Elvis Birthday Tribute show to include variety of talent

Presley’s original drummer will be master of ceremonies at the tribute show.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

This past summer marked 30 years since Elvis Presley left the building for good.

What remains of the King of Rock is a legacy that seemingly gets bigger every year. Aside from pilgrimages to his Graceland home in Memphis, fans can locally celebrate his career by attending the Playhouse Square Center’s annual Elvis Birthday Tribute show, which takes place Sunday at the State Theatre. 

Acting as master of ceremonies during the two hours of live music is longtime Presley friend and original drummer D.J. Fontana.

“It’s just a great show,” said Fontana, calling from his Nashville home. “Shawn Klush won the award for the Elvis Presley impersonator, and Presley impersonator Donny Edwards does a good job with the ’50s and ’60s early stuff. We also have the Sweet Inspirations, who were with Elvis during the ’70s. They do a fine job and are really good singers.”

Invariably, it’s the 76-year-old Fontana who gives the event its integrity with one Presley story after another. The drummer first set eyes on a young Presley when he appeared on the radio show “Louisiana Hayride” in October 1954.

“I went back to the dressing room, and he only had one record out, so he was fairly new,” said Fontana, who was a studio musician for the radio show. “I said I could do [his material] and we did that a couple of weekends and went to Texas for a few different dates. He finally left to go back to Memphis. About 10 days later they called and said, ‘We have some dates in Texas, you wanna go?’”

Little did Fontana realize at the time he was accepting a long-term gig as drummer for the world’s biggest rock icon. He performed on many of Presley’s biggest hits of the ’50s, including “Hound Dog,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Don't Be Cruel,” “Jaihouse Rock” and more. The ride was crazy and enjoyable, said Fontana, whose last performance ever with Presley was his legendary “’68 Comeback Special.”

“That was quite a show,” Fontana said. “After that they called a few other times, but nobody else wanted to go back on the road. We’d been out there almost 20 years with him, so we were getting tired.”

Fontana continued to play around as a session musician for years. He eventually stopped performing after getting fed up with how Nashville approaches music recording. 

“I don’t like the way they cut records anymore,” Fontana said. “One guy at a time does a track and then they add singers and this and that. It could be six months cutting one record. We used to go in and cut three or four sides every three hours.

“I’d rather everybody played together, where you get a better feel of the record and a better sound. When you put one guy in there and another later and another later, to me that would get old.”

Something that doesn’t get old for Fontana is playing percussion on some of Presley’s early hits. That’s exactly what he’ll be doing at the upcoming Elvis Birthday Tribute.

“To me, Elvis keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Fontana said. “You see stuff on television every day. And on the radio, you hear it and say, ‘Jeez, they’re still talking about Elvis. He’s still the King.’ That’s all you can say about it.”