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Collaborating on "The Faith of Elvis" with Billy Stanley · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: What if you could sit down with someone who is very close to one of the biggest entertainers in American history?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: What questions would you ask them and what insights might you come away with?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's the opportunity that I had not only with today's interview, but also with the whole process of writing The Faith of Elvis with Billy Stanley, who is Elvis Presley's stepbrother.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: Billy and his two younger brothers moved into Graceland to live with Elvis and his family when Billy's mother married Elvis' father, Vernon.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: The Faith of Elvis recounts Elvis's journey of faith not only as a spiritual person himself, but also through the lens of his relationship to Billy and his younger brothers.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: Billy spent 17 years with Elvis, getting a first-hand glimpse into his life and faith.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: In his career, Billy was a successful salesman and airplane mechanic.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: Now he and his wife Liz live in Memphis, just a few miles from Graceland.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: In our conversation, I talked to Billy about some of the themes in the book, how the book impacted me as a writer and a process of creating it together.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this was an absolutely fun conversation.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Billy and I have spent many dozens of hours chatting over the last year as we worked on the book and wrapped it up many months ago.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: It was an absolute pleasure to have this experience, not just doing the book, but also getting to chat with Billy here as the book is coming out this week.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: So hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I had conducting it.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: So here's my interview with Billy Stanley.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Billy, welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's an absolute honor to have you here, sir.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having me, Ken.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_03: So people who listen to this show are no stranger to this new book, The Faith of Elvis.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've been promoting it on my podcast.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: I've talked about it a lot on social media and other places.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: But for those who maybe have lived under under a rock the past few months, can you give us a summary from your perspective on what is what is really this book all about?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it it's about a topic that very few people know anything about.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_04: It's about Elvis' faith.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody's ever talked about that man before.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, when you and I sat down to to do this, you know, it took us a couple of days to figure out what direction are we going to go with this.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: So and in those in those talks that we had, we kind of laid out our uh the direction we wanted to go with it, and uh that's the path we took.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: But it's like also, like I said, okay, Kent, you have the keys to the door.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: Which door we open is what key you both use.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: So and that's the way we went.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_04: So um, but the book is to show the fans a different side of Elvis that they didn't know about.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's definitely the response that I've gotten from people who've read the book so far is the one of the things that I hear over and over again is that people say, I never saw this side of Elvis before, and I never knew about this side of Elvis.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I'm really surprised in a way because there's been so much written about Elvis over the years.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: So it's really cool that we've been able to sort of unlock a piece of his life that people haven't experienced before.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's really a special thing.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, uh that's you know, I mean, it how it all came about, I mean, was, you know, when you when you have they call it a near-death experience, I call it a near God experience.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: And then you pray, okay.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, I didn't tell anybody about this until you know months after uh it had actually happened.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm praying to God, what am I supposed to do with all this?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that was revealed.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: And it was just like, you're supposed to share it with everybody, Billy.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: It was that simple.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: So that's when uh the wheel started rolling on this project.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_04: And that was back in 2018.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: So really, I didn't I didn't realize that the book had extended back that far, that it had kind of been in the works for several years.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: Well, like I said, I didn't know what to do with this.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I didn't tell my wife, I didn't tell my brother, or I didn't tell anybody about the near-death experience because it uh you know I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and it was like so I I prayed and prayed and prayed, and then one morning, about 3 a.m.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_04: in the morning, God answered me and said, You're supposed to tell everybody, Billy, that's why you that's why you went through this, and that's why you come back.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, and that's when I said, Okay, and that that that's I started, okay, what am I supposed to do?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I started seeking out people that could probably help make the project go through and stuff like that.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh I found a few and then had to get rid of a few too.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, but um it came around, you know, with God's help, you know.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't think I ever told you this, but I actually considered not taking on this project.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: This would have been last October, I think, yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: We first connected.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: The reason was because I was I was really busy with three or four other client books at the same time.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I told my wife, I said, I really am excited about this book, but I don't know how I'm gonna do it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: I I just, you know, if I want to sleep in the next few months, I don't know how I'm gonna pull this off.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Thankfully, though, I'm I'm so glad that I did for a whole bunch of reasons.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: But one of the reasons is that that actually forced me to then get some help with my business from another writer who was able to help with a couple of other projects.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so, and I actually I never told you this in our conversations, but this book actually is what prompted me to start building uh a writing agency instead of me just doing everything myself.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, good.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, so I'm super thankful for this project.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and for a whole bunch of reasons again, but right, but that's what really prompted that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: I'm curious you didn't tell me then because well, I I I don't know what I would have said.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, okay, but uh yeah, I'm glad you did because I mean look what we look what we created.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I'd I mean briefly that we're getting about it is you know, nothing but positive.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I I considered not doing it for like two seconds because I didn't know how I was gonna pull it off with the other things that I had committed to.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: But but my wife being way smarter than I am, she basically looked at me and said, You're a complete idiot if you don't take this book because this is something really special.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna regret this for the rest of your life if you don't figure out a way to make this happen.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm so glad that she did.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna play this interview for her, by the way, because okay.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: This will be our secret.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's going out on the internet to the whole world, but it'll be secretly.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: She didn't look at the internet.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't think she actually listens to this podcast very often.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_04: She didn't care about what's on there.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she's not impressed with anything I do.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: So and that's probably a good thing.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things that I'm curious about from your perspective, you've been in Elvis' world your whole life, and you actually wrote a couple of previous books.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: Your brothers have written books, and you've been around a lot of people in Elvis world, I guess is what I would say, who've written books.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm curious if you can talk about the impact that being an author and writing books has had on your life or or on your overall success and and basically what books have done for you in your life.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um for me, it's all about the storytelling, you know, because it the first book I got about halfway into it and I saw what they were trying to do, exploit Elvis.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: And so I in that book, Elvis We Love You Tender, I backed off real quick.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: I just didn't feel comfortable with what they was trying to get me to talk about.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I backed off of that.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: The second book was after I came out of a treatment center, uh, one of the one of the 12 steps is you know, make amends to those that you know that you've affected in your life.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: And so that was what that book was all about.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: I've straightened my life out, and so I'm gonna lay lay out my life as it was, you know, to uh straighten out answer a lot of questions that were pretty much created by the first book, and again, uh my publisher I wouldn't really let me get into speaking about Elvis the Christian.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't want to hear that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: So and we just went into why the sec this third one came about, but this is the one that I really wanted to do all along.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: Wow because I you know, and I was I wanted to, you know, because we we do talk about other aspects of Elvis' life other than him being a Christian in this book, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: But the other publishers didn't want that.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: This is the first publisher that said, please talk about this.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: This is what we want.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: Great.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I thought that was, you know, that was a blessing in itself, right there.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_04: So, but as far as how the book has affected the books have affected my life, uh, they haven't really affected it.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_04: I this one right here I hope does, because my goal and you know what what I shared with you when we first started talking about doing the book was I want this to touch people's lives.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I want it to help change their life and let show them a better way of life through reading this book, you know, because they can learn from Elvis's experiences and apply it to their life.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, everybody, well, you know, he was a big rock star.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_04: He was all that, but he was a human being, just like we all are.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, that's the part we're talking about is the human being.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: We're not we don't talk about the rock star in this at all.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: So uh what what I hope what what I hope happens is if people read this book and it touches their life in a way that they, you know, want to try to make you know get a closer walk with God, is what I hope.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like you mentioned some of the themes in the book that that we can live out too, because I'm not a rock star.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um I don't probably none of our listeners, or at least most of them are not big rock stars.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: But we can all live out the principles that Elvis lived out in his life.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah for sure.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_04: And that that that's what we that's what we touched on in this book.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, that's you know where we were going with it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: I would like like to dive into a few of those themes if we can.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: One of the themes that I have mentioned this to numerous people, and we've talked about it before, but people asked me what it what impacted you most as the writer of the book, kind of encountering a lot of this material for the first time.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I was talking to somebody just yesterday about what you call the universal law of insanity.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: One of the themes that I have thought about more.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: I and I'm I'm not exaggerating when I say I think about that nearly every day because it had such an impact on me.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: Can you explain what that was exactly?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_04: The universal law of insanity.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_04: This is what Elvis told me when I was just uh I was in my teen years, and you you're very unsure of yourself in your teens, you know, you want to be accepted and all this.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_04: And he told me, he said, Billy, uh, just just think of the universal law of insanity.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: I look at him like, what is that?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: He said, just realize that the whole world is crazy, and so are you.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: Once you grasp that point right there, you realize that you fit in.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, you're no different than anybody else.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, and that's what it means, you know.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, as a young person trying to always want to be accepted and you know, feel like you fit in, it applied to me at that time, you know.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, now that I'm older, I see that the world is crazy and we all are, and uh, so we all fit, you know.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_04: So nobody's any better or nobody's any different.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: We're all the same, you know.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, the people that sit there and go, oh, this person's that or that, you know, you know, they they put people on pedestals and they shouldn't, because they all fall short.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, Elvis would be the first to tell you, don't ever put me on a pedestal because I'm not perfect, I'm far from it, you know.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he would all say, do as I say, not as I do.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: So how does how does the universal law of insanity help you deal with people in your everyday life?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, again, this show is for writers, artists, creatives, mostly writers.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: And writers, you know, deal with a lot of psychological aspects of their writing.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: We we get in our heads, we deal with confidence issues a lot.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: So, how does that law help you deal with people in the world?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really glad you brought this up because as a writer myself, uh I used to have a problem with it because you know, I'm sitting here trying to think.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, you I start trying to overthink what am I doing?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: You know, basically, all you do is what I do now, it apply it to my life, is just sit and let my heart do push the pen.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_04: That's what it does.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_04: I don't, I mean, I don't use this.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_04: Use your heart.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_04: Your heart's never gonna mislead you.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: This will.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: This is this is the devil's playground right here.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_04: This down here is God's playground in your heart.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: So always always use that.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: But I find it easier because like some of the stuff I put on Facebook and the stories and stuff that I write, I always say a little prayer before I do, or just I don't even say a prayer, I say, okay, God, tell me what direction you want me to go with.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then all of a sudden, I just it starts, it just it just starts happening right there.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: And it will to any writer if they sit there and apply that to themselves.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, anybody.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I even told you this when we know, just just let your heart take you where this story goes.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because you're along for the ride.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you in your mind, you're just along for the ride.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: You're sitting there looking, wow, I'm writing all this, and it's like it's a great journey that you get on if you just apply it that way instead of don't think about it, just do, I mean, just sit down with and let your heart do the typing.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_04: And that's all you do.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: And there is a sense when you recognize that you're crazy just like the rest of us.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: That you can kind of get out of your own head because you realize your head is just playing games with you, and you just got to go with your heart.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, here again, it's you know, when you think about what's what's the strongest organ or you know in the body?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: The brain always says the brain.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, heart.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: If you have no heart, you have nothing.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: So that right there should explain everything.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, forget forget about all this knowledge and everything that you've got in your head.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: Think about the knowledge you have in your heart and let that let that be your guide.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: It will never stir you wrong.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: Your heart will never.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, especially in you know, in writing, which you know, a lot of people say, you know, Billy, you're a good writer and stuff like that.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I don't see it.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's simple.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: And it to me, it's really easy.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: Where used to, it was hard for me because here again, I was using this, not this.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: Use your heart and let it guide you when you want to tell a story.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, it because it it'll come across better too.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_04: You word you're finding words that you never would use before because your heart is what's guiding you, you know, and your brain just it overthinks everything.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_04: And it it, oh, I got writer's block because you're using this.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: Don't use that.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's really good.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, stop using your brain, you know, and use your heart.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, Elvis always said, you know, lead with your heart.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, because and what he meant by that was your heart is always in the right place, your brain never is.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, that's where that universal law of insanity is.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: This up here is what makes everybody crazy.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, this this here does not.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_04: It was it's only here to so you know to show you the right direction and where to go in life, you know, what to believe.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: But this up here will always mislead.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_04: Well, this is the devil's playground.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's all it is.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: So once you learn to separate the two, then you'll find writing is so easy.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, it's just it just flows, you know, with the help of God.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: Because like I said, and when I say prayer, I okay, God, show me what you, you know, give me the words.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I always say before I sit down and write something.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: Give me the words, and they come.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: Well, obviously it works because you're probably the most gifted storyteller that I know.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I really mean that sincerely.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like the saving grace of this book was that you you just brought I mean amazing stories to this.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Now, some of these you had you had kind of crafted before and shared those on Facebook, but a lot of these you hadn't.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and we would just get on calls and I would just say one thing, and you would give me like 10 stories that were all good, and I couldn't include them all in the book.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: So we had this abundance of wealth.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm curious where you learned, where did you get this gift of storytelling?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because truly it really is a gift and you're really, really good at it.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: I guess you know, I love to watch TV when I that was my escape when I was growing up as a kid.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: If I didn't have anything else, I mean if I wasn't playing out in the yard or anything like that, then at night I would come home and watch TV.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_04: And the stories, you know, just that to see the stories play out before me, you know, I always thought, wow, that'd be so cool, you know, to be able to tell a story like that.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: And so um, here again, I thought oh, I thought I wanted to be able to tell stories, but then I found out I couldn't really do it until I found out if I share the story from my heart, then it comes across, you know.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: You can make a bad story good, uh, you know, come across in a good way if you use your heart to talk.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, let your heart do the talking instead of this, because this up here is just gonna like again, we it will confuse you.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_04: This right here, if you let the heart push your pen or push those keys, you know, when you're typing or writing a story, and let it take you.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because you don't know where you're gonna go.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: I when I I mean, anytime I sat down and started that way, I didn't know where I was gonna go.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_04: I never did.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_04: It just as I was typing it in, then I started seeing where it was going.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: And just let it let it flow.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's you know, there's a song, you know, let it flow, let it flow.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: And that's you know, and that's that's where I get it.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it all comes back to the heart, you know.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_04: I mean some of the greatest storytellers, you know, I'm sure when they sit down and do a story, they didn't know where they was going with it.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: But then when they got finished, say, Wow, I did this.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's because they shut this off and let just just let it come out.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: Now, I mean, and this is even true with people that aren't Christian writers.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, let that heart do the talking for you.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, just it and shut this off.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: You know, this right here is nothing.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: Just use your eyes and so you can see your keys, and then you know, uh, just let it flow.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, don't don't go with sit down with a preconceived notion, or if you have an idea, that's good.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_04: Then let the heart expound on the idea, not this, because that's when oh, I can't think of what to write.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_04: You can't think because you're not using this.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I mean, yeah, I think God bless me as a storyteller.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_04: I mean I used to like, you know, sitting around campfires and stuff like that telling stories, so you know, I'd make up a few.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_04: So uh it's just anybody can do it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's just if just like I said, shut this off and then you know, let it just let it come out.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that's good advice because there's a lot of people listening right now who need to hear that.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: They're blocked, they're frustrated, they feel stuck.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: So, and the solution is just so simple, just stop thinking about it.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: Just do it.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: Well, just what what's your heart telling you?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_04: When you get to that one point, when all writers do, because I I I've done it before.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, but before when I was sitting down writing, and you know, I was using this, that's when I'd get to a point, I'd go, Oh, I can't think of anything, and I walk away, I'd be frustrated, and just it'd take days and days and days.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: And then when I realized if I let let just flow from my heart and soul, then it would then it doesn't have to think.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_04: It just tells you, you know, so you don't get that writer's block anymore.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: You it's just, I mean, you you didn't get it while we was doing this story, did you?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: No, and uh a big part of that was just because we had a deadline.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_04: We had a uh But when we when we sat down and said that started this, I even said, Kent, just let it, you know, just let it come out.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know, don't don't don't hinder it.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I didn't want to confuse you by saying this, you know.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: You'd have thought, well, and now he's really into that universal law of insanity because he is insane.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I had really good material to work with.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, normally when you're collaborating with somebody.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: As a writer, it's it's the writer's job to pull material out of somebody.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: And you have to figure out the structure and all that stuff.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_03: But with this, it was a lot different because you were giving me really, really great raw material to begin with.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: So my job was less creating stuff and really more of let's refine it, let's figure out how it fits together, and and all those kind of things.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: But I can't say don't sell yourself too short there, Kent.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you you did.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: You were very creative in this whole process right here.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_04: Because the you know, I can't take all the credit for this book.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you put this thing together, and I mean the way you've done it is just what all writers need to learn is their approach to the author, like you did.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because you hit me on a level that, you know, okay, what I mean, you asked the questions, but you did it in a sincere way, and with f I mean, you actually came across as like you cared about the author.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: Where some writers are going, okay, it's just a story, and you know, that's it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: Don't uh if you do that, you get there's gonna be problems.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: Get to know the author like you did.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we talked about many different things other than just what we did in the book.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, of course.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, you I that see that right there, let's that little bit of trust level in each time when a writer does that, then the author is gonna look at the writer, okay, this person genuinely cares.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, then that author is gonna be more willing to share stuff that they wouldn't be willing to share if they don't know you.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: So your approach to this whole project was I mean, maybe you shouldn't discuss that part right there because the way you did this put me at complete ease with you.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, good.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: I shared stuff with you that I would never share with anybody, but the way you came into, I mean, approached me with it was the way that just said, okay, I can trust this guy.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you should talk about that part right there because you're the one that did that.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't I had nothing to do with that.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that was all you.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I appreciate that.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: And and I feel like one of for me, that the first and foremost job of a writer or a collaborator or ghostwriter, whatever term you want to put on it, yeah, is to be a listener, not to be a talker or a writer.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: And uh maybe my my training as a pastor or as a teacher, maybe that contributed to it.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: But part of it also was that I was I felt a little intimidated by the subject.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm writing about Elvis and I I'm I'm doing a book with Elvis' brother.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's that's a big deal to me.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: And it it's a big it is a big deal in reality.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so I there was a part where I just didn't want to mess this up.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: Part of it also, the biggest part was that I really truly did care about this book.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Now, I care about everything that I work on, of course, but with this, there was there was something I've told my wife this there was something that's very special about this project.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: And there was definitely an element to where I felt I'm not sure how to articulate it except to say I felt uh like a supernatural involvement with this project.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like this this was truly something special and unique, and that God's hand was on this book.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know any other way to say it, really.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I mean, this this book has your personality all over it.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, you you were a big you I was just the storyteller.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_04: You're the one that put it down, buddy.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_04: You you nailed it when you did this.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: I mean Well, I appreciate that.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: I truly you know, uh I I I've never read any of your other stuff.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: I I want to now because I mean I I I've read this right here, and I sit there and just went, wow, we did this.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, you you the what you impressed me with what the way what you've done.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I think you're one of the best writers I've ever been with, you know, ever worked with before.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I was really nervous about the ending of I hope now that you get the recognition that you deserve because you are a fantastic writer, Kent.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate it.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we we did work hard in the book, obviously, and we had a lot of help with with editors and other people at the publisher and whatnot.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, the beginning was pretty shaky there, wasn't it?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just kind of figuring out our direction and and okay, what's the thing?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm talking about what one person was saying, another was saying.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we won't get into what was going on, but there were some pretty shady things going on there at the beginning, and it just scared me to be honest with you.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was it was a little bit separated from that.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_04: You know, then we and we started dealing directly with the publisher, everything is go.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: But see, I was a little nervous.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: I've dealt with that my whole life.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: Whenever they get in, they say, okay, I'm gonna be working with Elvis' brother, greed steps into the way.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and that that's that's all it was with those people, and you know, they I saw I've had to deal with that since 1960, you know.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I just want to get close to this guy because who he's related to, you know.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: So and I saw it, you know, I I saw it the process started, like I said, in 2018, and that's why it took so long to get to where we get that point, and then you know, after several writers were, you know, presented to me, and I told them this isn't gonna work out.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's why it took so long, you know, because of their greed and everything else, and you know, I mean, one of the writers that was presented to me even wrote some books on uh you know the occult and stuff like this.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: You're like, what this person cannot write this book, you know, no, no, no.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_04: This person, no, they're completely wrong for this.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_04: But that's what was that's why it took so long for the whole process.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_04: And then when I finally talked to you, they give us a deadline of okay, we need this book in six weeks.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_04: When they said that, I was going, uh oh.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I just said, Kent, don't worry about it.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: We can do this, we can do this, we can do it.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_04: Don't worry.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because it's all right here.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: I uh all and I kept saying, Kent, you got all the keys.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I've just presented you with a whole ring full of keys, and whichever door you decide to open is you know, you you use that key and you open all those different doors.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and I wasn't worried about it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_04: I knew we could do it.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't, you know, I wanted more time like you did, and they did give us a little bit more time.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, to do what we did in that short of time is a miracle.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know that.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_04: How many books have you written and they said, okay, you've got to be done in eight weeks?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's that's that's pretty unusual.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_04: Very unusual.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: But that's because of the time wasted before.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: I had been going through this uh for almost about a six-month period before we finally, me and you could finally start working together.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: And see, we would have had this thing out in August, but you know, because of the things that happened before, you know, it just kept just get and I trust me, I got to one point where I almost gave up on it myself.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_04: Just said it this isn't gonna work.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: You know, these people are you know are choking me.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: I can't work with them.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, that's what ended up happening is getting rid of those people, and the book finally came about because of God's grace, you know, and said, No, this message has to be told.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: Well, maybe this is a good time for me to to actually explain how how, from a writer's perspective, how this book actually got got drafted.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I should say the first draft was done in about eight weeks.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: That would, and that was really what it was.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, obviously the edits took, you know, two or three months to go through all the editing and layout and all that stuff.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: But the way that I approached this was very methodical.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew that we had 26 chapters.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew that I had to draft three to four chapters per week for those couple of months.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: And to be honest with you, this book mostly was written on Fridays, uh Saturdays, and Sunday afternoons.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's because I had other projects that I already committed to.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I do a daily, you know, this podcast is a daily show.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and actually come to think of it, I paused this podcast for about six weeks so I could really focus on this book and the other projects.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: But I had other stuff going on, and so I was like, okay, how am I going to do this?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: So that's just how how I did it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh once for me, once the the chapters were outlined and I had the stories kind of put in place, then I would just go through and it would take a few hours per chapter to draft it.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Once I had those done, then I would put it into a Word document, then I would rewrite it as needed, and that was basically it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: So this project really showed to me that you can get a book done faster than you think you can if you just approach it in a really methodical way.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: You can you can do amazing things if you just worked a miracle because I mean that that deadline, I mean, I know when they said that deadline, I could hear it in your voice when we was talking to them.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't know.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, don't worry about it.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: Don't worry about it.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: I got this, I got this.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, because I didn't want to be working on Christmas Day and everything.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_03: But and you know, the truth is that because I had planned that I had planned it out, there was during Christmas week I didn't do anything on the book.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: I took a break.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: So we were done like uh well, we put that pause for during during Christmas break, but I think we pretty much had it all done before Christmas.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_04: We did, you know, and then you you put your you know finishing touches on it, which you know just you know hats off to you, buddy.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you nailed it.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know, when I mean when people tell me, you know, tell me, you know, that they've read the book and they love it, I said, well, you know, you gotta thank Kent for that.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, because one well, thank you.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: One part that I was really concerned about was the ending of the book, because endings of books are so important.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: And it wasn't until this was close to the end of the process the the process that you told me the story about that closes out the book, you and Elvis sitting around, and uh I'm just kind of riffing here, but you told told Elvis, you know, here you know what I really love about you, and and you we kind of go through the story there, and I knew when you told me that story that would be the perfect way to end the book.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: And even now, and and I'm not exaggerating, when I read the last chapter of the book, I still tear up.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: Even though I've you know, I've I've read this a hundred times, we've been through all the edits and stuff.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_03: I s it still really makes me emotional.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's the power of your story, Billy, and and the power of Elvis' story.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's just it's so powerful.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_04: The story is one thing, but to put it on paper and for people to get the emotion of it, that's the gift.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_04: And that's you've got it.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: So my goal with this book was, and thank you.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_03: My goal was this sounds kind of crazy, but I wanted to write the kind of book that I would read.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: So my goal was to make myself emotional in the storytelling to try and frame things in that way.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I knew if I could move myself, that other people would be moved also.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_04: It was coming from here, wouldn't it?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, true, truly, truly.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I would read it out loud and I would be like, no, this this word needs change or this needs adjusting, or let's tighten this up.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_03: And to be honest with you, I had never written dialogue in a in a foot in a book before.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: So and I we never talked about this, but I I actually studied in other books.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, how do you write dialogue in a proper way that that has pacing to it and that's that's kind of framed in the correct way?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: So that's something I had to learn, and I hope I hope that it comes across good in the book.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_03: I think it does.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you you did a great job.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because dialogue is very, very important.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_04: You got to get it right, you know.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I mean, to get the emotion, and it's hard to do.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I've caught myself several times on Facebook just going, don't type, don't type to me with those emotions.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: You know, because it trying to put emotions to paper is very, very hard for some people.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_04: But you got it.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you I mean, you you just I mean, here again, we go back to with right with the heart, you know.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, that it always it it never fails you.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: So one thing that was so helpful though was that when you were telling these stories to me, you uh I guess you have some kind of uh crazy, uh crazy specific memory of conversations from decades ago because you would tell me these stories and you would recite the literal dialogue that we have in the book.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I used.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how you do that.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's some kind of crazy gift that you have to be able to remember the story.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_04: My brothers have always complimented me and said, Billy, you you've got the memory of an elephant.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: I don't forget.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: But now you have to remember all this all this dialogue and stuff that I shared with you was stuff that Elvis had told me, it was life-changing.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: You don't forget stuff.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: I you can you can't forget stuff like that.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so I remember very well.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, when we were talking, and you know, and I was sharing these stories with you and stuff, I was actually I relived it each time I had to sit there and tell you.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: So that it was hard for me to do this, this book emotionally, because there would be times I just get off, you know, finish talking to you and just sit down and you know cry my eyes out, going, You just went through this whole thing again, you know.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, but I was thankful for God, you know, for you know, opening my heart to this, you know.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_04: Because every each time, you know, you would call, okay.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: I got a call phone call with Kent today.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, God.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: You're going through the ringer again.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'd say my okay, God, uh, here we go.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me where you want me to go each step each time we did it.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I I could definitely see how this would impact you emotionally, and it's almost like you're just reliving these experiences, and you kind of feel like uh a wet noodle when you get done with the call because you've just poured all this emotion.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Liz would come home and say, You worked with Kent today, didn't you?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: Because you'd sit there on the couch going, uh sitting there, you know, just with all the emotional.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: I do want to ask you about uh another theme in the book.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I I don't want to keep you all morning, but but I got as much time as you you need, Betty.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, well I appreciate that.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: Something else that really impacted me in the book, now aside from all the the spiritual components of it, is and I never knew this, is that repeatedly in the book we talk about how Elvis approached what he did as just a job.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: And and people would be so impressed and enthralled by his superstardom, and he would just say, you know what, it it's just a job.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I that is so great because something that writers struggle with too many times is we get kind of enamored with the accolades and being on bestseller lists and all that kind of stuff.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I was so amazed that Elvis would look at his career that way and just say, eh, it's basically just a job.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: That really impacted me.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, being an entertainer, you know.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh well, how that all came about, you know, I mean, the Beatles were out and stuff like this.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_04: And my he here my my brothers and I talking about the Beatles and other rock and roll stars and stuff like that.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: And he just set us down one day and just let us know that, you know, you know, because somehow he came into the conversation and we kind of looked at him and you know, just said, Well, you know, yeah, you you know, they call you the king.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he said, It's just a job.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_04: Guys, he said, It's what my fans do is more important than what I do for a living.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's and that's the way he that's his whole approach to it.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: But in his his approach to that was what he did, his job was to make people feel better, you know, in in his music.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's not to promote drugs or any other thing, it's to make take people's minds off their care, you know, their troubles or problems for just even if it's just for you know, listening to one song which was like two minutes and thirty seconds back in the day, you know, that some of them are longer.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_04: If you can achieve that, then you've you've you've accomplished something.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what that was his whole approach in what he did, and then it even in the songs.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, everybody loves to think, well, you know, Elvis was telling his own story through his songs.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: In a way, he was, but what he was doing was he picked songs that he knew would affect other people and you know, make them think about their life.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, that's all he wanted to do, you know, is to entertain people and to entertain people, you know, to get make them think, you know, about their life, you know, and then all of a sudden we get then we get into the gospel music, which you know, here again, I I offer this challenge to anybody that hears this is you play any song that Elbus, your favorite Elbus song, I don't care what it is, then you just pick any one of the gospel songs, play right after the other.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me which one he sounds the best of.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because his heart and soul was in the gospel.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: Now, it's like my wife loves to say, and she's heard it, and many people have said it, he could sing the phone book.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, he could.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: But he put his heart and soul into the gospel, he put his heart and soul into everything he did.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_04: But the gospel was what was closest to him because he was giving glory to God for the great gift that God had given him, the voice.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_03: So wow.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's really powerful.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's really, really powerful.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I that that's one of the insights that really personally impacted me in the book.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: Because it is easy to get wrapped up in what you do as a writer or as a creative person or your your job as a whole, and you kind of think that you're doing all this life-changing work, but then along comes somebody like Elvis and says, Eh, it's what I do, it's just a job, you know.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of brings some perspective to it.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because everybody wants to overthink it.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_04: Here again, this right here will get you in trouble.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: This right here will not get you in trouble.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we you know, your ego is up here.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_04: So let I mean, you he did he didn't have an ego.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: Did he know where he stood in the world and as far as in the music world?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, he did.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_04: Don't get me wrong now.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_04: He knew who he was, but it that to him that wasn't a big deal.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: A guy digging a ditch, you know, eight hours a day, 12, you know, 10 hours a day, or you know, all week long is more important than what he did.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's the way he looked at it.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he was a humble man.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: Well, there's so many stories in this book, I really hope people check it out.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things I consistently hear about it is in fact, somebody told me this yesterday.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody who's um they're not really big into music or the art, is uh a friend of mine that I I sent an advanced reader copy to.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_03: And they said, you know, this literally they said this, this book has impacted me more than I thought it would.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I I hear that continually from people, so I'm really hoping people pick up this book because it it changed obviously uh Elvis has changed you, Billy, and redirected the whole course of your life.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: This project really changed me in a way that was surprising and it it it impacted the way that I think.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I took something, some really personal things away from this.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the book is going to do the same thing for others as well, for sure.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'm glad you did, you know, because I mean now you know how my life has changed.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I got coming from a military brat to all of a sudden, you know, back in, you know, before Elvis, my life was pretty much just army green.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's all I knew.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, when I was six years old, I could tell a guy's rank by just looking at his uniform.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's my that was my life.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_04: And then when I step into Elvis' life, it's the world just becomes technicolor.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_04: And then everybody thinks, wow, well, the the the world he showed you.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, I saw I saw a world that few people could ever see or dream about, but he showed me a world that's everlasting with God and your relationship with God.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, people don't see that.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's hard.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know why it's so hard for them for some to imagine Elvis being a Christian.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_04: Because I I beg I guess it's because all the stuff that's been written about him since he passed, nobody's ever touched on it like what you and I have done.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the main reason I wanted to share this is to show a completely different side that only a few people knew.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm not saying that the people that worked for Elvis didn't know it, they probably just didn't understand him, you know, which I did because I was in church.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_04: I understood what he was talking about, and they just didn't want any part of that.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: They wanted the you know, the the whole rock and roll scene.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they like that, but they didn't like the other part, which was a big part of it because every time he did a show, he would come off the stage and he would sing gospel songs until the sun came up.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, everybody's they everybody's discussed that, but they can't put two and two together.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_04: That yeah, why was he doing this?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's his way to unwind and also to thank God.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_04: And also, I mean, I always make this, I always say, how many rock concerts you ever go to, and in the middle of it, there's two gospel songs.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_04: This is the message that so many people miss when they were probably sitting there watching the shows, if they ever got to see him.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_04: And it was just going over their head because all they're wrapped up is in uh they're seeing Elvis and that show that that they just saw, and then all of a sudden it gets you know quiet for just two songs, and then he goes back to doing what he was doing.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_04: That just flew right over their head.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't get it.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'm up there he was up there sharing with you his faith.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and th this is what brings me joy in my world.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and he was trying to share it with his fans.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't get it.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: Some of 'em did, but some of them didn't.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_03: So what do you think about about the Faith of Elvis book?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think uh and actually we've never talked about this before.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just curious your thoughts on you think that would make a good movie?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_03: And how is that even something that might even be a possibility in the future?
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think it would make a great movie in the hands of the movie.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_04: I think it would I mean it would show a side of Elvis that few people I mean, like I said, when we started doing this, I wanted to show a side of Elvis that you know few people saw and most people don't know about.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_04: I do I think it would be, yeah.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_04: Do I I mean it will do it would do the same thing the book is gonna do?
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's you know, it which you know when when I said when we originally sat down and we talked about, okay, what do you want to do with this book, Billy?
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, I want to help change people's lives.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's I think that's the book will do that.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_04: The movie would too.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_04: You know.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, now and the first thing everybody says was, Well, who would you get to play Elvis?
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_04: I wouldn't get anybody.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_04: I wouldn't get it, I wouldn't get an actor.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'd get an actor, but I would use that deep fake that everybody's using, like they just used on uh America's got talent or whatever, and they can make the guy look just like Elvis.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_04: That way, yeah, that way the they're not the fans aren't sitting there going, because anytime you walk into a movie, especially when you're dealing with a historical figure, and like this guy, Austin Butler, he was good, but he does not look like Elvis.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he his acting was good enough to make you forget about that part of it.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_04: I will say that.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_04: That worked.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_04: But my first thing is when especially like like John F.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_04: Kennedy, I'm looking that he doesn't look like John F.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_04: Kennedy.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_04: So that's what I'm looking at.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, so that's the first thing that pops in my mind.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_04: So that's the first little negative thing, and then it always builds up after that as you're sitting there watching.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I would make it so realistic with the deep faith that you would.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, that's him up there.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's the way I would do it.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, of course, that technology costs a lot of money.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I've seen that clip you're talking about.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was really cool and and kind of eerie in some ways.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you you can tell it's not really him, but I mean it's close enough to where okay, you forget about that.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it doesn't look like him, it looks like him.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_04: So you get that part out of your mind.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, technology has progressed to the point nowadays where I mean it's it's photorealistic.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe that's in the cards.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_03: Then you'd have to think about who would play you in the movie, you know, as a kid.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: They'd have to deep face that.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: Really, maybe it's time to start making your list of actors.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't really keep up with movies like I used to.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I don't know any actors or anybody, you know, I don't really keep up with it.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm more into sports and racing, auto racing and stuff like that.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't really keep up with it anymore like I used to.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a whole nother element of of your yours and Elvis' story that we didn't even talk about in this conversation.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_03: Cars and racing and all those kind of things.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_03: So and that's all in the book.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_03: And man, I loved, I loved writing those chapters.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_03: It was so much fun.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_04: I really liked working with you.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's like I said, after when we finished, it it it was like, okay, now I what am I gonna do now since I'm not gonna talk to Kent twice a week?
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_03: You got a lot more free time now that I'm not always bugging.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I missed it, you know.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_04: It got to be, I I actually look forward to talking with you.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because it this was also it was fun.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_04: It was also kind of like the cleansing of the soul for me to do this.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_04: You know, to finally be able to tell this story right here and you know feel good about it at the end of the day.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_04: That was to me, that was an added blessing on it.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I I want to thank you because that's you made it feel like, you know, okay, Billy, uh, it's confessional time.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_03: So time, time to step into the booth.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_03: Weekly confession.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm hoping that we have a chance to work together on some more projects, and I may have a few ideas swimming around in the back of my mind, you know, for things to be done on.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_04: Anytime anybody says anything to me about writing a book or anything like that, I always say the first person you better get in touch with is Kent Sanders.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I appreciate that.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_04: Because if you want to do a book, that is the guy that can do it.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: Because you impress me.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, I I the first guy I worked with with Martin Torgoff became a pretty famous writer afterwards.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_04: And that was his first book.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_04: Guess what's gonna happen?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_04: Kent Sanders is gonna be a famous writer now.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and you know, we'll see what happens.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_04: You deserve it too, buddy.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um thank you.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's been a real honor to be involved in this.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, people, I'm glad you're doing a podcast for writers because they need to sit and listen to you.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_04: Because, buddy, you did a great job.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, on this book right here.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you impressed me.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_04: I I I still haven't picked it up and read it yet, only because I don't want um, it's still too fresh in my mind that we just went through.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna give it maybe another month and I'm gonna pick it up and read it.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_04: Probably when it's on the release date, I'll probably pick it up and read it.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you should have some copies coming your way.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_04: I actually just I got those advanced copies, you know, but it doesn't have the photos and stuff in it.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, well, I just checked with the publisher yesterday, and they should be they're sending both of us a box of author copies.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_03: So so you should be getting we should both be getting some hardbacks with the photo insert and all the stuff pretty soon.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: So well, Billy, thanks for taking the time to do this.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was an honor.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_03: It was my pleasure, Kent.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_04: You know, plus we're gonna be doing some more stuff.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_04: I think we're gonna be doing something on Facebook, you know.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the publisher wants us to do something.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I always love doing this stuff with you because I mean I don't have to educate you on the on the topic of the book.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I was there.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I wasn't there there, but and uh yeah, you're just a great guy.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I love uh that that whole process that we went through was it was completely different than any book I've ever done before.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I I at the end of the day, I felt good about what I what we had done.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me too.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thanks again.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_03: This has been an absolute blast, and um yeah, this this is gonna come out the week of the book's release.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm actually doing an Elvis week on my podcast.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna be doing some of the short episodes about my own takeaways as a writer from this experience and some things that I learned from from you and from Elvis.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I'm just gonna do my own little mini Elvis week.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be There you go.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_03: Why not?
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, why not?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh well, I mean, we're here to celebrate his life, you know, and that you know Absolutely.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I gotta get one of those fancy posters like you've got behind you of the book's cover.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_03: That would look really good on my wall.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it would.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what happened?
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: So you gave away all your copies because I remember we did uh we did something and you had it all strategically placed in your bookshelf behind you.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_03: I got one left, it's on my shelf.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm gonna keep that one for a souvenir.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I do have one more poster here, but I'm you know, they sent me two and then they end with a big, really tough cardboard thing because they said sometimes these things will get bent.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, uh, you know.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I tell you what, when you come to Memphis, I'll give it to you.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_03: I will happily take it.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_03: I'll put it on my wall.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_03: That'll be fun.
• 51:39
  unknown: All right.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks again.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_03: This was a blast.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Ken.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_03: Have a great one.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_03: Tell the family I said hey.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_03: I will.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_03: I hope you enjoyed this conversation that we had about the faith of Elvis.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was certainly an honor and a pleasure to get to be involved in this project.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I hope this conversation gives you a little bit of a taste about what's in the book.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, I hope that you check out the book.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_03: We worked really hard on it.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_03: Now that kind of goes without saying because authors work hard all the time on their books, right?
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_03: But I really believe that this book is something special.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's available now at your local bookstore or your favorite online retailer.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, many thanks to Billy for taking the time out to do this interview.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: He has been very, very busy doing tons of interviews over the last couple of months for this book, The Faith of Elvis.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_03: So he is definitely a trooper.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_03: He uh has tons of energy and is just going through all these interviews and uh they're keeping him very busy doing the media and the PR stuff for this.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_03: So Billy, thanks for taking the time out to chat here uh on my podcast about this very special book that we were able to be a part of together.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you so much for listening.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_03: Hope you enjoyed this conversation, and I'll see you in the next episode.