Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Saving The King: A Fan's Quest to Rescue Elvis Presley [Episode 219]
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We're totally boomed in rock and roll.
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- 0:08Speaker 1: Roll up, we are totally booked. Welcome back to book
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- 0:33Speaker 1: what you see there, be sure to click the like
- 0:35Speaker 1: and subscribe buttons that goes a long way to support
- 0:38Speaker 1: the podcast. This episode's guess is author Janet Bostick Williams. She,
- 0:42Speaker 1: along with Selwyn Milburgh, have just released a new novel
- 0:45Speaker 1: titled Operation Gratitude Kill Colonel Tom Parker. Here's the description
- 0:51Speaker 1: of the book. How far would you go to protect
- 0:53Speaker 1: someone you love who cannot see the life or death
- 0:56Speaker 1: danger they are facing. Elvis Presley is beloved worldwide, but
- 1:00Speaker 1: none are as devoted as Liz Phillips. He communicates with
- 1:04Speaker 1: her through his music and movies, and she knows in
- 1:06Speaker 1: her soul that he's pleading with her to help right
- 1:08Speaker 1: the wrongs those surrounding him commit. She must protect and
- 1:12Speaker 1: save him from harm. The swinging sixties have turned into
- 1:16Speaker 1: the sinister seventies for Liz, as an over zealous fanatic
- 1:19Speaker 1: realizes the danger her idle Elvis Presley faces from those
- 1:23Speaker 1: around him. Liz and her new boyfriend Trey feel duty
- 1:26Speaker 1: bound to come to his aid and take matters into
- 1:28Speaker 1: their own hands to right the wrongs he suffered. There's
- 1:32Speaker 1: only one plausible solution for the two of them to
- 1:34Speaker 1: rescue him from the hypnotic trap in which she feels
- 1:38Speaker 1: he is ensnared. She and Trey take on the role
- 1:41Speaker 1: of the White Knight to free the King from evil
- 1:44Speaker 1: for the good of all worldwide. However, as she quickly discovers,
- 1:48Speaker 1: the suffering involves more than Presley. As confusion rains, all
- 1:52Speaker 1: that glitters is not gold, and things are not always
- 1:54Speaker 1: as they seem. There are always consequences. So let's talk
- 1:59Speaker 1: about the book Oation Gratitude Kill. Colonel Tom Parker with
- 2:02Speaker 1: author Janet Bostick Williams. Welcome to the podcast, Janet, Thank
- 2:06Speaker 1: you quite a story. What inspired you to write the book?
- 2:10Speaker 2: Well, I love to write, and I love Elvis, and
- 2:14Speaker 2: you know, writing is easy. Writing about Elvis is easy.
- 2:19Speaker 2: It just was a matter of getting it all together.
- 2:22Speaker 2: I have a co author, and he came up with
- 2:25Speaker 2: some of the information and the plans, and as you
- 2:29Speaker 2: know if you read the book, it's sort of based
- 2:31Speaker 2: on change of habit, the song change of Habit, you know,
- 2:38Speaker 2: sitting your old ways and moving forward. And then the
- 2:42Speaker 2: other thing that promoted it for us was there's so
- 2:47Speaker 2: many out there over the tops Nellis Elvis fans that
- 2:52Speaker 2: this kind of tells the story of one back in
- 2:54Speaker 2: the seventies, And you know, it resonated with a lot
- 2:58Speaker 2: of people because they see some of the lack of
- 3:02Speaker 2: a better word, craziness.
- 3:04Speaker 1: Yeah, when it comes when it comes to Elvis. Yeah,
- 3:07Speaker 1: we should mention that Selwyn Millborough Selwyn Okay, yeah, so
- 3:12Speaker 1: he is a co author. Yeah, yeah, cool author. So yeah,
- 3:17Speaker 1: it wouldn't be possible to write a book like this
- 3:19Speaker 1: unless you are a serious, legitimate fan of Elvis. So
- 3:22Speaker 1: tell us about your your history as a fan, your
- 3:24Speaker 1: experiences seeing him perform live, which I'm very jealous of,
- 3:28Speaker 1: and your visits to Graceland, all this you talk about
- 3:31Speaker 1: in the introduction of the book.
- 3:33Speaker 2: Well, I became a fan as a little girl. I
- 3:37Speaker 2: was five years old, saw him at the movies with
- 3:41Speaker 2: my brother and didn't know who he was, but got
- 3:45Speaker 2: my attention. I mean, Elvis had a way of doing that,
- 3:48Speaker 2: whether you were five, twenty five, eighty five, you know,
- 3:51Speaker 2: he just he just did. And I remember coming out
- 3:56Speaker 2: of the movie theater and thinking, I like that guy.
- 3:58Speaker 2: What's his name? And my brother told me, and ever
- 4:03Speaker 2: since then, I just, you know, I liked him. And
- 4:06Speaker 2: then I started learning more about his music and had
- 4:10Speaker 2: a chance to see him in nineteen seventy at the
- 4:14Speaker 2: Astronome when he was did a concert there at the Rodeo.
- 4:20Speaker 1: What's that experience like seeing Elvis nineteen seventy he was
- 4:23Speaker 1: still on his game.
- 4:24Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well I was just little. I mean I
- 4:27Speaker 2: was like nine years old, ten years old. But I
- 4:29Speaker 2: remember being there and thinking, oh my gosh, I'm in
- 4:32Speaker 2: the same building as Elvis because I had just seen
- 4:35Speaker 2: him in the movies. And he around. I don't know
- 4:40Speaker 2: if you've seen the footage he rode around in a
- 4:42Speaker 2: red bronco around the perimeter. The acoustics were terrible, we
- 4:46Speaker 2: were so far away up in the rafters, but still
- 4:51Speaker 2: it was exciting. It was something I'll never forget, you know.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Yeah, my mom and dad saw Frank Sinatra here in Connecticut,
- 4:58Speaker 1: and they were kind of in the nosebleeds, but they
- 5:00Speaker 1: were there. You could say you were there. Yeah, tell
- 5:04Speaker 1: us about the two main characters, Liz and Trey. Trey
- 5:07Speaker 1: isn't so much a super fan, but his sisters are.
- 5:10Speaker 1: Liz no doubt a fan. And there was an interesting
- 5:13Speaker 1: way in which she organized her Elvis album collection too.
- 5:17Speaker 1: I thought that was funny.
- 5:19Speaker 2: She was, she was very meticulous about it. This was
- 5:23Speaker 2: back in seventy four, seventy five. Elvis was her entire
- 5:27Speaker 2: world and she lived to you know, look for information
- 5:31Speaker 2: on him and see where he was going and what
- 5:33Speaker 2: he was doing, and organized her all of her albums
- 5:38Speaker 2: by order when she when she got them, and played
- 5:42Speaker 2: them religiously, and felt like that Elvis was speaking to
- 5:46Speaker 2: her through his dialogue and his movies, through his music,
- 5:50Speaker 2: through his songs, and she just that was her whole world.
- 5:55Speaker 2: And as she progressed, she saw that he was in
- 5:59Speaker 2: the Hull hospital that he had been ill, you know,
- 6:02Speaker 2: so forth, and being so enamored of him, she felt
- 6:07Speaker 2: like it was her duty to protect him, to save
- 6:10Speaker 2: him and hence the title Operation Gratitude because he was
- 6:15Speaker 2: going to be so grateful when she saved him from harm,
- 6:20Speaker 2: and then she decides that, you know, it's the colonel
- 6:23Speaker 2: that's causing all this harm.
- 6:26Speaker 1: And Trey and like I said, his sisters are fans.
- 6:29Speaker 1: He's not so much a fan, but.
- 6:33Speaker 2: But he he sees the opportunity there to pretend to be.
- 6:38Speaker 1: A fan because he knows all the girls like Elvis, right, yeah, yeah,
- 6:43Speaker 1: So that's how the two end up meeting, right right,
- 6:46Speaker 1: and yeah, so they talk about that they meet at
- 6:49Speaker 1: a like fan convention type of thing, a.
- 6:52Speaker 2: Fan club meeting. There's a local fan club is being
- 6:56Speaker 2: is being started, and she goes to the meeting, he
- 7:00Speaker 2: goes and that's that's where actually they meet before that
- 7:04Speaker 2: by pen pal and there used to be in the seventies.
- 7:09Speaker 2: I don't I don't think I was part of it,
- 7:11Speaker 2: but I know friends that were Elvis pen pals and
- 7:14Speaker 2: they would right back and forth. Fans back then. They
- 7:18Speaker 2: knew more about Elvis, where he was and what he
- 7:20Speaker 2: was doing, way before we had the internet through one another.
- 7:26Speaker 2: And so that's how she and Dre initially met. And
- 7:29Speaker 2: then they met up at this fan club meeting, not
- 7:32Speaker 2: knowing that who they were they met up.
- 7:37Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember those days kiss fan clubs. My older
- 7:42Speaker 1: brother was in a fan club for the band The Outfield,
- 7:45Speaker 1: which is which is an interesting one. They had the
- 7:47Speaker 1: song Your Love was a big song. But yeah, in
- 7:49Speaker 1: those days that was that was like maybe inside of
- 7:51Speaker 1: the album you could sign up for the fan club
- 7:54Speaker 1: and you would get things in the mail. This is
- 7:55Speaker 1: all pre internet. Yeah, yeah, so.
- 8:00Speaker 2: We called it then, but back then they called it
- 8:01Speaker 2: the Elvis Underground Railroad.
- 8:03Speaker 1: Okay, Elvis Underground Railroad. Yeah. And then there's the moment
- 8:07Speaker 1: when Liz realizes that she's got to do something. You
- 8:11Speaker 1: save Elvis in today's world, that would be searching the internet,
- 8:16Speaker 1: search for anything you could find. And there there you
- 8:18Speaker 1: see an article. For Liz. She collects every article that's
- 8:22Speaker 1: she could possibly collect, and it's and it's one particular
- 8:25Speaker 1: article that gets her pretty fired up and she can't
- 8:27Speaker 1: let go. Can you talk about what's in that article
- 8:29Speaker 1: regarding Colonel Parker that gets to her and the issue
- 8:34Speaker 1: she has with the colonel.
- 8:37Speaker 2: Well, she says that the colonel is, for lack of
- 8:45Speaker 2: a better word, is harming him instead of helping him.
- 8:48Speaker 2: She she sees that she's duty bound to follow through
- 8:57Speaker 2: and do everything she can. She knows that the colonel
- 9:00Speaker 2: is making huge amounts of money gambling. She knows finds
- 9:06Speaker 2: out that the colonel is holding him back and working
- 9:10Speaker 2: him too hard. And a lot of Elvis fans, if
- 9:15Speaker 2: you look around at different even today, they have to
- 9:18Speaker 2: find a scapegoat. Yeah, nothing is ever Elvis's fault. It's
- 9:22Speaker 2: the Memphis Mafia, it's the women in his life, it's
- 9:26Speaker 2: the colonel. And she sees the colonel as the biggest threat.
- 9:32Speaker 1: And it's interesting because, yes, it's a novel, it's fiction,
- 9:35Speaker 1: but what's written about the colonel is pretty accurate, right,
- 9:38Speaker 1: I mean, what was he really like? For those who
- 9:41Speaker 1: may out you, I mean, Elvis is so famous, I'm
- 9:42Speaker 1: sure most people do know. And then the movie came out.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Tom Hanks played Colonel Parker so well, he does as
- 9:48Speaker 1: he does with every role. But how what was Colonel
- 9:51Speaker 1: Parker like? How much did he contribute in your opinion
- 9:54Speaker 1: to Elvis's struggles towards the end? He's important to his beginning,
- 9:59Speaker 1: to his launch though, right, it's kind of like an echotomy,
- 10:03Speaker 1: Like without him, I don't know if he'd be as
- 10:05Speaker 1: famous as he was, But then without him, I don't
- 10:07Speaker 1: know if he'd have the downfall, Right, You want.
- 10:09Speaker 2: To remember, if you look at everything that the Colonel did,
- 10:12Speaker 2: the Colonel was a genius. He was a marketing geniusess,
- 10:16Speaker 2: but he was a promoter, not a manager. A promoter
- 10:20Speaker 2: and he didn't have a creative bone in his body.
- 10:25Speaker 2: He could manage Elvis through promoting him through merchandise, through
- 10:30Speaker 2: you know, filling the seats, getting people there, but as
- 10:33Speaker 2: far as care for what his start was doing where
- 10:37Speaker 2: he was going, he didn't seem to have a lot
- 10:39Speaker 2: of porthole and vision in that. So it's a double
- 10:44Speaker 2: edged sword. I mean, in the court, the Colonel was
- 10:47Speaker 2: definitely instrumental in getting him national exposure and making him
- 10:52Speaker 2: a household name. But then at some point the colonel
- 10:56Speaker 2: held him back because Elvis was locked into the movie.
- 11:01Speaker 2: He was locked into staying within the US as far
- 11:04Speaker 2: as tours, and.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Which we later found out why, right which Colonel Parker
- 11:10Speaker 1: could not leave the country, right Yeah.
- 11:13Speaker 2: And after Aloha in seventy three, you know, it would
- 11:17Speaker 2: have been wise to have different management, but Elvis was
- 11:20Speaker 2: very loyal. How much was loyalty and how much was
- 11:25Speaker 2: just going with the flow. I don't know, but there
- 11:30Speaker 2: should have been some change, could have been some monumental
- 11:33Speaker 2: changes at that time. But that's on Elvis too, because
- 11:36Speaker 2: he was happy with status quo.
- 11:40Speaker 1: I suppose how accurate it was the movie in your opinion,
- 11:44Speaker 1: I'm assuming you saw it.
- 11:45Speaker 2: I saw the movie a couple of times. I liked
- 11:49Speaker 2: the music in the movie. I like the fact that
- 11:53Speaker 2: several people came to me in times after and said, listen,
- 11:57Speaker 2: we saw the movie. Did this happen? Did this happened?
- 12:00Speaker 1: You know?
- 12:01Speaker 2: So there was a lot of inaccuracies. They painted some
- 12:06Speaker 2: people in a bad life that didn't need to be.
- 12:08Speaker 2: But it wasn't a documentary either, So it was accurate
- 12:12Speaker 2: I think in theme, but it was flawed in a
- 12:16Speaker 2: lot of in a lot of ways time wise.
- 12:20Speaker 1: And that happens a lot. Yeah, they did that with
- 12:24Speaker 1: a Queen film where timeline is offered.
- 12:27Speaker 2: You like.
- 12:28Speaker 1: Did you like Austin Butler as Elvis? How did you
- 12:30Speaker 1: feel about his performance?
- 12:32Speaker 2: At first? I wasn't so sure that he was going
- 12:35Speaker 2: to be good, but I really think he captured the essence.
- 12:40Speaker 2: I really liked it a lot, and I think it
- 12:42Speaker 2: was hard for him to get away from that afterwards
- 12:45Speaker 2: because he was so wrapped up in it. But yeah,
- 12:49Speaker 2: I thought he did a great job, very very good.
- 12:52Speaker 1: He's a good actor, one of the best up and
- 12:54Speaker 1: coming actors. What about Tom Hanks, did do you feel
- 12:57Speaker 1: he played Colonel Parker accurately?
- 13:01Speaker 2: I think so. I mean, Colonel Parker, for all the
- 13:04Speaker 2: good that he did do, he was not altruistic. He
- 13:09Speaker 2: was after his own way. You know. Evidently he did
- 13:13Speaker 2: have a gambling problem. He needed to keep the money flowing,
- 13:17Speaker 2: and so he was a little bit manipulative and a
- 13:21Speaker 2: little bit looking out for number one, which isn't a surprise,
- 13:26Speaker 2: and I think I think Hanks definitely portrayed that.
- 13:31Speaker 1: Booked on Rock Podcasts, We'll be back after this, Oh
- 13:34Speaker 1: time Launch. Janet Bossak Williams is the author of Operation
- 13:39Speaker 1: Gratitude Kill Colonel Tom Parker. There's a point where in
- 13:43Speaker 1: the book Liz is going to see Elvis in concert,
- 13:46Speaker 1: and that's thanks to Trey, We're going to see him
- 13:48Speaker 1: in Vegas. So it's right around this time she happens
- 13:50Speaker 1: to read an article that says Elvis's health is not good.
- 13:53Speaker 1: He was hospitalized with an ulcer, and she's blaming the
- 13:56Speaker 1: colonel for the stress that he's causing. So she now
- 13:59Speaker 1: panics in a convinced that she needs to save Elvis
- 14:01Speaker 1: before it's too late, and the concert in Vegas. This
- 14:04Speaker 1: is her moment, you know, this is her moment to seize,
- 14:07Speaker 1: and this is when you start to think. You know,
- 14:08Speaker 1: as I'm reading this, Okay, something's going to happen, but
- 14:12Speaker 1: I did not expect it to go down the way
- 14:14Speaker 1: it does in the book. And we're not going to
- 14:16Speaker 1: give that away because people need to read it quick list,
- 14:19Speaker 1: but it's clear that over time, Trey is to Liz
- 14:23Speaker 1: what Colonel Parker is to Elvis. You know, he takes
- 14:26Speaker 1: this save Elvis thing farther than even she imagined. And again,
- 14:32Speaker 1: you got to read the book to find out how
- 14:33Speaker 1: this ends. But I'm curious as to what led to
- 14:35Speaker 1: this ending and were there alternate endings that you had
- 14:38Speaker 1: in mind or was this you were set on this ending.
- 14:41Speaker 2: Actually, we went back and forth on a few endings,
- 14:45Speaker 2: and this was kind of a last minute the way
- 14:48Speaker 2: that we decided to do it. And we did intentionally
- 14:54Speaker 2: make Liz to be out like Elvis and try to
- 14:58Speaker 2: be the nemesis like a wolf in sheep's clothing, you know,
- 15:05Speaker 2: because she did not see his flaws for the longest.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Time, and this could happen to all of us. I
- 15:11Speaker 1: think that's what's interesting too. That's what's relatable, is you
- 15:13Speaker 1: have to be really careful of this because he's very
- 15:17Speaker 1: charming in the beginning, and she's very taken by him,
- 15:20Speaker 1: and he takes advantage of that. I have a question
- 15:24Speaker 1: regarding the Elvis song Change of Habit, and you did
- 15:26Speaker 1: mention that's from nineteen sixty nine, and you make certain
- 15:30Speaker 1: include the lyrics in the book. So what is the
- 15:32Speaker 1: significance of that song? Why is it so important to
- 15:36Speaker 1: highlight this specific song.
- 15:38Speaker 2: There's not a specific importance, but we just started with
- 15:44Speaker 2: that because she was said in her ways, as we
- 15:48Speaker 2: all get to be sometimes, and she needed to see
- 15:51Speaker 2: beyond herself, you know, that she was not stuck where
- 15:55Speaker 2: she was, that she could make changes in her line,
- 15:58Speaker 2: and this song was just, you know, it flowed along
- 16:01Speaker 2: with what she needed to do in her line, and
- 16:04Speaker 2: the doors were opened eventually and she did see. There's
- 16:07Speaker 2: no no, you know, magic.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Importance to that song, but it's a starting point and
- 16:13Speaker 1: it's a good starting point, and I thank you through
- 16:16Speaker 1: email for telling me about the song, introducing me to
- 16:19Speaker 1: the song, because I'm an Elvis fan, but not so
- 16:21Speaker 1: much where I know a lot of his music and
- 16:23Speaker 1: change of Habit was a song. I admit I've never
- 16:25Speaker 1: heard it before until now, and I love that song.
- 16:27Speaker 1: So it's not one of my favorite Elvas songs. Yeah,
- 16:30Speaker 1: it's on my Spotify favorites now. Yeah. So Elvis died
- 16:35Speaker 1: August sixteenth, nineteen seventy seven, forty two, still so young.
- 16:38Speaker 1: What do you think he would have done if he
- 16:41Speaker 1: had lived? Both was his music and also acting because
- 16:45Speaker 1: he was a good actor, but he didn't get the
- 16:48Speaker 1: roles that he could have proven himself in. But what
- 16:51Speaker 1: do you think he would have become in both music
- 16:53Speaker 1: and acting in the eighties, the nineties to two thousands.
- 16:57Speaker 2: I think this is just my opinion. I really think
- 17:00Speaker 2: that from people I've spoken with that knew Elvis at
- 17:02Speaker 2: the time that he was at the cusp of some
- 17:06Speaker 2: changes in his life, I think he would have pulled back.
- 17:10Speaker 2: I would like to think that he would have made
- 17:12Speaker 2: those changes health wise, people that surrounded him so forth
- 17:18Speaker 2: and kind of cleaned house and taking some time off
- 17:22Speaker 2: to get healthy, to get well, because he wasn't in
- 17:26Speaker 2: a good place evidently health wise, and so you know,
- 17:31Speaker 2: personal wise, and so I think in the eighties and
- 17:35Speaker 2: nineties he might have leaned more towards you know, country
- 17:38Speaker 2: was getting big in the eighties. He loved gospel music.
- 17:42Speaker 2: I could see him doing something along those lines, and
- 17:46Speaker 2: you know, acting. If he had gone straight to acting,
- 17:49Speaker 2: that that would have been great because that's what he loved.
- 17:52Speaker 2: But he was so set in those formula movies in
- 17:55Speaker 2: the sixties, it was hard for him to find the
- 17:59Speaker 2: right vehicles.
- 18:01Speaker 1: I think about the Sinatra album where he had all
- 18:03Speaker 1: those famous musicians of the time. You know, Bono was
- 18:07Speaker 1: on that. You remember that album with all the people
- 18:09Speaker 1: want Celine Diono. That that would have been cool to
- 18:11Speaker 1: have Elvis do something like that, you know. But yet
- 18:14Speaker 1: I would have really loved to see what you've done
- 18:16Speaker 1: as an actor, because I think he was a really
- 18:18Speaker 1: good actor. He just just those roles, like you say,
- 18:21Speaker 1: they were the same kind of roles over and over again.
- 18:23Speaker 1: But there was wasn't there a rumor that wasn't he
- 18:27Speaker 1: would he was to be in the film with Barbara
- 18:30Speaker 1: streisand a star is born that right, Okay, what happened
- 18:33Speaker 1: with that? I forget the reason why it never happened.
- 18:36Speaker 2: Different different things. Some people say the colonel nixed it
- 18:39Speaker 2: because he didn't get along with Streis, and some say
- 18:42Speaker 2: it had to do with money. Some say it had
- 18:44Speaker 2: to do with billing. You know, I don't know that
- 18:47Speaker 2: Elvis was at a point health wise or he could
- 18:50Speaker 2: have done it, but it might have been the the
- 18:52Speaker 2: empatasy needed to get things straight too. I think he
- 18:56Speaker 2: would have been brilliant, but I didn't. We know it
- 19:00Speaker 2: didn't materialize, but I think it would have been life
- 19:02Speaker 2: changing for him.
- 19:03Speaker 1: Yeah. What about favorite Elvis song? Favorite Elvis album?
- 19:09Speaker 2: My favorite song is one you I don't know if
- 19:12Speaker 2: you know it or not. It's called Love Coming Down.
- 19:14Speaker 1: You know, you got to listen to that one.
- 19:17Speaker 2: Now, okay, okay, six and it's just.
- 19:20Speaker 1: Sixty six you said, nineteen sixty seventy seventy six seventy
- 19:23Speaker 1: six Okay.
- 19:24Speaker 2: I think it was recorded in the jungle room. It's
- 19:27Speaker 2: called Love Coming Down, and it's just a richness to
- 19:31Speaker 2: his voice. I just I just love the song. My
- 19:35Speaker 2: favorite album has got to be That's the way it is.
- 19:39Speaker 1: Yeah, So what about favorite Elvis movie.
- 19:44Speaker 2: Well, Girl Happy for a reason obviously, is that started
- 19:48Speaker 2: my interest in Elvis. But I love to watch Viva
- 19:54Speaker 2: Las Vegas with Anne Margaret because he they weren't acting,
- 19:59Speaker 2: they were you know, the chemistry between them was just
- 20:03Speaker 2: so alive and it's just a cute movie. My kids
- 20:08Speaker 2: when I when they were young, they would watch it
- 20:10Speaker 2: and go around the house singing all the songs. Yeah,
- 20:13Speaker 2: and some of that I think is just a memory too,
- 20:15Speaker 2: is just I remember having it on a lot for
- 20:18Speaker 2: the kids when they were little.
- 20:19Speaker 1: And Elvis had different eras the gospel, like you mentioned
- 20:23Speaker 1: the early rockability. Is there a favorite era that you
- 20:25Speaker 1: have for listening to Elvis music?
- 20:27Speaker 2: The seventies for me, I mean the early stuff. I
- 20:31Speaker 2: wasn't around then. I like the you know, the movie.
- 20:35Speaker 2: Some of the movie tunes are silly, but some of
- 20:36Speaker 2: them are really good. But the seventies just he had matured.
- 20:41Speaker 2: His voice was rich. I like the seventies songs that
- 20:45Speaker 2: he did.
- 20:46Speaker 1: I just can't believe because I love Why can't every
- 20:49Speaker 1: day be like Christmas? All of this Christmas stuff? My
- 20:53Speaker 1: dad had that album, Yeah, it was is it the
- 20:57Speaker 1: blue cover? I remember the Christmas album, the biggest Christmas
- 21:01Speaker 1: album that he had, and then you find out he
- 21:03Speaker 1: really didn't enjoy doing the Christmas songs all that much,
- 21:06Speaker 1: or it was kind of like he was forced to
- 21:07Speaker 1: do them.
- 21:08Speaker 2: I believe Red West wrote that song too.
- 21:11Speaker 1: What a song?
- 21:12Speaker 2: Maybe I can't every day be like Christmas?
- 21:15Speaker 1: What a song? Yeah? I love his Christmas music. So
- 21:17Speaker 1: let's finish this. Is there a sequel to the book?
- 21:20Speaker 1: Are you planning anything like that.
- 21:22Speaker 2: I've got another book in the works, and I'd like
- 21:27Speaker 2: to do a sequel if, you know, as this one
- 21:29Speaker 2: gets well known, and see what happens. You know, perhaps
- 21:33Speaker 2: Liz goes to Memphis right before all this passes away,
- 21:38Speaker 2: Maybe she makes maybe she does meet him. Maybe there's
- 21:40Speaker 2: some changes there.
- 21:42Speaker 1: All right, all right, little teaser.
- 21:45Speaker 2: Okay, I do have one coming out. Well, it's out
- 21:48Speaker 2: now on Amazon, and it's just a short story. It's
- 21:51Speaker 2: called Presley's Wonderful Presley's Wonderful Life, and it's just like
- 21:58Speaker 2: I said, it's a short story. It's a holiday book
- 22:01Speaker 2: based on different people in his life and how their
- 22:05Speaker 2: life would have been different without him. It's a take
- 22:09Speaker 2: on It's a wonderful life.
- 22:10Speaker 1: I see right here. Yeah, in the spirit of Frank
- 22:12Speaker 1: Kapper's movie It's a Wonderful Life, or an angel is
- 22:14Speaker 1: sent from heaven to help a desperate businessman remember that
- 22:17Speaker 1: each of us matters and has the potential to make
- 22:19Speaker 1: a significant impact. A mysterious man named Nolan appears before
- 22:23Speaker 1: the rock Idol with the same truth, reminding the biggest
- 22:26Speaker 1: star ever why he shines so bright. He sees why
- 22:29Speaker 1: his life truly matters in ways he never imagined. Okay,
- 22:32Speaker 1: so we can find that on Amazon. And we can
- 22:35Speaker 1: also find the book we were talking about in this episode,
- 22:38Speaker 1: Operation Gratitude Kill Colonel Tom Parker. That's out now. It's
- 22:43Speaker 1: available in kindle and paperback, so you can get it
- 22:48Speaker 1: in either version. And where can people find you online?
- 22:52Speaker 1: Janet's website social media.
- 22:55Speaker 2: I have a website presleystories dot com. If someone wants
- 23:01Speaker 2: to buy an autographed copy of the book, you can
- 23:04Speaker 2: purchase it through there if they don't want Amazon copy,
- 23:10Speaker 2: so Presley Stories dot com. I've added a little blog
- 23:14Speaker 2: to it, so kind of an update on what's going on.
- 23:19Speaker 2: I just got back from Elvis Week last month, and
- 23:24Speaker 2: so there'll be some stories in there, recipes and just
- 23:28Speaker 2: a little interaction a little personal interaction. I also am
- 23:33Speaker 2: co admin of an Elvis group called Elvis A Celebration
- 23:39Speaker 2: of the Man and his Music. It's on Facebook Elvis
- 23:42Speaker 2: a Celebration of the Man and his Music, and we
- 23:45Speaker 2: have about ninety four thousand members wow. And I do
- 23:49Speaker 2: a lot of writing on there and a lot of
- 23:51Speaker 2: fan interaction. So those are the two places.
- 23:55Speaker 1: All right. I'll put a link to both in the
- 23:57Speaker 1: show notes for this episode. Thanks Ja, it's great to
- 24:00Speaker 1: have you on.
- 24:01Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. That's it. It's
- 24:11Speaker 2: in the books.