Besides Kansas City's annual Elvis parade Friday- there will actually be an Elvis impersonator contest in Memphis at Graceland itself.
I met Elvis a little more than a year before he died.
Standing far backstage in 1976 at Kemper Arena with Firefighter Joe from blogpost "Pumper 9 Was Left To Burn"- Elvis appears from his dressing room- looking bloated and haggard.He makes his way down the inclined walkway with his entourage- pumps himself up- then sees Joe and I in our fire turnout gear- walks over to us- his eyes all lit up- and says "Where's the fire boys? Hi- I'm Elvis."
Like Joe and I didn't know who The King of Rock & Roll was. We shook hands.
Elvis invites Joe and I to sit in his personal box next to the stage. We grabbed the pumper's portable radio and go- and end up sitting next to Elvis' girl at the time- Linda Thompson.
Elvis opened with 'America The Beautiful'- but because I couldn't hear the walkie-talkie even against my ear- we left about midway through.
When our hands touched and eyes met- I got this incredible feeling from Elvis of tiredness- of a simple man who was sucked into a giant publicity vortex and couldn't escape.
To this day- I think had we invited Elvis out to the fire truck for a ride around Kemper with lights and sirens- he would have left 15000 cheering fans waiting to do just that.
He may not have wanted to come back. R.I.P. Elvis....
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