Elvis
was booked to play “The Grand Ole Opry” once or twice during the early 50’s,
and, as a result, was forced to contend with a rather difficult stage manager
there.
After
“The King” finished playing one night, and he was alone with Jim Denny he
asked,
“Well,
whatdoyathink?”
To
which Mr. Denny responded,
“Elvis,
you need to go back to driving that truck.”
(Or
basically, “Don’t quit your day job”).
Of
course, the twenty-something year old Elvis was devastated, and George Klein,
current host of the Sirius Radio Elvis Channel, and Presley’s life-long friend,
said that the rock n’ roll legend was quiet all the way back to wherever they
happened to be going that night.
They
say what goes down must come back up, and it was definitely true in Elvis’ case.
For you see, the next night he performed at some nearby venue, and the local
teens went smack dab crazy over his music. As quickly as he fell down, he got
right back up. (Of course, the applause and adulation of a few hundred young
people didn’t hurt).
Though
years had passed, and Elvis gained stratospheric popularity, based on the
following incident, it was all too obvious that Elvis never forgot the
promoter’s stinging critique.
Pt.
2
Elvis
was engaged at some large concert in some large city, and after finishing up
one night, and he’d returned to his dressing room, he received a call from
Faron Young, a popular country singer.
“Hi
Elvis, this is Faron. I just saw your show. Would you mind if I stop by and
‘shoot the bull’ for a couple minutes?”
To
which Elvis gladly acquiesced, as he had always liked the man.
However,
when Elvis answered the knock on the dressing room door, not only was Faron
Young standing there, but another man whose face he could not forget, but whose
name he was unable to remember.
But
based on the context of this story, you might easily surmise that the familiar
stranger was none other than Jim Denny.
As
Faron Young and Elvis dialogued, the old stage manager and record promoter was
unusually quiet. However, as they were about to depart the premises, Young
voiced a request.
“Hey
Elvis, Jim D. here is looking for work at the moment. Maybe you could put in a
good word for him with Colonel Parker, (Elvis’ road manager).
To
which the savvy entertainer responded,
“Yeah,
sure Chief. Sure, I will.”
As
it fell together, however, no sooner had the two men departed the premises than
Elvis began “cursing a blue streak.”
Pt.
3
It
so happened that his friend, George Klein, was in the dressing room at the
time, and he immediately realized something was happening which he’d never seen
happen before. Granted, Elvis knew how to dish out some choice 4 letter words, …but
not like this.
“Elvis,
Elvis what’s going on?”
To
which the angry young man responded,
“Do
you know who that guy was? He’s the S.O.B. from The Grand Ole Opry who told me
that I should go back to driving a truck!”
And
while Elvis was a benevolent soul, and never forgot where he came from, and
lavished gifts and favors on his friends, and enjoyed doing for those who
couldn’t do for themselves…
He
exclaimed,
“It
will be a cold day in h_ _ _ before I do anything for that loser!”
I
suppose the moral of the foregoing story is,
Be
kind to those whom God sets in your pathway. You never know when you may be
speaking to the next Elvis.
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending. 2017
If you would like to copy, share or save, please include the credit line, above
No comments:
Post a Comment