BackinMemphis

Here's George Klein interviewing Jerry Schilling on GK's Memphis Sounds tv show in Memphis, TN from 2009. About a minute and twenty seconds in, Jerry tells the story of Elvis meeting Nixon. It's sweet and passionate not comical. Jerry of all people could make a great historically important, serious and passionate movie about Elvis instead of satire. This meeting was so important to Elvis and I wish THAT was portrayed in movies and the media. Instead of making Elvis THE joke, Elvis' humor could have been featured. They could have had the audience laughing WITH Elvis and NOT AT HIM! We all have heard about Elvis' great sense of humor. It could have been done. Younger generations could have walked out of the theater knowing that Elvis Presley was THE COOLEST! He was not just A Rock Star, he was THE KING of Rock N Roll not a wimpy buffoon. Elvis isn't seen as a real person anymore. With EPE so focused on their hotel, Elvis is just the Mickey Mouse mascot of...

Merle Haggard’s life may be made into a feature film. GMH Productions has optioned the script Done It All, about the life of the legendary country singer/songwriter/musician, written by Cinderella Man scribe Cliff Hollingsworth. The project, named after one of the country legend’s hit songs, was developed in conjunction with Carl Cooper, a friend who Haggard put in charge of helping to develop a movie about his life with the screenwriter. The idea for the project originally started with producer Donald Kushner, who had been talking to Haggard about a movie about his life. Kushner then approached Hollingsworth as a writer for hire, but Hollingsworth said he’d rather do it on spec. Cinderella Man was also sold as a spec and was made into a film that starred Russell Crowe as 1930s boxer James Braddock. That inspirational film ended up garnering three Academy Award nominations and Hollingsworth was nominated that year by BAFTA and the WGA for best original screenplay. The script...

Jerry Schilling says Elvis Presley died because he wasn't cast in 'A Star is Born' KRIS KRISTOFFERSON killed Elvis Presley. At least that's how The King's former confidante Jerry Schilling tells it. Schilling, a friend of Presley's who executive produced the new film "Elvis & Nixon," says that getting into some kind of treatment program might have brought Presley back from the abyss before his 1977 death. But missing out on the lead role of a mediocre 1976 movie was the beginning of the end for Presley. "I think that would have made a difference, but I think the major problem was creative disappointment," Schilling told us at the Tribeca Film Festival. "He wanted to do 'A Star is Born.' Barbra Streisand offered it to him. I think him not being able to work…." Shilling says that deal fell apart for a variety of reasons, one being Presley's controversial manager Colonel Parker. "I think it was the in...

These numbers are for Friday, opening day. Top ten? Nope! 18.  Thank you fellow Elvis fans!  Not much $$$$ made off making a joke of Elvis! 👍👍👏👏

Guitarist and singer Lonnie Mack, whose instrumental recordings influenced guitar players including Stevie Ray Vaughan, has died in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 74. Alligator Records said in a statement that Mack died Thursday of natural causes. He lived in Smithville, Tennessee, about 65 miles east of Nashville. Born Lonnie McIntosh in West Harrison, Indiana, Mack played sessions for record labels in Cincinnati with blues and R&B greats such as James Brown, Hank Ballard and Freddie King. His 1963 instrumental recording of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," became a radio hit, and he followed that with "Wham!" -- a tune that inspired the nickname "whammy bar" for the tremolo bar he had on his Gibson Flying V. His style was influenced by country music, like George Jones and Merle Travis, but also blues singers like Bobby Bland. Mack released several albums subsequently that weren't as popular, but his career was re-energized when he and Vaugh...

Here's what the press took away from Ugly Elvis, Elvis and Nixon and what the general public will read about Elvis. I am so hurt for Elvis by this. Most Critics call Jerry's character, DULL. Elvis was traveling with some guns and his collection of police badges , and he decided that what he really wanted was a badge from the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs back in Washington. "The narc badge represented some kind of ultimate power to him," Priscilla Presley would write in her memoir, Elvis and Me. "With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished." Arrayed in a purple velvet suit with a huge gold belt buckle and amber sunglasses, Elvis came bearing a gift—a Colt .45 pistol mounted in a display case that Elvis had plucked off the wall of his Los Angeles mansion. In 1988, years after Nixon resigned and Elvis died of a drug overdose , a Chicago newspa...

  Michael Shannon , or as one of my friends calls him, UGLY ELVIS gave an interview to USA TODAY. Here is part of it. Preparing for the movie, which retraces Presley's 1970 meeting with President Nixon (played by Kevin Spacey), Shannon knew exactly what he didn't want to do: An Elvis impersonation. Presley's old colleague and confidante Jerry Schilling, who served as executive producer (and is represented as a character), warned the actor against such an approach.  "Jerry said, 'People don't know my friend as well as they think they do,' " says Shannon. Though he's tall and striking, with prominent blue eyes, Shannon's strong features hardly recall Presley's prettiness. But the actor's nuanced performance suggests the softer feelings and self-consciousness underlying the rock icon's blazing charisma. "The shake, rattle and roll — that all came out of being nervous," Shannon notes. "Early on, (Presley) wou...