a Rolling Stone interview Harvey discussed her book-length poem Orlam which featured a character named "Wyman-Elvis" who performs 'Love Me Tender'.
She explained, “Well, I loved Elvis, as a lot of children of my era did, and I still love Elvis. I love everything about him. I could lose myself in that voice, but not only that, the way he looked as well. He is almost a godlike figure in Orlam.“
She has not covered one of Elvis songs but added,"I do meditate on Elvis songs to myself. I very often play his work at the piano.”
Her recent 2023 album 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' featured a hypnotic track 'Lwonesome Nights' where fan have noted, there is an underlying theme of salvation through either God or music but here, this salvation comes through Elvis Presley.
Harvey discussed the double meanings on this track: “With poetry, you can make the language work really hard for you: Often words carry double, sometimes triple meanings. You’ve got things like Elvis, who was also known as “The King,” appearing on Maundy Day, which is a religious festival celebrating the last supper.
So, we’ve got Christ, we’ve got Elvis, we’ve got a king — do you see what I mean?
It can mean a lot of things, depending on what the reader or the listener wants to pull out of it and make theirs."
Of the track 'A Child’s Question, August' Harvey commented, “Its lyrical starting point came from Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In my song, we look to the universe for answers amidst the bittersweet melancholy of the fading summer. .. the sound world we inhabit: mysterious and magical. The answer that comes is ultimately one of positivity and love presiding, never voiced more powerfully than by the great Elvis Presley.”
The themes of Elvis’ 'Love Me Tender', permeate throughout the record acting as her anchor to espouse a love moving forward.
PJ Harvey has won two Mercury Prizes and received eight Brit Award and Grammy Award nominations. In the 2013 she was appointed a "Member of the Order of the British Empire" (MBE) for services to music. (News, Source;msn/ElvisInfoNet)
Will Hutchins Talking Elvis: Will Hutchins (best known for the lead role in the 1950s western, Sugarfoot), co-starred with Elvis in Spinout (aka California Holiday) and Clambake. In a 2010 interview with Western Clippings website, Will recalled his time working with Elvis...
... Most of my memories are of Clambake.One story I tell people, about his different “levels.” I never knew any of the “dark side” of Elvis at all, but I noticed a certain melancholy about him on Clambake.
One day, between takes, a lull in the action, he invited me into his dressing room, he had a big trailer right there on the soundstage. I thought, “Wow, that’s great, getting to go in Elvis' dressing room.” I don’t recollect it being too snazzy or fancy or anything, it was just a nice, really convenient place to have a dressing room. (Mine was always off, down an alley somewhere!) Anyhow, I got to go
in there, and he took out this LP and I thought, “Oh! I’m gonna hear his latest LP, that’s neat.” And he puts it on, and what it was, was Charles Boyer reciting love poetry. (Beautifully!) I was aghast at that, that he brought me in there to listen to Charles Boyer reciting love poetry! That was something I never expected.
The camera loved Elvis. I’m sure if the Colonel had allowed him to accept meatier roles, he’d have won an Oscar. He was the most talented fellow I ever worked with. Sometimes I’d feel a tad lost. One-take Elvis and twenty-take Hutchins. He’d give me a grin, a pat on the back, a comforting word—he’d make me feel like his salary! Behind his mischievous eyes I sensed an abiding melancholy. I figured he’d grown weary of making the same flick over and over and over. Sort of like the myth of Sisyphus —a guy pushes a huge boulder up a steep hill throughout eternity only to have the boulder elude him and roll down to the bottom. I figured Elvis was saddened by the emergence of the Beatles and their rise to the top.
The astonishingly lovely Angelique Pettyjohn contributed to the utter joy of the workplace. In a night club scene she entered in a singularly diaphanous gown. Before you could say Elsa Schiaparelli, Bill Bixby pulled Miss Pettyjohn’s décolleté clear down to her knees, baring all for the next day’s rushes. I’ll bet the boys fell out of their suits! Just my luck— I was a bottle baby. Too bad the shot was for our eyes only, the critics might have given us, er, thumbs up! Such madness!
On the last day at the cast party, Elvis gave me a huge picture of ‘himself’ in a red shirt. He signed it, “He’p Us Out, Will - Elvis.” The picture was so big I nailed it on the wall of my garage for all to see. There it remained for 12 years. When I returned to America after three years abroad, I was like a country-western record: no girlfriend, no dog, no job, no car, no house, no Elvis picture. But I’ll never lose my memories of “Spinout”, “Clambake” and The King and his red shirt.
EIN Trivia Note: ETA, Elvis Presley Jr., claims his parents are Elvis and Angelique Pettyjohn (shown right). He claims Ms Pettyjohn had a bit part in Blue Hawaii (the time he was conceived). Interestingly, Ms Pettyjohn is not listed in the Blue Hawaii cast list and if the claim were true, would Elvis have agreed to her having a not insignificant role (as Will Hutchin’s love interest) seven years later in Clambake?
Read Will Hutchins’ full interview (News, Source: Western Clippings/NP/ElvisInfoNet
'Talking Elvis' with Graceland's Angie Marchese: Talking Elvis is a UK podcast series by Ian Grey / Vince Wright plus guest presenters.
Previous episodes have featured looks at the London Elvis exhibition, producer Tony Stuchbury on Mono <> Stereo and 'ELVIS' the movie.
This week's special episode 50 is a lengthy interview with Angie Marchese from The Graceland Archives.
She talks about the London Exhibition, researching the archives, Lisa Marie, Baz Luhrmann, putting "Elvis In Concert" into the movie, Col Parker, Pied Piper of Cleveland, The Legacy Project and future plans.
The interview is one hour - find some free time over Easter, it is worth the listen.
Recently Discovered ELVIS footage: Newly discovered 1958 video footage from the WBAP-TV station in Fort Worth, Texas to accompany a news story about Elvis Presley stopping in Fort Worth on his way to Hollywood. Elvis gets asked, "Would you rather be a lover or a fighter?"
Elvis, "It's just according to what the situation is, you know what I mean? Sometimes you'd have to be both."
Runs 3 minutes but well worth viewing
Thanks to FECC's The Fool (News, Source;TexasHistory/ EIN)
'Conversations On Elvis' January 2024: Yesterday's Elvis' Birthday 'Conversations On Elvis' featured TV personality Wink Martindale, Memphis drummer Gene Chrisman, the Holladay Sisters, along with movie extra Sandra Gimpel. Wink Martindale is now 90 years old but was on fine form.
He talked about his career and hearing 'That's All Right' on the air for the first time when it was spun July 1954 by fellow deejay, Dewey Phillips on WHBQ radio.
He said, "That was the beginning of Presleymania, and I just happened to be there at night".
He said the Elvis song caused such a "commotion" that he was charged with calling Gladys and Vernon Presley at home, to get them to bring Elvis to the studio, to talk on the air about the song that was driving listeners wild.
Elvis was at Suzores Theatre and we found him sitting all by himself watching a Western movie. We told him about the excitement over 'That's All Right' being played on the radio and so he came down to the station. Then Dewey put him on the air and that was Elvis' first interview. "I met him that night, and he remained my friend until the day he died," Martindale said.
He later hosted TV's Top 10 Dance Party on WHBQ-TV and in 1956 Elvis appeared on the show, for free. Wink noted, "that was much to the chagrin of Colonel Parker, who never spoke to me again!"
Martindale was then presented with a 'Beale Street Walk of Fame' Brass Note. Mary and Ginger Holladay spoke about recording with Elvis at the American Sound Memphis Sessions in 1969. Ginger Holladay who was only 17 when came to Memphis and recorded with Elvis said that, "You never forget meeting Elvis for the first time. He came in and shook everyone's hand saying "I'm Elvis Presley" it was so sweet. The American studio was downtown and rather "funky" in more ways than one. You could see rats in the ceiling, a lot of times they'd have to stop the session, and we had to wait 'til they got settled." Gene Chrisman didn't seem to mind the rats but said he didn't really enjoy Elvis' nocturnal hours. Elvis would show up about 5pm and play until about 5am the next morning. Even though the results were priceless (Suspicious Minds, In The Ghetto etc) when the sessions ended two weeks later Chrisman told everyone he thought "Boy, I'm glad this is over - that was too many hours for me, boy!" Dancer Sandra Gimpel appeared in 15 Elvis movies. She got her start in the 1961 film The Pleasure of His Company starring Fred Astaire and then danced in fifteen Elvis movies. She became one of Elvis' five main dancers noting "Elvis was such a great guy. He'd arrange lunch for everybody and we'd sit around and sing songs and he'd play the guitar or play the piano"
She also used to hear Elvis practice in the MGM rehearsal hall. "I was so blessed it wasn't even funny.” (News, Source;Various/ElvisInfoNet)
December 2023
Dixie Locke (Emmons) Passed Away: Dixie Locke, Elvis' first serious girlfriend, has passed away December 19, 2023 . Dixie was someone who knew Elvis Presley before the world knew him as the iconic ‘King of Rock and Roll.’
Her relationship with Elvis was one of genuine connection and affection, founded on mutual respect and admiration long before fame and fortune.
Dixie Locke Emmons is regarded as Elvis' first serious girlfriend. They started dating in January 1954 and met though their mutual involvement in the First Assembly of God. It was on January 24, 1954 that Dixie noticed Elvis at a church function.
She noted, "I thought Elvis was the most gorgeous thing I'd ever seen. He was a very shy person, but when he started singing he put so much into putting the music across that he kind of lost himself. He threw himself into it completely"
When we first dated we went to a drive-in in South Memphis which was where I was from. We just sat and talked, and he told me about his job, about his family. It was kind of not strange because we both felt like we already knew each other. We had so much in common. Our families were so similar in that they were hardworking people.
He asked me if I could go out the next week when he took me home. I told him yes and I gave him my aunt's phone number. Elvis was just a nice, handsome guy. There was a magic kiss that night when we got home. It was almost casual. I had to sneak into the house because my parents were sleeping.
We started going together in January '54, and we dated pretty steadily until his first record was released. We were together three or four nights a week.
From January '54 until we went to the prom together in 1955. But Elvis was traveling a lot by that time and he had such a busy schedule. He also came to my graduation in '56.
We kept a good close bond with each other. We had talked about getting married after my high school graduation but by the time his records came out, we realized that wasn't going to happen. I cannot actually remember Elvis and I ever specifically breaking up, because we didn’t. No matter how far his fame was beginning to take him, we knew in our hearts we were eternally tied to each other.”
In 2012 Dixie Locke Emmons published her book 'Unlocked: Memoirs of Elvis's First Girlfriend' co-written with her daughter Kristi Emmons Jones. You can buy it at the Graceland shop. (News, Source;Kristi Emmons/EIN)
Suzi Quatro Talking Elvis: Leather clad rocknroller Suzi Quatro has sold over 50 million records worldwide having massive hits with songs such as 'Can the Can' and 'Devil Gate Drive'. Her major US Billboard hit was the duet 'Stumblin' In' with Smokie's lead singer Chris Norman.
She is back on tour aged 73 and discussed the impact Elvis had on her career.. "Seeing Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show was the lightning bolt that got me into music. I thought to myself, “I’m gonna do that.”
I have always had a life-long obsession with Elvis and he influenced my whole career in fact I've covered an Elvis song on every album that I've recorded.
My leather jumpsuit was of course inspired by the Elvis' leather suit on the ’68 Comeback Special. I started in a band back in 1964 - but when I saw Elvis on the Comeback Special I rushed out and bought my first leather jacket.
The UK producer Mickie Most who worked on all my early hits first saw me playing with my old band in Detroit and the number I
performed was 'Jailhouse Rock'.
I'd had a few hits by 1973 and I was about to make my first album. I'd recorded 'All Shook Up' which was a single in the US. So in ’74 I go to America again with my English band, with hits under my belt.
I was in Memphis in a hotel room on tour. 'All Shook Up' was in the lower end of the charts and the phone rang in my hotel room and it was Elvis’ people. Before I could even recover from that bit of information, he was on the phone, so I nearly died.
And he said to me, “Hi, this is Elvis.” Like you need to be told that.
He said, “I’ve heard your version of ‘All Shook Up’ and I think it’s the best since my own. I’d like to invite you to Graceland.”
I wasn’t nervous, but I wasn’t prepared to meet him. I wanted a bit more time. So I said, “I’m very busy,” and I didn’t meet him. I don’t regret it, because obviously I didn’t know he was gonna die.
It wasn't until 2009 that I finally visited Graceland. It was very, very emotional. I was in tears so many times as I traced the footsteps of Elvis who was, and is, the reason I do what I do." (News, Source;BS/ElvisInfoNet)
Country star Mimi Roman Talking Elvis: Mimi Roman was born Miriam Lapolito in 1934. As a teenager she became a rodeo queen and soon after she began performing Country music invited on Cincinnati’s Midwestern 'Hayride' TV show and a daily 15-minute radio show. She landed a recording deal with Decca with Owen Bradley (her future producer) playing piano on her first recordings. This was at the dawn of the Nashville sound. Roman has her own place in history as one of country music’s first female success stories, as well as a Zelig of rock and pop’s early years. She witnessed the birth of rock’n’roll, rockabilly and performed on iconic stages such as the Grand Ole Opry and recorded demos for the the golden-era songwriters of New York City’s Brill Building.
The blur of activity that followed included supporting Johnny Cash and performing to 100,000 people at the annual celebration of country musician Jimmie Rodgers. And, of course, meeting Elvis.
At the 1955 country music disc jockey convention in Nashville, Elvis was named most promising male star.
Roman notes, “Elvis knew who I was, but I didn’t know who he was. I looked to get away from him and he kept following me.” Their friendship developed when Elvis visited New York. “He was such a good-looking kid and he had that charisma. Some people just are destined for fame.
"We had dinners and trips to the movies together. One of the movies we saw together was Helen of Troy. I looked at Elvis, and I thought: he’s better looking than the guy on the screen.
He had a magnificent profile, like a Roman coin. He still had that baby face and was very handsome, and just a really nice boy. He called his mother every single day.”
At the time Walter Winchell, (US gossip columnist / radio broadcaster) reported that they were having an affair. “We were just 19, there was nothing! Elvis was just a nice southern kid who thought all this tumult about him was very amusing. He never really quite understood it at that age.”
When Roman rode with Elvis to the airport immediately after The Ed Sullivan Show, “these girls were running after the limo and I realised that that was probably the last time I was going to see him. When I played Memphis, the number that he had given me was no longer in service and he had already moved to California.”
It’s difficult for her to reconcile the jump-suited Elvis with the handsome teenager she knew. “When Elvis died, I remember just feeling so badly. When I knew him, we’d go wherever he wanted. Later I realised that he was trapped. That was the reason I really never cared about being a big star. He was a bloated caricature of the kid that I knew. It was just a horrible thing to happen to a very nice boy.”
Roman had staved off Parker’s advances to manage her.“I told my manager at the time, I want nothing to do with Parker. There was something about him I didn’t like – just smarmy. If you were a New Yorker, which I was, you could spot a conman.”
.. Mimi Roman is still playing live concerts at age 89... (News, Source;UKG/ElvisInfonet)
November 2023
Elvis' girlfriend Mindi Miller comments: This week Elvis' girlfriend Mindi Miller added her thoughts about the new "Priscilla" movie. Mindi Miller was an actress when she first met Elvis in early 1975 they bonded over their common interests and so Elvis then asked her to go on tour with him..
.. I have been asked by several people to make a public statement regarding if Elvis was really so controlling, and if he was truly a pedophile. My answer unequivocally is NO on both subjects. Elvis was never controlling to me, but like any of us, he had certain rules that he lived by which we all should. He was the kindest, sweetest, and most gentle man that I have ever had the pleasure to know. Most men do like being with younger women for their own reasons, and I am not here to argue that point. But he was in absolutely no way a pedophile, and I am really sick and tired of reading all these outrageous lies about him.
I have always, and will continue to my death and beyond to defend this man. The people who talk about him in a disparaging light, are
not people that truly love Elvis and many of them did not know him, and some speak in retaliation of the way they feel perhaps that they were treated. That is their own personal problem and that is in their own mind. That is not who this man was.
Please stop blindly believing everything you hear and read in books or social media or TV interviews and the like.
Go to other people that were with Elvis and who knew him intimately and please don’t believe just one persons narrative. - THANKU @ EVERYONE FOR CONTINUING TO DEFEND HIM……
Go here for EIN's 2017 in-depth interview with Mindi Miller (News, Source;MM/ElvisInfoNet)
Cliff Richard Talking Elvis: In an extract from his new biography Cliff Richard recalls his first encounter with Elvis... The UK Guardian article includes...
That Saturday in May 1956, Norman Mitham, Terry Smart and I did the walk. We were planning to do the usual: hang out in the park, look in a couple of shops, maybe call in at Marsden’s to listen to a new single or two. And then, outside the newsagents we saw the parked car.
It was a French car, a green Citroën, with a funky curved back. And then, wafting through the open front window, we heard the song playing on the car radio. “We-e-e-e-ll, since my baby left me …” Huh? What. Is. That? Norman, Terry and I stared at each other, open-mouthed. .. Wow! I had never heard anything like it in my life!
Norman, Terry and I spent the whole afternoon gabbling about how great it had sounded, and how we had to find out what it was. When I saw him at school that Monday morning, Norman was grinning in triumph.
“I heard that song again, on AFN!” he proclaimed. “It’s called Heartbreak Hotel, and it’s by some guy called Elvis Presley!”
Well, we all had a good hoot about what a daft name that was – Elvis? Who gets called Elvis? – but, more to the point, I knew I had to get the song.
Elvis sounded like he was singing for me. To me. Nobody my age, no teenager, would ever have been inspired by Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, or wanted to be like them. Elvis was different.
He sounded so young, so cool and so now, and his voice cut through everything else.
He sounded passionate, and powerful. He sounded like he had secrets that you needed to learn.
Oddly, I wasn’t that bothered about the lyrics of Heartbreak Hotel. It was exactly what it said on the tin: a heartbreak song, as so many great rock’n’roll tunes are. But what excited me about it was the rhythms of the music, the beats, the feel, the attitude.
The sense of something being born. Here, right before my ears, Elvis was giving rock’n’roll a new shape.
Immediately, he obsessed me. I started trying to find out everything about Elvis that I could. When I first saw a photograph of him, I couldn’t believe how cool he looked – that quiff! That curled lip! And when I realised that he had an album out already, I absolutely had to have it....
I set off on a determined one-man mission to make myself look as identical to him as was humanly possible. The quiff came first, of course. I began spending hours in front of the bathroom mirror, sweeping my hair to the back of my head and trying to fix it in place with Brylcreem – I wasn’t the only lad in Cheshunt doing that. I was quite pleased with my Brylcreem skills, but it never looked as good as when Elvis had just a few strands that broke loose from his quiff and hung over his forehead. I never managed to reproduce that.
When I broke through, I started getting called the “English Elvis” or the “British answer to Elvis”.
I no longer think, “What would Elvis do?” whenever I have any big decisions to make, as I did in my earliest years. I’ve been through that. I stopped being the “English Elvis” and started being me, Cliff Richard, a long time ago. I still feel like I owe Elvis everything, though. I have many mornings when I wake up in Barbados, get up, gaze out of my bedroom window at the Caribbean, and wonder: how the hell did I get from Cheshunt to here? And the answer is Elvis Presley.
(News, Source;G/ElvisInfoNet)
'Dolly Parton says Priscilla told her Elvis sang 'I Will Always Love You' to her as they Divorced': This old chestnut of a story has been doing the rounds again this week in the UK tabloids. It seems it is being repeated to promote Parton's brand new album 'Rockstar'.
She again told the BBC (as she has said in past interviews) "Elvis loved the song "I Will Always Love You" . In fact, I talked to Priscilla not very long ago. She said to me, 'You know, Elvis sang that song to me when we walked down the courthouse steps when we got divorced. He was singing to me 'I Will Always Love You.'"
She also revealed that Elvis actually wanted to record the track, but she ended up declining the offer because his manager Colonel Tom Parker said that Elvis would need to own at least half of the publishing rights.
... Parton, aged 77, has now paid tribute to 'The King of Rock and Roll" in her own way on her forthcoming album Rockstar with the track "I Dreamed of Elvis."
In the interview she revealed she wrote the song 20 years ago with The Jordanaires and enlisted Ronnie McDowell, who worked Elvis and sounds like him, to sing on the track.
"I wrote a song, and I dreamed that Elvis was singing the song 'I Will Always Love You.' So I wrote a whole song about Elvis and then we did 'I Will Always Love You,' and it's in this album." (News, Source;Tablods/EIN) - - - - - Below is EIN's all too similar BBC News story from August 2019
AUGUST 2019 -Dolly Parton Regrets telling Elvis ‘No’: Country music legend Dolly Parton just spoke out to express her regret over refusing to let Elvis cover her song I Will Always Love You, saying that it “broke her heart” to say no.
In a BBC Dolly Parton documentary the 73-year-old singer said that she’s “very protective” of her songs, and that’s why she refused to let Elvis cover the tune. 'I Will Always Love You' was Dolly’s first number one hit on the US Country charts when she released it in 1974, but was famously covered by Whitney Houston in 1992.
As she has previously explained Parton refused to let Elvis cover the song after his Col Parker insisted she would have to sign over half of the publishing rights.
“Elvis already had it worked up and he loved this song, in fact Priscilla had told me not very long ago that when she and Elvis were leaving the courthouse after they divorced, he was singing that to her. That "I Will Always Love You". (EIN note:'I Will Always Love You' was first released by Dolly on RCA March 18, 1974. Elvis' courthouse divorce settlement was on October 9, 1973.So it is IMPOSSIBLE that Elvis sang it to Priscilla that day)!
But it wasn’t about Elvis. Colonel Tom wanted to have his share on that song and I wouldn’t allow it because it was my most important copyright.
I’d already had a number one song myself, and it broke my heart because Elvis didn’t get to sing it.
But I’ve been protective of my songs, like you are with your children through the years”.
The BBC documentary was called 'Dolly’s Country' and looked at Dolly’s 50 year journey through her career. (News, Source;BBC/ElvisInfoNet)
August 2023
Riley Keough Talking Elvis & Lisa Marie: Following her new Vanity Fair interview the media have reported that "One year after her daughter was born, Riley Keough has finally revealed her baby's name as Tupelo"
Our readers may remember that EIN posted this news as far back as 25 January 2023!
Vanity Fair explains, "Tupelo Storm Smith-Petersen was born via surrogate in August 2022, and her name is in honor of Keough's grandfather Elvis as well as her brother, who died at age 27. The name Tupelo refers to the Mississippi city where Elvis was born, and Storm is for her brother Benjamin Storm Keough."
In the Vanity Fair interview Riley Keough also made these interesting comments... “It’s funny because we picked her name before the ELVIS movie. I was like, ‘This is great because it’s not really a well-known word or name in relation to my family, it’s not like Memphis or something.’ Then, when the Elvis movie came out, it was like, ‘Tupelo this’ and ‘Tupelo that’ I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ But it’s fine.”
I don’t think you ever can be a perfect parent, but I would like to be the best mom for her that I can be. That’s…very important to me.”
Years ago, Riley Keough and her mom, Lisa Marie Presley, would visit for Thanksgiving with Keough’s brother and sisters. They would stay at the official hotel, and when the tourists departed the legendary home for the day, they’d go over and hang out, drive golf carts around the grounds, and celebrate the season together. “When Elvis’s chefs were alive, they used to still cook dinner for us, which was really special. It was very Southern: greens and
fried catfish and fried chicken and hush puppies. Cornbread and beans. Banana pudding.” “There were a few times that we slept at Graceland, but I don’t know if I should say that.” She pauses. The second floor has always been closed to the public out of respect for Elvis’ family because the singer had a fatal heart attack there. Then again, Keough’s family was Presley’s family. Who had the right to be there if not them? “The tours would start in the morning, and we would hide upstairs until they were over. The security would bring us breakfast. It’s actually such a great memory. We would order sausage and biscuits, and hide until the tourists finished.”
In 1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie eloped to the Dominican Republic. The media suspected the marriage was a publicity stunt to rehabilitate Jackson’s reputation, but Lisa Marie denied it: “I am very much in love with Michael. I dedicate my life to being his wife.”
Keough explains,“My whole childhood was probably very extreme. In hindsight, I can see how crazy these things would be to somebody from the outside. But when you’re living in them, it’s just your life and your family. You just remember the love, and I had real love for Michael. I think he really got a kick out of being able to make people happy, in the most epic way possible, which I think he and my grandfather had in common.” It is a surreal fact that Keough has called both Graceland and Neverland home.
“Which one did I like better? I spent more time at Neverland than Graceland, to be honest. That was a real home, whereas Graceland was a museum in my lifetime.”
After Lisa Marie and Jackson split, she married Nicolas Cage. Four months later, they separated.
Keough doesn’t keep in touch with Cage, but says she’d be game to do a movie with him. “He’s a great actor. I’ve had some wild stepfathers. Famous and not famous.”
She steers the conversation back to Danny Keough, whose humble lifestyle had a grounding effect when she was young.
Keough saw her mother Lisa Marie at a party a day after the Golden Globes this year.“We had dinner. That was the last time I saw her. I remember thinking about how beautiful she looked, and that was my strongest memory of the dinner.”
When Keough addresses the accumulated tragedies head-on, the sentences come in pieces: “I have been through a great deal of pain and ... parts of me have died and I’ve felt like my heart has exploded, but I also feel.… I’m trying to think of how to phrase this.… I have strengthened the qualities that have come about through adversity.” (News, Source;VanityFair/EIN)
Paul Simon Talking Elvis: For US pop star Paul Simon as a child of the 1950s he was naturally enamoured by the inventive new rock'n'roll sounds he heard on the airwaves, and in his mind, it was more exciting than he could possibly comprehend.
During this era of music, the likes of Little Richard and Chuck Berry were pioneering innovators who permanently changed the art form, draping it in their own DNA. While both men put rock music on the map, it wasn’t until Elvis Presley adopted their style that rock music became mainstream.
Elvis had every corner of America humming along to his tunes, and as an impressionable youngster, Simon became utterly obsessed with ‘The King’. During an interview with SPIN in 1987, the New Yorker discussed his biggest influences..
Simon said,“Elvis was there. He was the most important force in rock ‘n’ roll, no question about it. Nobody even close. It was his invention, he blended
black and white music, and that’s the single most powerful idea that’s emerged from rock ‘n’ roll. Plus he had the voice, a great investment.
When I first heard Elvis perform my composition 'Bridge Over Trouble Water' it was unbelivable, and I thought to myself, how the hell can I compete with that?!"
He also name-dropped The Everly Brothers as a significant influence on his artistry and admitted there “wouldn’t have been a Simon and Garfunkel without the Everly Brothers.”
But Simon’s discovery of Elvis proved one of the most pivotal in his life. Hearing Presley on the radio for the first time is a memory he’ll never forget.. “I remember in that parking lot being in the backseat of my parents’ car when they went shopping, and hearing Elvis Presley for the first time on the radio, ‘That’s Alright, Mama’. The announcer said, ‘Now here’s a singer named Elvis Presley, every time he performs in the south, there’s riot every time he sings.'”
Following the death of Presley, like millions of others, Simon paid tribute to the musical icon and took a voyage to Graceland, which inspired his next album of the same name. While a chunk of the trip was similar to any other tourist experience, his emotions spiralled out of control once the singer-songwriter laid eyes on Elvis’ grave. “Graceland itself was just a business. Big parking lots, you buy your ticket, get on a bus, and wait in line. There’s a tour, guides, and they take you through the house and show you Elvis’s this and Elvis’s that. It’s a very common experience, but nevertheless, at the end, you come out onto the grounds and there are the graves of his mother, his father, and him.
Even though it’s so commercial, then on the plaque on Presley’s grave, it says he was given the gift of this incredible voice that has touched millions of people all around the world. And that’s just what it is. A gift.”
Swayed by the sincerity of those who had travelled to the musical landmark to pay their respects to Elvis, his song then became the story of a heartbroken divorced man and his young son making a pilgrimage to Graceland in search of redemption. (News, Source: FarOutMagazine/ElvisInfoNet)
The life-changing impact of Elvis Presley on Robert Plant – “He was totally unique”: Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has never been afraid of discussing his love for American rhythm and blues. Pioneering a heavy take on the form, the band’s nods to their heroes were evident in their sound, particularly in their early days, when they were known to cover a blues classic or two. Whilst many of that era influenced Plant, one man who significantly impacted him, his bandmates and the rest of their generation was Elvis Presley.
Spending much of his youth daydreaming and soaking up music, the idea that Plant would one day accompany Presley in the pantheon of rock greats seemed unfathomable to the young UK native back then. Yet, within 15 years of him first hearing Presley’s 1956 cover of ‘Hound Dog’,
he too would be hailed as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. This rise was fuelled by the influence of Black America that Elvis introduced to the white masses.
Plant discussed the first time he heard ‘The King’ in conversation with Jools Holland.... “There was this sort of haze behind me of English ballads. The BBC wasn’t very kind to youth culture in those days, but every now and then on Two Way Family Favourites on a Sunday lunchtime, some servicemen would send messages back to Mom and Dad and request a song." Of course, the track played that day would become one of the most important of Plant’s life. “And it was ‘Hound Dog’. Elvis. That was the kind of lock-in. It was an opiate. Something happened when I heard the sound of that record. It certainly made me put my stamp collection to one side for a bit.”
When speaking to Charlie Rose in 2005, Plant looked deeper at the influence of American music and Elvis Presley on his life. Asked if rhythm and blues from the States were influential to him from early on, he replied: “Yeah, I think there was a huge movement towards Black Americana in the British pop scene. I was just perhaps two or three years behind The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things, and there was an amazing sort of… The impulse on the ground listening to Black rhythm and blues. In your cities, you had music from New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago; so many different cities had so much absolutely different music to offer us, and I never realised.” “I was absolutely infatuated. Well, you know, there’s a kind of saccharine sweet thing about British pop music. It was somewhere between Johnnie Ray and Pat Boone. It was something that was happening, and with Presley mimicking the Black voice and bringing a little lift of Black music into the mainstream, that was the first, that was the sort of hors d’oeuvre, and then a little later on you’ve got all these Black American bands who started to permeate”.
Asked by the host if Elvis Presley influenced everybody in the UK in the 1950s, Plant confirmed the notion. “I would say so, because Elvis was totally unique, I mean, he took a lot of the sort of elements of the Johnnie Ray approach – the kind of sobbing voice and that sort of thing -, but he mixed it with the music that he was surrounded by when he was a kid in Memphis.”
The conversation then took an interesting turn, with Rose asking Plant if he would have been able to tell if Elvis was a white voice if he didn’t know anything about him. The Led Zeppelin man admitted: “I think on some of the very early songs, I wouldn’t have known, no. The stuff which he was taking, the Arthur Crudup music, ‘That’s All Right, Mama’, ‘Mystery Train’, which was Junior Parker’s Blue Flames, I mean, the whole deal of Presley was that he was the original hepcat.”
“And what we got on the radio in England, it cut through all the drizzle, and it really gave us something; everybody’s heads turned, and our parents, as you can imagine, it was the same thing in America, rejected it wholeheartedly. They saw something coming around the corner that they couldn’t understand… I think our call to arms.” --- (Right; Robert Plant with Priscilla 2013) (News, Source: Arun Starkey, faroutmagazine.co.uk/EIN)
'Elvis privately confessed to Tom Jones who was the real King of Rock and Roll': Sir Tom Jones seems to have a never-ending supply of newly remembered Elvis stories.. this appears to be his latest.
Back in the late 1960s, Elvis Presley and Tom Jones became friends and supporters of each other’s Las Vegas acts. In fact, it was seeing the Welsh star’s residency that gave The King the confidence he need to know he could pull it off himself. Over the years Sir Tom has shared precious anecdotes of times with Elvis, who died in 1977 aged 42.
And during his recent UK Greenwich Summer Sounds concert, the 83-year-old had another new and amazing story about the late star to share.
Towards the end of the show, Sir Tom noted, “One night, Elvis said to me, ‘Chuck Berry’s playing tonight do you want to go see him?’ I said, ‘Sure.’
"So we go to see Chuck Berry where he was singing and playing and Elvis is looking at him on stage. And Elvis turned to me and said, ‘There’s the real King of Rock and Roll up there right now’ and that’s what Elvis Presley said about Chuck Berry.
So we would like to pay tribute to the King of Rock and Roll with this song right here…”
EIN Note: Elvis of course recorded Chuck Berry's 'Memphis, Tennessee', 'Johnny B. Goode', 'Too Much Monkey Business', 'Promised Land' as well as singing 'Maybellene', 'Brown Eyed Handsome Man' and 'School Day'. There is no doubt that Elvis loved Chuck Berry's music. (News, Source: George Simpson, expressUK/EIN)
Linda Thompson at Elvis Week 2023: Linda Thompson posted on Insta how much she is looking forward to being a guest at Elvis Week 2023. She wrote...
.. It’s amazing how many photos were actually taken of Elvis & me during the 4 1/2 years we lived together since there were no iPhones then! I am sharing with you just a few…
Most of the shots were taken by paparazzi or fans. If you want to know who spent the most time with Elvis in the last years of his life, all you have to do is scan the photos.
A few other “friends” may have passed through and gotten their photos taken once or twice, but they were just passing through. �� I was the constant in his life during those years.
I have been appearing at a few Elvis events this year & I am looking forward to sharing my rarified memories at Graceland’s “Elvis week” in August. Elvis has the most loyal and best fans in the world, and I am looking forward to seeing many of you there!
Muhammad Ali Talks About His Relationship With Elvis!: “The only white boy who had soul was Elvis Presley!” Two years before Elvis Presley passed away, he visited Ali at his Deer Lake, Pennsylvania training camp, asking that it would not be announced but kept quiet by Presley. Some of the comments Ali said about Elvis were: “Many celebrities have done talk shows, commercials, and other things but Elvis never did any of these!” “Elvis was the sweetest, most humble, and one of the nicest men you’d ever want to meet!” This Ali said at the funeral of Elvis in Memphis. “I felt a great loss when I heard of the death of my friend Elvis Presley.”
Per Gene Kilroy, Ali’s business manager: Ali was at an Elvis concert and asked to meet Elvis. He is taken to the dressing room of Elvis, and Elvis did his karate motions while Ali did his shadow boxing, facing one another. At the Elvis Memorial, Ali said, “Elvis was not just a great talent, but a great person. He was one white boy that had soul. I’m black and Muslim. Elvis was white and a Christian and one of the greatest of All-Times!”
On Phil Donahue’s show, Ali said about Elvis: “If he could get out of his grave, he would fill Yankee Stadium on a day’s notice.” “Elvis was not just great in spirit but had
a great heart!” I once did an article called “Two Kings One of Rock n’Roll and the other of the Ring!” It was pertaining to Elvis and Ali.
Elvis gave Ali a white robe with “People’s Choice on the back!” He wore it for the Joe Bugner fight when Ali first met Elvis in Las Vegas and in his next fight against Ken Norton. They were both the greatest in their professions, Elvis in Rock ’n’ Roll and Ali in boxing! (News, Source: Ken Hissner - Boxing News 24) Go HERE to "Elvis was Not a Racist"
John Cooper Clarke Talking ELVIS:"The thrill of Elvis has never gone away" - John Cooper Clarke
If you are British or perhaps watch the TV show '8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown' you will probably know of UK Poet John Cooper Clarke.
A seventies "Punk Poet" he has appeared on stage with bands such as The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Elvis Costello and New Order.
In 2019 on BBC's long-running "Desert Island Discs" he chose two great records to share his loneliness with..
Jerry Lee Lewis' 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On'"What a mover, the greatest piano player that ever lived"
and Elvis' 'How Great Thou Art'- "Elvis is the greatest singer that ever lived. If anybody changed the nature of our world it is Elvis. The zenith of male beauty.
If you are on a Desert Island, sooner or later you are going to want to contemplate the nature of eternity and there is only one guy with the vocal equipment to do this and that is Elvis Presley - with his wonderful reading of 'How Great Thou Art'.
If I had to choose only one record for my desert island, no hesitation it would be ELVIS."
Recently he told UK's The Guardian of his 'Honest Playlist'.
The article includes... - The first single I bought was 'Rock Around the Clock' by Bill Haley & His Comets on 78 ... the first plastic 45 I bought was Diana by Paul Anka.
- The song I wish I’d written is 'White Christmas' It’d be a payout on an annual basis.
- The song that changed my life was 'All Shook Up' by Elvis Presley. I first discovered it on a fairground in Salford. It was like nothing else I’d heard. The thrill of Elvis as a whole package has never gone away.
- The song I want played at my funeral - I don’t want to think about it, but if I have to, 'Peace in the Valley' by Elvis." (News, Source;ElvisInfoNet)
Miley Cyrus Talking Elvis: Award winning, multi-million-selling and best-selling female artist born in the 1990s Miley Cyrus has an on-going infatuation with Elvis.
Cyrus has cited Elvis as her biggest inspiration and not only regularly wears Elvis clothing but also re-created an Elvis jumpsuit for one of her music videos.
In 2018 Miley Cyrus noted that when her Malibu house was destroyed by wildfires she was “only upset at losing my shrine to Elvis Presley".
She noted, “I have this really crazy infatuation love with Elvis. So it was the only thing I was upset about was, I have an Elvis shrine, and every night I tell Elvis good night. Actually when I tell him good night, I would whisper to him, ‘I wish we could have known each other because we would have been so great for each other.'”
In her music she also adds, “I like to take some of that 'Elvis spirit' and put it into a song.”
In 2017 Miley Cyrus was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show wearing another Elvis T-shirt when she talked about the victims of Hurricane Harvey and pledged a hefty sum to help them.
Cyrus also has a fascination with Elvis’ movie Blue Hawaii as in the movie Elvis’ character falls in love with a woman named Maile (Joan Blackman) which is pronounced like Cyrus’ first name.
She said, “I used to watch this movie over and over and over again because he would say ‘I love you, Miley’ and I would rewind it just so I could hear Elvis tell me that he loved me.”
Last week she appeared on the Jimmy Fallon Tonight show, again wearing a stunning glittery Elvis T-shirt.
For a pop-icon born in November 1992 it is fantastic to witness her commitment to Elvis. (News, Source;ElvisInfoNet)
Nic Cave Talking 'ELVIS' movie - the highlight of his year: Australian musician Nic Cave is a rock'n'roll icon and a brilliant singer / composer / poet / author.
He and his band 'Nic Cave and the Bad Seeds' has amassed multiple Gold records worldwide and chart topping albums worldwide.
Cave is known for his baritone voice and emotionally intense performances. Somewhat like Elvis.
He has also acknowledged his love of Elvis, he even recorded the song 'Tupelo'. Of his own funeral he has noted.. “Thinking about it, I would be very happy with an Elvis themed funeral, to be ushered into the next world by the voice of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll singer of them all.
“‘Kentucky Rain’, that’s what I’d like, ‘Kentucky Rain’ and ‘How Great Thou Art’, Elvis singing gospel, with heaven and all its angels listening.”
In January's MOJO magazine Nic Cave was asked 'What's the best thing you've heard all year?' His answer ELVIS the movie.. Nic Cave: Well, this is not anything new... I saw the Elvis movie. I really enjoyed it in places and didn't enjoy it in other places. But it
really sent me back to certain concerts that were very important to me when I was in my younger days, and one fundamental one was Elvis singing American Trilogy in Aloha From Hawaii, the satellite Elvis event. And you can see that on YouTube, and I ended up watching that, I don't know, 30, 40 times around a few months ago, because it's such an extraordinary thing.
I felt similarly about the film.
If you're really into Elvis, you want more of an insight into the person. But I've spoken to people who knew rather less about Elvis, and it has been a 'gateway drug' for them.
I think that's the good thing about that film. But I was disappointed with the end because it seemed to follow a kind of downward trajectory of Elvis's life, and I don't see it that way. Personally, I think those final Vegas concerts were some of the greatest performances I've ever seen.
They brought something to the table that didn't exist in the young Elvis, that has something to do with suffering. And just going on-stage with all your stuff, and laying it on the table in the most extraordinary way. I mean, I don't know anybody who does that, who stood on the stage with such vulnerability as Elvis did in those final concerts."
(News, Source;ElvisInfoNet)
Billy and Jo Smith’s relationship with Graceland: On their YouTube channel, 'Elvis Fans Matter', Billy and Jo Smith recently revealed why they didn’t attend the funeral for Lisa Marie Presley, and commented on the issue of why Billy was fired from Graceland.
On the matter of Billy’s firing from Graceland, they reveal that when Billy was fired and asked why, Jack Soden (EPE CEO) said it was because of Billy’s love-hate relationship with Graceland – Billy loved Graceland but hated what was happening to it when it was opened to the public.
Jo also explained:.. “After Billy was fired from Graceland, which he was… he had tried to call and talk to Priscilla and she didn’t take his calls. Lisa, he did talk to Lisa and said, ‘Have your Mom call me’, but she never did.
When Billy was let go, he asked what he had done and claimed it was that while he loved Graceland there were some things he hated as the home was being turned into a museum. He said: “If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t go along with it…" We never saw Lisa or talked to them again after that.”
While some fans feel Billy and Jo didn’t attend Lisa’s funeral because of their “tensions” with Priscilla, the couple commented that everybody grieves in a different way, and they are grieving for the Presley family, but that the real reason they didn’t attend the funeral was “out of respect” for the grieving Presley family.
In the video, Billy and Jo also have interesting comments to make about Jerry Schilling and reveal that unless they go to the free gravesite viewing at Graceland, they have to pay like all fans.
EIN Comment: As family, Billy Smith was close to Elvis throughout his life and arguably the closest person to Elvis in 1977. That he is treated this way by EPE is wrong. See EIN's interview with Billy Smith here. (News, Source: Daily Express UK)
Ann-Margret Talks Elvis: Elvis had complex relationships with women - not least of which was with Priscilla - but there was another woman who has arguably remained his only true ally in the years since his death.
ELVIS was the most famous man in the world during the 1960s but even then was no stranger to gossip, tabloids and controversy and since his death he has all too often been badly exposed by interviews from his various colleagues. However one truly close friend, Ann-Margret has remained stoic in her determination to preserve Elvis' memory.
While Ann-Margret had an impressive career starring in a vast array of movies from Hollywood’s golden era it is her appearance alongside Elvis and their strong connection on and off the movie-set that has proved one of the most memorable.
In a delightful show of loyalty Ann-Margaret still refuses to talk about the details of her love-affair with Elvis.
In one interview CBS journalist Charlie Rose did his best to grill the star and Ann-Margret got visibly upset over the various interviews she’s read about her ex.
Her voice audibly shaking, the actress insists Elvis was a great and wonderfully “gifted” performer, describing him as one of the great men in her life.
Interviewer Rose begins: “It seems that there was about the two of you, kindred souls, something deep inside that you both knew that you both had, and it’s almost now as if you were trying to protect that.”
Ann-Margret replied, “Oh yes, it was extremely special, our relationship
was very strong, and very serious and very real.
We went together for one year, and he trusted me, and I do not want to betray his trust even in death. I knew him very very well.”
There’s been so much written that has been negative about Elvis, I want to celebrate his life, the man that I knew.
He was so gifted, and it makes me extremely angry that all of a sudden all these people who made fun of him right near his death, all of a sudden posthumously right after he passed on, were writing reams and reams of stories about him, how gifted he was, why didn’t they do that when he was alive?"
In response to speculation if Elvis' friends had stepped up they could have saved his life, Ann-Margret tries to steer away. “I just cherish his memory, and so did my father and my mom and my friends. And I remember the good times that we had, and his generosity."
Reflecting on all the years she received flowers shaped like a guitar in the post before her shows, Ann goes on to say she finds it so hard to talk about because she’s “real private”, and Presley “was too”. "Elvis was just so sensitive and considerate and he knew about honour, and respecting your elders, and manners and
being civilised. He loved his family, loved his parents, he loved his little daughter so much. There never will be anyone else like him. He’s an American original." (News, Source;ElvisInfoNet)
Did Col Parker force Elvis' marriage to Priscilla?: Priscilla Presley has recently shared Col Parker’s ultimatum telegram to the King, which she claims was previously unknown to fans.
Much has been written about Elvis but his ex-wife Priscilla has said there are some facts she keeps for herself from their private life.
Nevertheless, during the King’s 85th birthday celebrations at Graceland last week, the 74-year-old shared a story she says was previously not public.
Speaking at a Q&A, Priscilla spoke of an ultimatum telegraph from Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker.
Priscilla, who had been dating Elvis aged just 14 during his military service in Europe, said: “I have a telegram that he gave me, I’ve never shared this before really.
A telegram, when he left Germany, told what he was up against with Colonel Parker if he was dating anyone.
It warned Elvis that if he has a girlfriend that fans will not be there for him, basically – I’m paraphrasing this.
And he showed it to me and Elvis said, ‘This is what I’m up against.’”
Priscilla continued: “He couldn’t really have a girlfriend because for fans…he’d be taken. “One day if I ever get to write a book I’m going to put that telegram in there."
I didn’t quite know what that meant. I guess it meant we would be breaking up.
I thought ‘Are we supposed to be breaking up? Are we together, are we not together?’”
During the interview, Priscilla also “set the record straight” on claims her father forced Elvis to marry her.
The 74-year-old affirmed: “I’m going to set the record straight. It was never that my father wanted me to go to Graceland ever. I had begged my mother to talk to my dad.
It was Elvis’ suggestion that I come and see him in the summer of ’62.
It was his suggestion that I get my dad…talk to my mother…about me coming.”
She continued: “I never ever said, ‘Can I come, can you let me come?’, I was never that girl, I was very reserved.
He’s the one who told me he wanted to see me.
And my dad had to talk to him. And make sure I was going to stay with Vernon.
It was not that easy, but the stories out there that I wanted to come to Graceland…it was never that way round.”
Priscilla explained: “It was Elvis making the phone calls… I didn’t know when he was going to call. It could be three months, it could be a couple of months, it could be maybe four months.
Again, he was also busy too. And back in the day, the telephone calls went through an operator, so it would take a few hours before we got the call.
My father wanted to know his intentions. I mean, he didn’t want me hurt.
And Elvis said he cared very much about me…and that he had plans for me. There’s all these stories out there that my dad forced him to marry me.
I mean it makes me sick when I read that, because that’s not true.” (News, Source;UKTabloids/ElvisInfoNet) - Click HERE to EIN's special on "Col Parker - The Dark Side"
T.G. Sheppard and Larry Gatlin talking Elvis: Recently country legends T.G. Sheppard and Larry Gatlin on Fox News discussed meeting Elvis.. T.G. Sheppard said, "I knew what I wanted to do at a very young age. I was 13 years old and I knew I wanted to be in music in my life and my father was very strict and wasn't going to allow it in his house. So age 15 I ran away from home and hitchhiked to Memphis to chase this dream."
Sheppard said he spent several months living on the streets until a chance encounter at a skating rink changed his life.
"I was skating and they were closing the rink down, I'm standing outside and a couple of Cadillacs pull up and a guy gets out from behind the wheel of the lead car, walks over to me and says, 'Where are you going?'"
I said, 'Well, I'm leaving, they're closing in the rink down.' He said, 'Oh, no, they're opening it up for me.'
The guy I was talking to was Elvis!
The greatest gift Elvis gave me was the confidence to work hard and try to succeed in the tour-bus that he gave me. I didn't want to let him down if he believed in me enough to help out. So I worked harder because of that gift."
Larry Gatlin (who composed the songs 'Help Me' and 'Bitter They Are') also crossed paths with Elvis in the early seventies. Gatlin (Above, far right with Elvis) was in law school when he received a call to audition as baritone with the gospel the Imperials.
.. "It was 1971 and I saw Elvis' Las Vegas shows dinner and cocktail shows and after the midnight show we all gathered in Elvis' suite for "breakfast" and a gospel sing.
At around 4ish that morning I found myself sitting alone, eating a biscuit and some country ham, when Elvis asked me to join him for a visit.
Elvis was very nice. We talked about our gospel music heroes: James and R. W. Blackwood, Jake Hess and Hovie Lister. I never did get to sing with him except for in the dressing room after almost every show.
The Imperials really only needed me for the Jimmy Dean Show, which opened at The Landmark the night after Elvis closed at The Hilton.
After seeing the show Elvis said, "Kid, you sing pretty durn good. Good luck."
I got my one and only picture with Elvis that night. In fact, that's the last time I ever saw him face to face.
A few nights later Jimmy told me that I was NOT going to be an Imperial. It was one of the worst and one of the best moments of my life since Dottie West was Jimmy's special guest and I began writing songs for her and because of that a few years later I won a Grammy!" (News, Source;FoxNews/ElvisInfoNet)
Arlo Guthrie 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You': A marvelous story for CV19 lockdown.
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie (son of legend Woody Guthrie) tells a truly wonderful life-affirming story of singing Elvis' 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' at a European folk festival, to 30,000 folk music lovers!
He jokes about choosing a song made popular by 'The King of Folk Singers' Elvis Presley.
Arlo Guthrie teases fellow musician Pete Seeger about him being a core "Folkie" and exactly how Elvis' music fits into the whole equation. After all everyone knows Elvis' music and the world is a better place if you are an ELVIS fan.
Live at Wolftrap, August 8, 1993 Go here to YouTube for a life-affirming 9 minutes. EIN HIGHLY recommended with big THANKS to our friend James Bracken
(News, Source;ElvisInfoNet)
Mama Cass, Elvis and Gospel Music: Elvis' post-performance relaxation was often middle-of-the-night gatherings in his hotel suite singing Gospel songs with his backing singers such as The Imperials or The Stamps. Many fans will not be aware that one night, February 23, 1973, Mama Cass Elliott (The Mamas and the Papas) also joined Elvis and others in his suite in Las Vegas.
The account of their meeting by Elvis’ step-brother, Billy Stanley, describes it well:
... At one point during that night, Mama Cass asked Elvis....in a rather derisive way! ‘Why do you do this? Why do you sing these same gospel songs over and over like this?’
Instead of being offended, Elvis asked her if she had ever tried it... ever tried singing a song with a gospel quartet backing her up? She laughed and said that she had not. He challenged her to try it just once.
After some hesitation and cajoling, she finally decided she knew the words to Amazing Grace and would sing it.
She did and The Imperials fell in and provided back up harmonies. They sang it all the way through and when she finished, she turned to Elvis and told him
that having those voices surround hers as she sang was the most indescribable feeling she had ever experienced!
She said... 'Now I get it. Now I understand why this means so much to you'. (Photo: Terry Blackwood, Sherman Andrus, Jim Murray, Mama Cass Elliot, Joe Moscheo on piano, Armond Morales, (Vegas comedian) Marty Allen, Elvis, Linda Thompson)
The Imperial's Joe Moscheo adds, "Mama Cass suggested 'Amazing Grace'. A couple of seconds later, I slid on to the piano bench and we began singing backup as Mama Cass sang a moving rendition of one of the best loved hymns of all time.
It gave her the feeling that a soloist gets when they are singing with a well-rehearsed group providing harmonic support. The background sort of wraps around you, enabling
you to really lose yourself in the music. I think Mama Cass wanted to feel a little bit of what Elvis knew so well and experienced on stage each night. Afterwards Mama Cass was visibly affected. She started hugging everyone, and the meaning of the song took on a life of its own even among those who had just been listening. I remember Elvis beaming like a proud daddy.... (News, Source:NP/ElvisInfoNet )
Jimmy Tarbuck (UK Comedian) Talking Elvis: Jimmy Tarbuck, now 80, was a British comedian, host of numerous TV game shows - and friend to Tom Jones. He recently talked about his time meeting Elvis while on tour with Tom Jones.
.. I love Tom Jones, the guy is a good laugh. He used to be a good drinker, but he’s stopped that now. We’ve had many exploits together and, every time we hit the town, I feel proud to introduce him as my friend.
If we’re meeting other people, I never tell them who’s coming, I just say I’ve got a mate of mine with me.
Tom can sing with anyone, from Pavarotti to Rod Stewart. But I saw the greatest duet of the lot with Elvis. I was at the front of the audience in the Flamingo, (EIN he means The International) still pinching myself, unable to believe that half an hour before, I had been standing in a backstage dressing room with the two greatest singers on the planet.
When Tom had ushered me into Elvis’s presence, that night in 1969, I have to confess I was overwhelmed.
I stared at him, stunned. One of Elvis’s assistants said to me, ‘Sir, will you give this drink to Elvis?’
I said, ‘Yeah,’ took the drink and stood there gaping, like a stagestruck schoolgirl. Couldn’t move a muscle.
Tom nudged me and said, ‘Give ’im the drink for God’s sake, boyo.’ Next night, Elvis came to Tom’s room. I was in heaven. They had become great friends in Hawaii. There I was, just a stand-up comic from Liverpool. I couldn’t believe it.
After a while, I found my tongue, because I’m never speechless for long, and I asked Elvis why he’d never played in England.
Elvis was very charming and said, ‘Well, I’ve never had the opportunity.’
I told him he could fill Wembley stadium: this was in the days before bands played there regularly, and he hadn’t heard of it.
When I said it was a ‘soccer stadium’, he asked how many it could hold. I guessed 100,000 and he said, ‘Come on. I couldn’t get an audience like that.’
He genuinely didn’t know how much the British loved him. I told him there were a lot of English people who had flown to Las Vegas just to see him, and he said he would have a word with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, about maybe visiting London. - It never happened, sadly.
But what you have to understand is that in Las Vegas, Tom Jones was equally as big. And together, they were the biggest thing even that town has seen.
That night, Elvis walked on stage in the middle of Tom’s act and the place erupted. It wasn’t planned. The two of them roared with laughter and did a number together, and then Elvis left to do his show over the road.
Jonesy told me, ‘Right, he’s not getting away with that.’
The next night he walked on to Elvis’s stage. The audience could not believe their luck.
Elvis always said it was Tom who got him touring again after making all the movies. He saw the excitement that Tom generated on stage and he wanted to get the same feeling. (News, Source;UKTabloids/ElvisInfoNet)
Robert Redford Talking Elvis: Seeing Elvis in 1956 truly affected the young Robert Redford. In Robert Redford The Biography, author Michael Feeney Callan provides a fascinating account of the acting legend seeing Elvis in Las Vegas in 1956:
During spring break in April 1955, Redford and five friends decided they’d visit their friend Wanda in Las Vegas. When they arrived, they learned that Elvis was in town.
“I’d already discovered black music with Big Jay McNeely at the Blue Sax in North Hollywood and made the blues-jazz connections, so I wanted to experience this Elvis thing,” says Redford. The Elvis show was a support act to Freddy Martin at the Frontier, a fancy supper club that Redford’s group couldn’t afford. “So I persuaded the guys to pool cash and we came up with $10, then charmed a waitress to let us dine on rolls while we watched the show.” From the moment Presley started with “Hound Dog”,
Redford was a convert. - “It was electrifying, a validation, to see these stuffed-shirt socialites who’d come to see Freddy Martin clamp up in reverence. I thought, Hey, a kid with nothing, from nowheresville, can do this!” (News, Source: ElvisInfoNet)
Brian Wilson and Elvis - the Meeting: Elvis was in the spotlight most of his life. And over his lifetime there were always plenty of musicians meetings with Elvis that were just plain weird or funny. (Led Zeppelin, Petula Clark etc)
One of the more interesting was with another famous musician, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. On March 12, 1975 both Brian Wilson and Elvis Presley happened to be recording at the same Hollywood recording studio, RCA Studios. They were in rooms next to each other and didn’t know it until a mutual contact ran into Brian Wilson, who then proceeded to ask to be introduced to Elvis.
As Jerry Schilling describes, “This big, overweight, bearded guy came into the studio and went right up to Elvis and went, ‘Hi Elvis, I’m Brian’.
And Elvis was very upset with us thinking, ‘How did this guy get in here and who is he?’
So Brian said, ‘I’m recording next door. Would you come over and listen?’
And Elvis looked at us; it’s almost in spite of us since this guy had gotten through. He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over’.
There are a couple of versions of this story. Some are more amusing than others. Account #1 - In the first version, Wilson goes into Elvis’ studio and says, “Elvis, could you come across the way and listen to what we’re doing.” Elvis isn’t all that excited, but agrees with a half-enthusiastic, “Sure.” Then, Wilson proceeds to karate chop Elvis’ arm. His reasoning was that Elvis knew karate so it would be a funny practical joke. But, his joke didn’t seem to land very well. Elvis Presley did, in fact, know karate. Because he did, when he was karate chopped he did what anyone in his position would do: he karate chopped Brian Wilson back, and hard. Immediately after he goes, ‘I’m leaving! I’m leaving!” And that was it.
So, weird. The next one is my personal favorite, however. Although I’m slightly less inclined to believe that it happened. But, you, Rare reader, deserve to hear it. Ckick here to see Brian Wilson talking about it Account #2 - The alternate account goes like this: It’s the same setting in 1975 and both musicians were at the same studio. In this story, Elvis shook Brian’s hand and called him a nickname, saying, “How you doing, Duke?” In this account, Wilson thought it would be fun to take it a bit further. He not only karate chops at The King of Rock ‘n Roll, but he also throws a kick in there too!! Elvis, feeling spry that day, blocked them both and told “Duke” not to do that. Moments later, after discussing music and Good Vibrations, there was a lull in the conversation so Wilson somehow decides to give the King another karate chop. With this, Elvis had reached his limit. He told “Dude” that he was worried about him and then left immediately.
Whichever story is true, they’re both funny and it’s great to imagine a colleague one of the biggest names in music so star struck that he does something wild and weird out of awkwardness.
Barbara Stanwyck talking working with Elvis: Roustabout was one of Elvis’ better 1960’s movies, in a big part due to his co-star being Miss Barbara Stanwyck, one of Hollywood’s biggest and most celebrated actresses. In Barbara Stanwyck A Biography, author Al DiOrio, recorded:
Barbara didn’t make another film for two years and then suddenly in a surprising pice of casting turned up with Elvis Presley in Roustabout. Barbara was surprised when Hal Wallis called her with a part in Presley’s film but later explained that, “The idea of working with Mr. Presley intrigued me because that would bring me to a younger audience than I’m accustomed to. And I thought this would be rather fun.”
Barbara did have reservations about what sort of professional attitude she would find in the singing sensation but was pleasantly surprised and, as usual, didn’t hesitate to say so. “So many people expect the swelled head and all that sort of thing. As a matter of fact, very honestly, so did I. It is not the case. Elvis was a wonderful person to work with. His manners were impeccable, he is on time, he knows his lines, he asks for nothing outside of what any other actor or actress wants.”
Even the New York Times was pleased with the film and said in its review:
"It has three assets. One is Mr. Presley, perfectly cast and perfectly at ease, as a knockabout, leathery young derelict who links up with a small-time transient midway. It also has, as the carnival owner, the professional seasoning of Miss Barbara Stanwyck. Welcome back, Miss Stanwyck, and where on earth have you been? And while the carnival canvas yields little in the way of dramatic substance, it does cue in 11 songs.”
(Right:Barbara Stanwyck, Elvis and director John Rich)
(News, Source;NP/ElvisInfoNet)
Tony Curtis and Elvis: Recently Priscilla explained to the Hallmark channel about the connection between Elvis and actor Tony Curtis and how Elvis learned to keep looking youthful from Hollywood star Tony Curtis thanks to a little bit of makeup. "Elvis always thought that that the eyes are so expressive.
When he was very young he was an usher at one of the theatres in Memphis.
And he would study all the actors who all had a real impact and longevity.
Tony Curtis was one. Observing Tony Curtis taught Elvis how to put a little black eyeliner, just a little bit, above his eye.
And that was a trick back in the day for men as well. If you look at him you can see a little bit of shadow there and he thought it was just great.
Elvis loved the art of transitioning from what he saw as realistic to him to that extra dark look which gave it that punch.
So when I say he loved makeup, he loved eye makeup.
It was obvious how Elvis also loved the look of how Tony Curtis modelled his hair."
Elvis later met Tony Curtis when the latter was filming 1960's The Rat Race at Paramount Pictures and Elvis was filming 'G.I. Blues' at the time
One day Curtis walked by Elvis' trailer on the lot and the door was open.
Tony Curtis noted, "I looked up, and there was Elvis and he grabs me and pulls me in.
And he said, 'Mr Curtis, I want you to know what a fan I am. I used to watch your movies in Tennessee.'
"And I said, 'Please, don't call me Mr Curtis.'
And this handsome kid looks at me and
said, 'So what do you want me to call you?'
"And I said, 'Just call me Tony.'"
Curtis added, "And I said, 'So what do I call you?'
And he said, 'Mr Presley!' Bam, was he funny.
We had a great time together. We passed a few girls between us, that's what guys do." (News, Source;ElvisInfoNet)
Engelbert talking Elvis: Music icon, Engelbert Humperdinck was recently interviewed by Star News Online. Several questions and answers will be of interest to EIN readers.
How did you meet Elvis Presley?
He came to see my show at the Riviera (in Las Vegas) and he came in done up to the nines -- he was wearing his cape and everything. Of course I found out he was in (the room) and I was very nervous. I introduced him, he stood up on the table and opened his cape, and the audience went berserk for 10 minutes. I’m not joking. He stopped the show for 10 minutes! But afterward we became great friends. He taught me stagecraft, humility and not to take yourself too seriously.
It is true that Bruno Mars performed for you when he was the world’s youngest Elvis?
Yes it is. Many years ago my fan club had a party and the entertainment was a little 5-year-old boy -- Bruno (EIN note: dressed in an Elvis jumpsuit, young Bruno did a mean Elvis!). I said to him then, “Young man, you are going to be a big star.” Well, he’s not a big star, he’s a megastar.
Sam Thompson Talking Elvis: The Uk tabloid The Express is once again featuring Elvis.
Elvis' former bodyguard has lots of funny stories about his time working for Elvis in the 1970s, but it was the personal one-on-one times with the man behind the icon that he really cherishes
Speaking with Spa Guy last year, Thompson spoke of visiting Elvis’ birthplace and where he grew up in Tupelo along with Elvis.
Thompson said, “We drove right through Tupelo and Elvis said, ‘This is where I grew up’.
And we drove by his house and he said, ‘That was my house’.
Just me and him in the car and nobody even noticed us.”
It's little moments like that where you forget this man can stand in front of 20,000 people and mesmerise them.
This was a human being, a person.”
"Elvis would say, ‘Nobody really knows who I am.’
And I said: ‘Elvis, people love you man! They love you. They know you all over the world.’
He said: ‘No, no, no. They know that guy on the stage. They don’t know me.’”
And it’s really true, you have to become another person when you’re performing like that. And that’s what he was on the stage. But he was a different person when you could just sit and talk with him.
“That’s the guy that I miss and those are my most cherished moments.” Go here to EIN's Sam Thompson Interview to find out more.... including the night Jerry Lee Lewis turned up at Graceland with a gun. (News, Source;UKExp/ElvisInfoNet)
Priscilla Talking about Those Polaroids!: The UK tabloids are still enthralled by anything Elvis!
In a recent interview Priscilla kept it all vague saying that nothing was "harmful or perverted" Other detailed accounts reveal what really went on.
Elvis and Priscilla were supposedly together for years before they fully consummated their relationship. However, Priscilla revealed they shared "passionate" sessions in the bedroom from the beginning, in Germany in 1959 when she was still only 14.
She also confessed they took many polaroids of their sexual encounters but had not been able to track them all down: "There are still a few out there."
Priscilla flew to meet Elvis in the summer of 1962 for two weeks, when she was 17. They were supposed to be staying at his home in Los Angels and the teenager was supposed to be chaperoned. Instead they flew to Las Vegas to party while his staff sent a prewritten postcard to her parents from LA every day.
She visited again at Christmas and then returned permanently in March 1963. The conditions set by her parents insisted she live in a separate house with Elvis’ father Vernon and attend school until graduation in June 1963.
Priscilla did indeed go to school but spent every other moment day and night at Graceland with Elvis.
In her book Elvis And Me, Priscilla describes how they took dozens of polaroids acting out their fantasies as she “learned how to turn him on sexually". Lamar Fike, part of Elvis’ entourage from 1957 said; "‘Elvis' sexual appetite was very, very strong. The touching and the feeling and the patting and everything else meant more to Elvis than the actual act. I guess Elvis was the King of Foreplay." (News, Source;UKTabloids/ElvisInfoNet) - Go here to EIN's exclusive interviews with Lamar Fike
Elvis Presley: TRAGIC thing the King told ex Linda Thompson 'I'll only say this once': Elvis continues to be fodder for tabloid newspapers and magazines as this article from Express.co.uk shows... ELVIS PRESLEY had a close relationship with his former girlfriend Linda Thompson, the pair remaining close friends after the break-up until his death several years later. In a newly unearthed interview, the beauty queen and actress shared a heartbreaking insight into her famous beau’s private thoughts, including the tragic admission he once made.
Elvis Presley first met Linda Thompson, who was 15 years his junior, at a private movie screening in 1972, shortly after he separated from his wife Priscilla Presley. Soon, they began dating, embarking on a four-year relationship. Linda eventually left Elvis, struggling to cope with his downwards spiral and wanting to live a “normal life”, but the pair stayed close up until his death in 1977.
Opening up on their romance Linda noted, “The year we shared sort of equates to 10 or 12 years in a normal life. In a normal relationship, you go to work, you come back, you meet for a few hours, you have dinner, you go to sleep. The next day you’re both off doing your thing,” she explained. “With Elvis it was so intense. It was so 24/7.
There was such togetherness that it really did equate to about 10 years it felt like.”
Thompson went on to recall the heartbreaking thing Elvis told her during a deep conversation one day.
“I asked him one time, when we were sitting and having philosophical talk, ‘What do you think is your worst flaw?’” she said.
“And he thought for a minute and he said, ‘Well, I’m probably only gonna say this once, but I think I’m a little bit self-destructive.’
“That stuck with me in the later years because he recognised it but he had already started the downward spiral and I don’t think he could stop it,” Linda admitted.
“Once I realised that Elvis took sleeping medication and sometimes some other things that maybe interacted with that. I wouldn’t sleep. I wanted to know he was okay.
“I would sit and watch him until he fell asleep and then I would get up all through the night. I had a pattern of wakefulness to check on his breathing and make sure he was okay because sometimes he wasn’t.
“It was exhausting, I have to admit and emotionally exhausting
because this is a person that I loved more than my own life and watching him slowly self-destruct and not being able to do anything about it…” See EIN's review of Linda Thompson's Book: 'A Little Thing Called Life' here (News, Source: Express UK)
