Asked.
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This seven thirty here fifty five KRC DE Talk station. A very happy Tuesday, to you Inside Scoop coming up after Top of the Hour News and one Hour from Now and Daniel Davis Deep Dive and the latest on Ukraine, Israel, and of course Russia in the meantime. Welcome to the fifty five KRC Morning Show. Elvis Fan extraordinary Michael Mercer. He's going to be doing an empower Youth seminar and it's actually more than just a seminar. It is a
whole evening of fun and games. Show up live so you can enjoy beer, wine, appetizers and enjoy a live concert. After Michael's speech on Elvis, Welcome to the program, Michael. It's a great have you on today.
Hey, thank you Brian very much.
You've been an Elvis fan your entire life. Apparently I understand you. You actually made a trip to Graceland with your dad back in the day a few years ago. That was I suppose.
Yeah, yeah, I've made two trips. One my dad and I took a road trip from Boston to Graceland in nineteen ninety and then in two thousand and nine, my own son and I took a trip from Cincinnati to Graceland.
Oh that's cool, sir. You know I've always seen pictures of Graceland, and you know, most recently, I guess the movie Zombie Land had Graceland in and after the zombie
apocalypse and was all dilapidated and everything. The one thing that I've been told and I've heard other people say, and I wanted to get your impression on that, is that, you know, given how big homes have gotten over the years, and you look at these twenty thirty forty fifty thousand square foot ridiculous houses out west and out east, it's a lot smaller than you would think it would be given how historic Graceland is. Is that your impression?
Yeah, I would say yes, yes. You know, you walk in and there's a dining room in the left and a living room in the right, and then you go through a hallway and then you have a kitchen and like a bedroom in the back, and then that that famous jungle room. But I'd agree with you, don't It doesn't seem like a huge, you know, Hollywood mansion really Now?
Was he kind of a humble guy in his in his real life, you know and outwithstanding the amazing stage person he put on. What kind of guy was he? You know, sort of day to day.
Well, if you that's the great thing about the Internet. It's given you know, all these Elvis obsessed fans with all of this information, you can you can hear interviews with all of his friends and the people that performed with him and acted with him, and you know what you hear is he was this enormously generous person. I think like everyone who everyone in the Memphis mafia that and people that work for me. You bought them a
home and cars, and he was always giving anonymously. There was a story that was revealed recently that sometime in the seventies there were like consecutive Christmases where on Christmas Eve he could go to the the Memphis prison, the jail and talk to every inmate and see what he could do for them to help them, you know, whether it was money for their family or whatever. But he was this really you know, down to earth. Everyone says
he was really down to earth, kind and generous. But at the same time, what's and I covered the in the talk. So many people say that he had this this aura that you could feel electricity, Like you could be in a room and he'd enter the building and you didn't know he was there. You could physically feel that he was there, and you knew he was there. He gave off like an energy and electricity that many people talked about. So he was he was very humble, but I think there was something going on there.
Yeah, no, I understand that. And I guess one of the things I learned and I get your reaction on the movie that was made about him that Tom Hanks was in, But when I read Bill O'Reilly's Killing the Legends, I came away with this absolute and I wouldn't say hatred, that's a tough word, but disdain for Colonel Tom Parker. He worked Elvis Presley to death. I mean you can almost say that literally.
Right, And that's you know, that's something that I think Elvis, from what I've heard from you know, and everythings his bodyguard said and the Mephosmalfia that in the seventies he became aware of that Colonel Parker had a serious gambling problem, and that, you know, Elvis was I think he was doing like performing one hundred and eighty nights a year in the seventies, and sometimes he'd be two shows, like in Vegas, he took two shows a night for thirty
days straight. So he felt like he was being worked to death, and it was partly to pay off Colonel Parker's gambling deaths because he'd lose you know, a million bucks.
You know, in a moment, how is a guy like Elvis, with all the money he was made, how popular he was, all the access to the multitudes and the masses of people, was he able to be kept in such a confined space and domineered by so much by Tom Parker that he didn't get some sort of independent financial advice or get someone to sort of grab him by the neck and say, dude, do you realize you are being ripped off and work to death? For that man's issues.
That I really don't understand, because I know he knew he was being worked to death. But on another level, I think that Elvis implicitly trusted Colonel Parker because he really, you know, in the fifties made him so successful. He really attributed his mega success to a great extent to Colonel Parker's promotional abilities. You know, and I know I've seen in interviews with Elvis's father he said the same thing, like, you know, you can trust a guy like Colonel Parker's
I think there was a real naivete. I think they implicitly trusted Colonel Parker on we well financially in terms of like the deals, right, but I think they're very naive, you know, in terms of like business and finances, and really weren't fully aware of how much she, you know, COURL. Parker was taking from him, you know, financially.
Well, speaking of taking obviously muchly. A dramatically different racial environment existed back in the fifties when you know, he made his bones in music and became popular, and I think of a guy like Pat Boone who sing black music for a white audience. You know, that was for the purposely designed so it was acceptable. I know Elvis has been accused of that, of stealing the music of
that belonged to the black culture. Was he aware of those criticisms during his lifetime or did these come up later in life he.
Was, And well, I don't know for sure, but I get the sense that he was, because there were multiple times where you know, he didn't appropriate that music. He really transformed black rhythm and blues into his own thing, and that's why it was so popular. You know, it was something new, and of course you've probably heard when when they first started playing his records in the South,
white listeners thought thought he was black. So people thought he was black initially, but he was doing something different with the music. He was transforming it and making it his own. But there are multiple interviews in press conferences that he did where he would say, my music was really a combination of gospel or them and blues and
country combined. So he he always knew that he was borrowing and taking as the basis of his music black gospel and rhythm and blues, you know, and transforming it into his own thing. But he always acknowledged that it wasn't you know, this appropriation where he tried to sound like a black performer and claimed the music as being just his own. He always credited black performers.
Well, get that he started out with gospel. Was Was he a profoundly religious man himself?
He was? He was and his his girlfriend Lynda Thompson in the seventies, he used to talk about how he would wear across and a star of David and I forget the Islamic symbol because he said he didn't want to be kept out of heaven on the captality. But he had a He had a trunk of two hundred books that he would take with him on his tours in the seventies. He was very really an intellectual, became an intellectual, and a lot of them were I always had the biblenexser's bed, and a lot of them were
spiritual books. He would read about different faiths, you know, from all different cultures. He was extremely spiritual.
And one of the things I have to comment on before we part coming today Michael Mercier. We're just scratching the surface of his topic, which obviously Elvis Presley. The event Thursday, six point thirty pm. We got an early star time. If you're showing up a two twenty five Northern Boulevard, that's when the appetizers and the beer and wine start flowing. Michael's going to start speaking at seven, and then at eight o'clock you're going to hear from
the Sincerely Elvis Tribute band. He's going to be playing for an hour with all the Elvis music and of course the Elvis experience and the moves and the as is described here in my notes Electric Vibes. So it's going to be a fun full evening. But back over to the question I wanted to end on this morning, Michael with you his film career. Now, some obviously better than others, and I have seen quite a few Elvis movies.
I wouldn't exactly call any of them Academy Award winning material, but there are some of them that I have a feeling that Elvis had to be really really embarrassed to make. And of course not Viva Las Vegas, because Anne Margaret was smoke and hot in that movie. But clam Bake, I mean, come on, man, seriously, Michael, you're the biggest Elvis fan on the planet. You can't defend clam Bake.
No, No, Honestly, I think I found Elvis personally to be a mediocre actor. I think he had potential, yeah, but he wasn't like a Rod Steiger, right, He wasn't a native actor in my opinion. And yes, he was giving all given all those terrible films, and it frustrated him. You might have heard this story where Barbara streisand approached him about taking the lead and a Star is Born,
and he wanted to do it. He thought this could be my big break to get into dramatic films, and the Colonel Parker demanded too much money, and she declined. Oh so he gave up the Yeah, he gave up the film career and said, dad a, Hollywood doesn't want me anyone back to music, which which was great in the seventies.
Of course.
You know, well that's great, Michael. It's been a real pleasure having you on today, and it's gonna be a really interesting conversation. You'll do Q and A at this tonight, will you? Yeah, we're on Thursday, Yes, Thursday, not tonight. I don't want to Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday. The information of my blog page fifty five cars, bring an appetizer. If you're showing up in person for the six thirty social, you're encouraged to bringing appetizer or dessert. Again, they'd be
beer and wine flowing. You get an hour's worth of conversation with Michael, and then you get an hour's worth of music with the band. Michael has been a real good have fun on Thursday. I know it's going to be a great event. A lot of people are going to check it out, So have fun and uh I will probably talk with you again down the road.
All right, Thanks so much, Brian.
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