INTERVIEW WITH VERNON 1971

PART OF AN INTERVIEW WITH VERNON

 

 

Vernon Presley, in 1971, on Elvis' Early Days

·  Q. What was it like for Elvis in those first days. He was kind of different from the rest of the guys, wasn't he?

·  Vernon: Well, in some ways, some of the clothes he wore was different. The way he wore his hair was quite different than what there was back then, you know. And he was criticized quite often about it. But it didn't really bother him. He didn't change it. He went on like he was anyway

·  Q: When he first decided to go into show business, did you have any inkling?

·  Vernon: No, he called me into his room one day. I believe it was shortly after he got out of high school, and he said, "I want to be an entertainer." And I said, "Well, you know I don't know much about that sort of thing, but you deal with quite a few people in the business, I see. Why don't you talk to some of them to see what you got to do to get into it, you know." At that time, he was more interested in the gospel singing, the quartet singing. So he tried for two or three different of the young groups, to get in with them. They was either full or didn't think he could sing good enough, I don't know what happened. Then after he made this record, quite a few of the quartet groups wanted him then. So he talked to me again, said what would you do. He said, "I can get into the quartet singing now, the gospel field," and of course, my reaction was, "I wouldn't do it. I'd just keep what I got. Because you tried that before, and they wouldn't take you in." I said, "I'd just stick to what I got." So he did.

·  Q: What did people think about him when he first turned up on television?

·  Vernon: Well, there was different reactions about it. But it seems like most of the people liked it, you know, the way it went over.

·  Q: How did you feel about it?

·  Vernon: Oh I was quite proud of it. The movements didn't really bother me, because I knew there was nothing really wrong with it. I could tell that. So it kind of worried me what other people thought at the time. 'Course it created a little fear, him traveling so much. What some people might try to do, you know. But it worked out real good, and everything.

·  Q: What was it like touring in the early days?

·  Vernon: It was wild. Wild in the early days. I have seen his clothes completely tore off. His shoes gone. Just scratched all over. Bleeding. Just wild fans, you know. Really don't mean to hurt him, just wanted a part of his clothes, or something that belonged to him... Quite a few times he got into pretty narrow escapes like that. He never did get really bad hurt, but he got scratched up quite a bit. But he seemed to enjoy it. It didn't bother him. You know. Didn't scare him, like it scared me when I was him, you know, on the tours and see it happen. It scared the life out of me. 'Cause I didn't know� 'Course it got better because they learned that they had to have tighter security because it could have gotten out of hand many times if they hadn't had the right security.