Elvis Presley – The King of Rock ‘N Roll

Elvis Presley is known throughout the world as the King of Rock ‘n Roll. Yet he transcended that genre, his musical genius and magical voice conquering gospel, rhythm and blues, country, rockabilly, and even pop. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also a huge movie star. But Elvis always shied away from that title bestowed on him by the world: the fans and the media.

One night in 1965, while I was combing his hair upstairs at Graceland, Elvis and I were talking about certain aspects of his singing career and all the various styles and categories of music for which he is known. Suddenly, Elvis leaned forward in his chair and said, “You know, Larry, people call me the king, like I invented rock n’ roll or something. No way, man, no way; That’s not really how it is. Rock n’ roll goes back to the days when it all started in the Deep South when old blacks worked the fields, slaving their whole lives. I mean them poor folks; they really knew what it was pain and suffering. was everything. They used to sing and pour out their hearts to God just to get through the day. I mean, it was their souls that sang, cried out. When the sun rose until it went down, they all sang, making up the words to as they went along, in the cotton fields and plantations.

“Listen, that’s where most of our real gospel music comes from. What the white people did was copy them. Their slave music got right into their own churches; then the white people picked it up and started singing the slave songs in his way in the white churches. Then his music began to change and went beyond the churches and became honky-tonk and Dixieland. It all happened around here in the old Mississippi Delta, then downtown Memphis on Beale Street, and New Orleans, then spread north to St. Louis and Chicago, where blues, ragtime, and jazz first took off, then to the present day, when everything became rhythm n ‘ blues, then rock ‘n roll. I tell you the truth, Larry, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, and all I really did was take his music and present it to a white audience.”

I remember one night in Las Vegas in December 1976. We had just left Elvis’s dressing room and stepped into the elevator on the way to his penthouse at the Hilton International. Two girls ran up and excitedly shouted: “Elvis, Elvis, you are the king!” As the doors closed, she smiled and pointed up. “There is only one King. I may be in the saddle, but I am not on the throne.”