Elvis Quotations | Page 2

Elvis had to take some risk in order to become a Raven. They needed his first-year cap number to be low, and the deal wasn't going to happen unless we agreed to that structure. That was not negotiable. He's certainly not worried about his playing ability and he's totally covered relative to injury. Baltimore is where he wanted to play.

Elvis brought out this mothering quality. I cut his meat up for him. I tasted it before he ever had it. I would fix his deviled eggs, cut off the top, put his butter in, prepare all his food as a mother would for a child.

Elvis and I were very good friends. We were such good friends that, on the day that he passed, I was the first one his father called, to let me know what had happened.

First off our father was our biggest influence. He showed us all the songs that we needed, that we learned from. He played us every Beatles tune, every Elvis Presley tune Richie Valens,Ronny Millsap, Willie Nelson Anything that you can name ...Everything old, nothing new. Everything was old, about the only thing new I can think of is like, you know, probably like Stevie Ray and Santana and stuff. You know, they're old but they came later.

Five years ago, I was in New York, and I saw Elvis Costello and I said, 'I look forward to seeing you in Vegas,

I've not met Elvis or Jim Morrison, but Jimi Hendrix, Johnny and I used to jam at a club in New York called The Scene where the house band was the Young Rascals, so I did get to meet Jimi.

It would be difficult to tell the story of the 20th century without discussing the many contributions made by this legendary, iconic artist. It didn't take Americans and the rest of the world long to discover Elvis Presley... and it is absolutely clear that they will never forget him.

The stuff I write I'm very proud of, but I'm smart enough to know I'll never get on the cover of 'Rolling Stone' next to Elvis Costello.

The spirit is always good (on Elvis Day). People can't help but smile when they see Elvis.

See, I was nine years old when I saw Elvis on 'Ed Sullivan', and I had to get a guitar the next day. I stood in front of my mirror with that guitar on. . . and I knew then that's what had been missing.

After Elvis died, there were so many licensing deals signed that led to a lot of very tacky stuff,

Anyway, it was at the Electric Cowboy and there were about 180 of us there and they gave us all a number. I had to sing a cappella and that always makes me really nervous. I thought my mouth was going to get dry or I was going to crack a note. I really thought, 'I'm fixin' to ruin this deal right here.' But I sang 30 seconds of Dwight Yoakam's cover of the Elvis Presley song 'Little Sister' and I made it through it. Then they pulled me off to the side and asked me to come back the next day. They only asked 18 of us to come back, and that was pretty good.

Any music can be learned from and adapted from other artists, and whites have been widely influenced by black music, from Pat Boone singing Fats Domino to Elvis Presley singing 'Hound Dog', a Big Momma Thornton song he heard on the radio.

As bad as that was, we had to move forward in a positive way. If you look at James Dean or Elvis Presley after his death, it's the same thing with Earnhardt. That's the type of persona Dale Earnhardt had in our sport and the publicity of his death took it to another level.

You're the stiffest man alive. You're like Elvis Pretzel. You've got to be limber, baby. You're so stiff.

This is the biggest Elvis Week we've ever had, and I think the most attention it has ever had.

A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis.

There was James Burton, one of the greatest guitar players around, who played for Elvis years and years. Than there was another guitar player named Glenn Campbell just beginning with us. Billy Preston... he was one of the piano players. Leon Russell was in the band. He was another one of the piano players. We had a lot of people like that just beginning, not even getting any notoriety... they were just in the band and doing recording sessions.

There's a large storm cell headed this way. Ought to hit us this evening! But we've got tickets for Elvis Costello too, just in case.

This is the only surviving television or appliance that Elvis shot out that was kept.

It was Elvis, and they were going to have a party or something... So he came over to the house and... whoever was at the house knew that Elvis was coming over, so they were hiding behind the curtain. My father was out watering the garden. And he would always ask me to sing, and he'd want to sing harmony. And it was all very exciting.

It was such a great time for music. Being in college radio in the '80s, R.E.M. just happened, Elvis Costello was going strong. The biggest, most famous Seattle band was the Young Fresh Fellows. Our town was halfway between Seattle and Minneapolis on I-90, and so we got tons of shows just by virtue of being the gas-money stop on I-90.

It really starts with the day Elvis Presley went to Sun Studios to record a song for his mother. Sam Phillips didn't like his singing, but a secretary did and kept his phone number. Sam Phillips said one day he needed a white kid who could sing black, and she had Elvis' number in her drawer.

It only gets called if the officials see it. I saw it. I had to hold Elvis back. But the right people didn't see it, so Vick got to keep on playing.

The beauty of Elvis is that there are so many facets to him.

Not only was I the artist, publisher, songwriter and producer, I was also the singer, ... For every three cents Elvis made on a record, I made 45 cents.

I love Jimi Hendrix obviously, and Jimmy Page and Prince. And also Elvis Presley is a really great guitar player. I don't think he ever took lessons; he was piecing it together himself. But he has great rhythm. And rhythm, to me, you can use it to your advantage if you're not all over the fretboard.

I'm sure they had to pretty much hog tie Elvis to get him to cut that song, but that was the days when he did what the studio told him to do.

I met the Colonel when Elvis was recording some song I'd written for one of his movies. Elvis was just having fun with the gang and all the Memphis boys and Colonel Parker was sitting over here in like a theater seat.

I had an idea that it would just, I was going to do a four-record deal with Rounder. I was going to do two studio albums, a live album and an all-acoustic album, a solo album, which I have yet to do. And then I was just going to take whatever notoriety I had and I was going to come to like California and try to get small bit parts in movies or something. Small parts, not leading parts, not like Elvis Presley did. I'm talking about just small parts and then maybe just play music on the side. It just didn't work out that way.

I'm completely absorbed by Peter Guralnick's definitive, two-part biography of Elvis Presley: 'Last Train To Memphis' and 'Careless Love.' Meticulously researched, this is a compelling mix of history, myth-busting, and, of course, some timeless music.

I'm a very shy person. My daughter and I don't do a lot of interviews, but we felt there was a whole new generation of people who were discovering Elvis and his music. There are many books and stories that have been written about him, but there are still so many questions that needed to be answered, so we figured it was time to tell our story. We are sharing some very intimate and personal things, but I really wanted to show the definitive Elvis, warts and all.

I remember coming home from seeing Star Wars for the first time with my older brother, ... We talked about the movie all the way home. When we pulled up to our driveway my mom came out and told us that Elvis had died. What a day!

In the next century, when art will be packaged as virtual reality software, realistic paintings will sell the way Shaker furniture does now. Shaker furniture will sell the way Van Gogh paintings do. And teddy bears owned by Elvis will come to auction only occasionally.

I don't perceive this is as much of a problem, but if it became one then we'll deal with it. If Elvis and Jim wanted to use this situation as leverage to be pushed out onto the market, they could. But I have no reason to think that they want that. Is there the potential for them to do something else? Yes. But we've been given no indication that it's heading in a direction they're not comfortable with.

If I knew the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich was going to be somewhere, I'd go look at it. But I'd rather see the Elvis cup.

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn't have the other $20,000.

I can remember just learning to walk and trying to dance like Elvis and sing like Elvis, so I was very, very passionate about music at a very young age.

I don't think Elvis was able, really, to perform a lot of times when he did. I worried about that, same way I did with Hank Williams, Sr.

He believes in it because he wants to sell it. Everything Elvis is hot.

A lost of people recognize me and maybe will ask for an autograph, but it's nothing like if Elvis would've done something like that, 'cause he's so popular, or maybe The Beatles 'cause they stirred up a lot of action.

The first T-shirt with a rock likeness was put out by an Elvis Presley fan club around 1956, ... It's very rare and had a rendering of the famous Tampa '55 photo on it, colorized.

The first record I bought was a Carl Perkins record, because I saw him at The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho. I loved Elvis and I found out that he wrote 'Blue Suede Shoes'... so connecting that experience of going to see him play was pretty awesome. That's when I realised I wanted to play guitar.