Here are some favorite memories from Darwin's book "Elvis: He Touched Me"

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My relationship with Elvis began in February 1956. I was a disc jockey at KRLD in Dallas and Elvis was making the rounds. Texas was one of the his stomping grounds in those days. He had a lot of success in Texas and I met him at the radio station where he was promoting some records. I've been spinning but his records and liked his voice and thought he had great promise. I was hoping someday that I'd meet him and I was just in the right place at the right time.  We met and he seemed to take a liking to me or saw that I was sincere because he asked me to go on a tour with him. I did. The next night, Elvis was playing in Fort Worth, which is just 30 miles from Dallas. I went over to Fort Worth with him and had a great time. The guys were hoping someday that I'd meet him and I was just in the right place at the right time.

 

He was away from home, his mother and dad, and it seemed like I gave him the security, the feeling he had a parent with him about his age. I was a little older and he seem to just want somebody older with him. He was away from home, his mother and dad, and it seemed like I gave him the security, the feeling he had a parent with him.

 

A most memorable moment of that first tour was being backstage before he went on. He was trembling. And let me tell you the stage was almost shaking from his trembling! When it was time for him to go and they introduced him, I said "Go on out there man, you'll be a big hit!" and when he got out there and started singing that first song you could see his nervousness disappear. He looked at me and gave me the high five sign like I got it going now. It was very exciting!  

 

A memorable event in the Elvis days for me, was an October 1956 trip, when Elvis took us for a weekend in Dallas. We all loaded up in his Cadillac limousine and headed for the big D. We had called ahead and reserved almost half the motel for all of us, his entourage, his fan club presidents from Memphis, and some of his cousins who are visiting him. Elvis was driving the lead car in a caravan of about five cars and it was driving very fast after leaving the Hillsborough city limits. A state highway patrolman's flashing red light was observed by Elvis in his rearview mirror, so he quickly pulled over to the shoulder of the highway and waited for the appearance of the patrolman. The patrolman was not really looking, and barked "Your drivers license, son!" Elvis handed that patrolman his Tennessee license and you should've seen the officers expression! If I had a camera at that time I could've had an action shot that would've captured a blue ribbon at a photographers contest! Needless to say, the officer let Elvis go, but admonished him and said "Go ahead, Elvis, but slow down, Son."  

 

Elvis loved people putting on a record and playing the piano along with the record and changing the style of the singer to the way he would do it. He did this hour upon hours. He dearly loved "Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby" by the Tune Weavers. I bought seven of those records, and believe it or not, we wore out ALL of them. He played them and played them and sang with it over and over. Then he would say if I was doing it, I do it this way. And he'd say "Start it over Eddie." We'd start it over, and he'd do it the way he wanted to do it. If it wasn't just right (to show what a perfectionist he was) he'd say "Play it again, Eddie."  Elvis didn't think he could do something as operatic or classical as "It's Now or Never" and I think that record gave him a bit of confidence in himself, confidence that he could do anything he really wanted to.  

 

Elvis and I talked a lot about the effect the army might have on his career. He said it's all over Eddie. There's no way I can come back and they're gonna remember me. He said "It's over." And he really believed that. I kept assuring him, "No way. You've got four or five records in the can." The Colonel will release them periodically and the disc jockeys will be playing them. How can they forget you? It's not over! I did my best to keep his chin up, but I think he really believed it was over. He said, "In two years they're not even gonna even know me."

 

Elvis hated pulling KP (kitchen police) on the base. He would pay somebody to pull KP for him. He hated it. He did it one time and said, "Never again!" But there was always a willing taker of whatever he would give them sometimes it was $10 sometimes it was $20. If they played hard to get, he said "OK I'll give you $20. Army meant pay nothing to Elvis. He didn't accept it. He never accepted his army checks. He gave them to charity or bought whatever was needed on the base. He bought every television set that was on the base at that time. He bought them and put them in the day rooms all over the base.  In 1960, when I knew Elvis was coming home from Germany from the army, I went to Memphis and was there when he arrived. I stayed about two weeks, and it was a movie show, the roller rink, the Liberty Land Amusement Park rides… There was something going on every night!  

 

Contrary to popular opinion, Elvis did what he wanted to do and he did it his way. He was not a hermit: he got out when he wanted to. During the nights in Waco, we'd go to drive-in movies or we'd go to the downtown theater. One day, Elvis had a broken his sun shades and he wanted to go to an optometrist to get them fixed. He didn't want to buy a new pair, he wanted to fix the ones he had. So I took him to town and we walked right down to Main Street in Waco. Nobody bothered him. The optometrist fixed his glasses and said, "Elvis these are no good. Let me give you a new pair, compliments of the store."  Elvis said, "I don't want a new pair, I want these."

 

 Elvis had a Schick electric razor and it wasn't working. So we went to the repair shop downtown to have a look at it. I knew the people at the shop and after introducing elbows they looked at him. Some believed it was him and some didn't… On the whole however, they believed. So the shop owner opened up the razor and said "There's nothing wrong with this razor, Elvis. All you need is to run your little brush through there and clean those blades." Elvis didn't know you could open the sides of the razor and clean the blades!  Memphis respected Elvis's privacy we go to one store after another looking for various things. We'd stop in the parking lot and walk down the sidewalk and one time we went to a barbershop at the Peabody hotel. A whole bunch of us sitting, getting haircuts, Mr. Elvis  among us, and nobody bothered him.

 

Graceland is like a graveyard when he's not there. It's just terrible. You can't imagine how everything speeds up when Elvis is there. When he's there that place is full of activity. I've stayed there 30 to 40 days at a time. On the other hand, I'd go planning to stay a week and I'd want to leave in two days. It's just such a pace that you couldn't keep up. He wouldn't let you sleep. You're sitting in the living room and when he and his fans are there he's inviting people up from the gate and everyone's having a ball. If one of the people that are staying with Elvis dozes off, he'll shake him and wake him up. If you doze off, brother, you've had it! And you're dying for sleep. Sometimes when he goes to bed and you're settled down in your bed real comfortably and just about to nod off, he decides he can't sleep so he comes down and wakes everybody up, and off you go to get a hamburger.   

 

Many nights we'd be up at Graceland playing the piano and sing singing behind him. One night Johnny Cash, Floyd Cramer and boots Randolph were there. I mean that was a ball. You just can't imagine a jam session with those people. It was fantastic! If I had a small tape recorder in those days, that recording would be a classic today. All of us were harmonizing on the songs just cutting up in horsing around. That's priceless. If I just could've captured that singing behind him. 

 

Many times Elvis will call down to the gate and ask his uncle Travis, who is the gate keeper "Anybody down there?" One time he replied "Yes, there's about 15 or 20 people." Elvis said "Send them on up!" And then Travis told the fans, "You can go up!" They couldn't believe it, you know, that Elvis said to come up. Well, he treated them royally: refreshments, entertainment, and all they wanted to do was sit there and gawk at him! But Elvis entertained them, played the piano, and we joined in with him.  

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Then later on, it could be that night or any other night, he decided he wanted to go to the movies. So we'd call and see what was showing and if it was something he wanted to see, we'd form a caravan and followed Elvis to the theater. One night we saw "One Eye Jacks" with Marlon Brando. Sitting next to me, Elvis kept nudging me every few minutes and said "Boy, I wish I could get a picture like this." Elvis wanted to do some heavy stuff. He wanted to do a picture like Marlon Brando did. He would recite some of Brando's lines from "The Wild Ones." He could remember dialogue incredibly well... just hearing it a few times, he could repeat it almost verbatim. That long speech at the opening of the movie "Patton"... he could recite that whole speech. He loved it. They gave him such light roles: he was begging for something heavy to show that he could do it. But they never gave it to him... 

 

Sometimes we'd rent out the entire roller rink and we played a game called 'Chicken.' It's sort of like, well, they line up into lines and keep bumping up against each other until nobody's left. They didn't give Elvis any preferential treatment. They knocked him down too. But he loved it. He was tough, he was lanky.