elvis bus tour memphis

Elvis & Johnny Cash Tours

Love elvis love johnny cash we do, too.

Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, two giants of American music, both began their careers right here in Memphis. At special times throughout the year we’ll run tours honoring these legends and sharing their stories and music. Scroll down for this year’s dates and times, and make sure to check back frequently for important updates! 

THE HOUND DOG TOUR

JOIN US THIS ELVIS WEEK ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 !

As unique as the man himself, the Hound Dog Tour takes a one-of-a-kind approach to sharing Elvis’s legacy in a high-energy concert and sightseeing tour all rolled into one. This 3 hour tour gives the inside story on the Memphis that Elvis knew and loved, the places that played a important role in his life. It features a fun stop at the former Memphian Theater, where you can sit in Elvis’ favorite seat and enjoy stories of Elvis’ private movie parties at the theater. Tour includes a souvenir t-shirt from the Memphian Theater!

See exciting Elvis sites such as:

• The Presley’s Lauderdale Courts apartment
• Elvis’ high school
• The Overton Park Shell, the amphitheater where he performed his first big show in 1954
• Elvis’ house at Audubon Drive
• The original Lansky Bros. clothing store
• Admission to the former Memphian Theater
• Chisca Hotel, home of WHBQ radio station
• former Russwood Park, site of the legendary July 4, 1956 concert
• Homes of Elvis’ girlfriends

Length: 3 hours

Departs From: Beale St. and BB King Blvd (at Alfred’s)

Advance purchase required. Tours sell out quickly! To purchase by phone, call (877) 230-0331 or (901) 527-9415

THE MAN IN BLACK TOUR

The Man in Black Tour is a high-energy, live-music tribute tour that explores Cash’s years in Memphis: his early days as a struggling door-to-door salesman, his collaboration with Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant and the creation of their signature sound, as well as the songs that launched his storied career. The two hour tour features:

• the Overton Park Shell
• Galloway United Methodist Church, where he had his first paid gig
• Cash’s Memphis homes
• Marshall Grant’s home
• Former sites of Home Equipment Co. and Automobile Sales
• Radio Center, former home of WMPS radio station

Length: 2 hours

GRACELAND INSIDERS

Show your Graceland Insiders card and get 10% off any tour.

Promo Code: TCB

• Special Events
• Memphis Mojo Tour
• Discovery Tour
• Memphis Street Art Tour
• Memphis Ghost Tour
• Historic Memphis Walking Tour
• Beale Street Walking Tour
• Memphis True Crime Tour
• Elvis & Johnny Cash Tours

Backbeat Tours

197 Beale Street Memphis, TN 38103 901-527-9415

© Copyright 2021 Backbeat Tours

Tour Itinerary

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1 BIRMINGHAM

Today we head south toward Birmingham, Alabama for the night.

2 BIRTHPLACE / MUSEUM / EVENT CENTER / TUPELO

We visit Elvis’s Birthplace and Museum as well as the Tupelo Hardware. We enjoy a riding tour to see the sites that were significant to his early years. This evening we visit the Elvis Presley Event Center for “One Night With You” dinner and entertainment. We overnight in Tupelo.

3 CANDLELIGHT VIGIL / MEMPHIS

This is Elvis Week in Memphis and we begin by Touring his Home – Graceland. On the evening of the Anniversary of His Death, August 15th, we will participate in a Candlelight Vigil up the Driveway to the Mansion. This Ceremony, with thousands of his fans each carrying a lighted candle, is unbelievably impressive. We spend our first night in Memphis.

4 BEALE STREET / SUN STUDIO

Today we have a Local Guide give us a Tour of the Beautiful City of Memphis. The tour includes a visit to the Peabody Hotel to see the “Peabody Ducks” and World Famous Beale Street. We will also tour Sun Recording Studio where Elvis recorded his first record. We spend another night in Memphis.

5 NASHVILLE / HOMEWARD BOUND

On our way home we stop by Second Avenue in “Music City, USA”, Nashville.

Lodging & Tour

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No area 6 information available for this tour. Change your preferred pick up area or search the catalog for an area 6 version of this tour.

$50 Per Person

Upcoming Tour Dates

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Call: 612-229-5276  M-F 9am-5pm    Email: [email protected]

Elvis Presley & Memphis

October 6-12, 2024

Starting at   

Per Person Double Occupancy

Jeanie's Journeys Memphis Group Tour

Using a Credit Card will incur additional fee. Avoid the fee and mail Registration form with a check

DESCRIPTION:

Dust off your Blue Suede shoes and dance on down to Memphis for Music and Elvis. Visit Graceland, tour Sun Studios, enjoy time at your leisure on Beale Street, the Rock & Soul Smithsonian and sample some of the best BBQ the country has to offer!  The most significant enhancement and expansion of Elvis Presley's Graceland is now open! We're talking 200,000 square feet in honor of the "King of Rock an' Roll"!  So, pack your bags and join your friends at Jeanie's Journeys in the fall of 2024.  We'll save a seat for you! 

TOUR INCLUSIONS

• Round trip transportation in a deluxe motorcoach

• 4 nights accommodation in Memphis  • 2 nights at hotels on the road  • 6 Breakfasts and 4 Dinners  • Admission to Graceland, Rock & Soul Smithsonian, Sun Studios, National Civil Rights Museum, Missouri Civil War Museum  • Guided tour of Memphis with local guide  • Services of a professional tour director throughout

NOT INCLUDED

• Optional sightseeing, meals not listed in itinerary  • Hotel extras  • Transportation to bus pick up gathering places  • Tips to tour director & bus driver  • Any other items not specifically mentioned as included in the itinerary 

PER PERSON RATES: 

$1,398  double      $1,698  single.

Deposit: $200 per person at time of booking

Travel Insurance:  Non-Refundable Due at booking Price per person

$98  Double      $119  Single

Final Payment: September 1, 2024 ​

Cancellation Policy: 

Refund based on recoverable expenses before departure without insurance. With insurance, you will be fully refunded any time you cancel due to medical reasons.

We highly recommend that you purchase Travel Insurance Plan to protect your investment.

Travelers Needing Special Assistance

You must report any disability requiring special attention to Jeanie’s Journeys at the time the reservation is made.* Jeanie’s Journeys will make reasonable efforts to accommodate the special needs of tour participants. Such participants, however, should be aware that the Americans with Disabilities Act is inapplicable outside of the United States and facilities outside the United States for disabled individuals are limited. It is strongly recommended that persons requiring assistance be accompanied by a companion who is capable of and totally responsible for providing the assistance. Neither Jeanie’s Journeys nor its personnel, nor its suppliers, may physically lift or assist clients into transportation vehicles. If a traveler thinks he or she might need assistance during a trip, he or she should call Jeanie’s Journeys to determine what assistance might reasonably be given. Jeanie’s Journeys cannot provide special individual assistance to tour members with special needs for walking, dining, airport assistance or other routine activities. 

*To request a wheelchair accessible room on a cruise, the traveler or person sharing the room must have a recognized disability that alters a major life function and requires the use of a mobility device and the use of the accessible features provided in the wheelchair accessible stateroom.

Disclaimer:  Jeanie's Journeys acts only as an agent for the various independent suppliers that provide hotel accommodations, transportation, theater, or other services connected with this tour.  Such services are subject to the terms and conditions of those suppliers. Jeanie's Journeys INC and their respective employees, agents, representatives accept no liability whatsoever for any injury, damage, loss, accident, delay, or any other default of any company or person in performing these services.  Responsibility is not accepted for losses, injury, damages or expenses of any kind due to sickness, weather, strikes, hostilities, wars, terrorist acts, acts of nature, local laws or other causes. All services and accommodations are subject to the laws and regulations of country in which they are provided.  Jeanie's Journeys INC is not responsible for any baggage or personal effects of any individual participating in the tours/trips arranged by Jeanie's Journeys. Individual travelers are responsible for purchasing a travel insurance policy, if desired, that will cover some of the expenses associated with the loss of luggage or personal effects, travel interruption and cancellation.

By Submitting a registration form either by mail, over the phone or online you are agreeing to Jeanie's Journeys Terms & Conditions

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Failed Graceland sale by a mystery entity highlights attempts to take assets of older or dead people

FILE - Fans wait in line outside Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Memphis home, in Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 15, 2017. A mysterious company has caused a stir for trying to auction Elvis Presley’s Graceland in a foreclosure sale this week. A judge has blocked the sale after Presley’s granddaughter filed a lawsuit alleging fraud. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill, File)

FILE - Elvis Presley with his girlfriend Yvonne Lime are photographed at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tenn., around 1957. A mysterious company has caused a stir for trying to auction Elvis Presley’s Graceland in a foreclosure sale this week. A judge has blocked the sale after Presley’s granddaughter filed a lawsuit alleging fraud. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home, is seen, Jan. 7, 2011, in Memphis, Tenn. A mysterious company has caused a stir for trying to auction Elvis Presley’s Graceland in a foreclosure sale this week. A judge has blocked the sale after Presley’s granddaughter filed a lawsuit alleging fraud. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Fans get off a tour bus at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home, Aug. 11, 2010, in Memphis, Tenn. A mysterious company has caused a stir for trying to auction Elvis Presley’s Graceland in a foreclosure sale this week. A judge has blocked the sale after Presley’s granddaughter filed a lawsuit alleging fraud. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The catalyst behind the failed gambit to sell off the iconic Graceland property in Memphis is a mystery.

The self-styled investment company also is under fire from a lawsuit alleging fraud , an aggressive attorney general and a community of Elvis Presley loyalists who consider the home-turned-museum of the the king of rock n’ roll to be sacred ground.

Among the many questions surrounding the attempt to auction Graceland is how often cases pop up in which an entity emerges to claim assets of older or dead people. Experts say it’s more common than one might think.

“I have never heard of a fraud targeting such a well-known institution. So it’s a bit surprising on that end,” said Nicole Forbes Stowell, a business law professor at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus. “But I don’t think it’s surprising to everyday people that are the targets.”

Naussany Investments and Private Lending caused a stir when a public notice for a foreclosure sale of the 13-acre (5-hectare) Graceland estate was posted this month.

The notice said Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, owed $3.8 million after failing to repay a 2018 loan. Riley Keough , an actor and Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, inherited the trust and ownership of the home after her mother, Lisa Marie Presley , died in 2023.

Naussany said Lisa Marie Presley used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the foreclosure sale notice. Keough filed a lawsuit on May 15 alleging Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023 and asking a Memphis judge to block the sale to the highest bidder.

“Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments,” Keough’s lawyer Jeff Germany wrote in the lawsuit.

“It’s a scam,” actor Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ former wife, declared on her social media accounts.

On Wednesday, an injunction by Shelby County Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins halted the sale , which was planned for the next day. Jenkins said in court that Elvis Presley’s estate could be successful in arguing Nausanny’s attempt to auction Graceland is fraudulent.

One reason is an affidavit from Kimberly Philbrick, the Florida notary whose name is listed on Naussany’s documents. Philbrick indicated she never met Lisa Marie Presley or notarized any documents for her, according to the lawsuit. The judge said the affidavit brought the signature’s authenticity into question.

On the relevant documents, the signature blocks were not correct and the paperwork references an online notarization option that was not recognized in Florida until 2020, two years after the alleged notarization, Stowell said.

“That makes me wonder if these documents were created after Lisa Marie passed away,” Stowell said. “The whole thing does not pass the smell test.”

Mark Sunderman, a University of Memphis real estate professor, questioned why the lender would foreclose now if it had not received payments years after the loan was issued.

“If someone starts missing payments or hasn’t made a payment, you’re not going to sit around for a couple of years and then say, ‘Golly, I think we need to foreclose now,’” Sunderman said.

The lender’s legitimacy also is in doubt after unsuccessful attempts by The Associated Press to verify its existence beyond an email address and court filing signed by a Gregory Naussany.

Court documents included company addresses in Jacksonville, Florida, and Hollister, Missouri. Both were for post offices, and a Kimberling City, Missouri, reference was for a post office box. The business also is not listed in state databases of registered corporations in Missouri or Florida.

“I’ve never heard of that business,” Kimberling City Clerk Laura Cather said.

A search of online records for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority showed no registration for the company. No representatives of Naussany appeared in court, though the company filed an unsuccessful motion denying the lawsuit’s allegations and opposing the estate’s request for an injunction.

After the sale was halted, Naussany issued a statement saying it would drop its claim because a key document in the case and loan were recorded and obtained in a different state, meaning “legal action would have to be filed in multiple states.” The statement did not specify the other state.

Naussany has not responded to emailed interview requests from the AP. Online court records did not show any legal filings suggesting the claim, or the lawsuit, had been dropped.

Sunderman, the Memphis professor, said that apparently fraudulent claims involving real estate asset disputes arise more often than people think, especially in situations involving inheritances.

“It’s very difficult for someone to say, ‘Well, no, I didn’t take out this loan, I didn’t sign these papers,’ when they’re dead,’” Sunderman said.

Darrell Castle, a Memphis attorney not involved in the case but monitoring it, said he often sees cases where older people are targets of fraud.

“I get cases quite often where people who are really helpless in the final stages of life in a nursing home are financially victimized,” Castle said. “The human mind will think of some way to cheat and steal if it can.”

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Thursday that his office was looking into the case to determine whether the estate was targeted with fraud.

Skrmetti’s office can investigate and bring civil lawsuits, including in instances of alleged consumer fraud. It could turn over evidence of criminal wrongdoing to the district attorney or federal authorities.

Opened in 1982, Graceland quickly became Memphis’ most famous tourist attraction and a touchstone for fans of Elvis Presley, the singer, actor and fashion icon who died in August 1977 at the age of 42. Hundreds of thousands of visitors flock annually to the museum and the large entertainment complex across the street.

Who would target it with a scheme that “fell apart with the first email and phone call, or internet search,” and what holes in the legal system let it got closer to the auction block than it should have, should be the focuses of the attorney general, said Nikos Passas, a Northeastern University criminology and criminal justice professor.

“The chance of succeeding in what they were trying to do — that is, to get the property auctioned off and get the proceeds and then use the money — doesn’t seem to be the actual intent, unless they are incredibly stupid,” Passas said. “So, the question is then, ‘What was the intent, and who was behind it?’”

Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. AP reporter Heather Hollingsworth contributed from Mission, Kansas.

Whitehaven Redevelopment Opportunity

Listing Contacts

3993 Elvis Presley Blvd, Memphis, TN 38116

Marketing description.

21.62 all sold together.​ Separating is not an option.​

Rare income producing redevelopment opportunity in Memphis, TN.​ The Whitehaven area of Memphis has experienced a revitalization over in recent years.​ As this neighborhood has developed into a steady consumer driven area drawing middle income families looking for stability.​ Over the last four years, Elvis Presley Blvd and the surrounding areas have become home to Starbucks, Autozone Megahub, Cookout, Gutherie’s, and many more.​

Currently, this property has three long time tenants and a billboard bringing in $135,000 annually.​ Rarely does a redevelopment site have income pouring in while plans are being made.​ In addition, the owners of the property operate an RV park on this site.​ While they are not interested in continuing the business, it would be easy for a new owner to take over with onsite managers ready to transition under new ownership.​ The rear of the property allows for ample redevelopment for multi-family, single family residences, offices, and more allowed within the CMU-2 Zoning.​

The city of Memphis has contracted a company to make improvements to the drainage ditch that divides the property.​ Making offers early will bring the Buyer into the conversation allowing for an ideal outcome.​

Investment Highlights

21.62 AC zoned CMU-2

Long time tenants bringing income during redevelopment

884’ of frontage on Elvis Presly Boulevard

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Due diligence information will be provided. Please reach out to the listing contacts for details.

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The ultimate road trip itinerary across America's Deep South

A 10-day tour from New Orleans to Nashville, via Memphis

A road trip across America’s south was the honeymoon adventure my husband Zak and I had been looking for. Stopping at New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville, we were immersed in the origins of jazz, blues and country music, with late nights spent exploring streets that pulsed with the thrum of live bands, tasting Creole, Cajun and Appalachian flavours along the way that showcase the rich mix of cultures that characterise each state. After spending 10 days driving across Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, our spirits were full of song, we had stories for days and enough powdered sugar in our veins to fuel a marathon or two. Here is our itinerary for the ultimate journey…

Days one to four: New Orleans

The early-morning chorus of accordion-like bellows from passing trains, music still playing in bars from the night before and gaggles of geese honking somewhere far away roused us at six am. In search of breakfast, we wandered through the French Quarter to reach the open-air Café du Monde on the banks of the Mississippi River, where a queue was already forming up the street for its freshly made pillowy beignets.

One afternoon, we ventured over to the north shore to explore the Honey Island Swamp by boat, spotting the glimmer of alligator eyes among the foliage and racoons clambering up the trees hung with Spanish moss. On another, we joined a city food tour, sampling alligator and seafood gumbo at the Red Fish Grill, and a delicious muffuletta sandwich with chicken and andouille sausage jambalaya at Napoleon House (where the French plotted to bring Napoleon over from captivity in Corsica). We also stopped at the beautiful hidden courtyard at Dickie Brennan’s Tableau (the bar adjoined to the hotel where Tennessee Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ) for potent French 75s and Sazeracs.

At night, the French Quarter came alive, with something surprising inside each dive: along Bourbon Street we passed a crowd doing the cha-cha slide in perfect synchronicity, next door to which two men were engaged in an intense game of chess. A show at Preservation Hall, just off Royal Street, was the hottest ticket in town. New Orleans legends such as Emma Barrett have performed at this 40-seat venue, where today New Orleans’ finest musicians play a mix of marching tunes and jazz standards.

Where to dine? For brunch, the Ruby Slipper Café provides all the very best southern fixings, such as biscuits, gravy and grits with sweet ice-tea. Come dinnertime, the Criollo at Hotel Monteleone is a delicious fine-dining option.

Bring home… frosted pecans and astonishingly moreish bacon brittle from the family-run Leah’s Pralines sweet shop on St Louis Street.

Road trip tip: make your next stop the city of Natchez, Mississippi, and book in a private class with the acclaimed chef Regina Charboneau at her cooking school. She is famous across the US for her buttery biscuits, and has served up dishes for stars such as Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen.

Days five to seven: Memphis

Our Elvis Presley pilgrimage began on the way into Memphis, when we made a detour to the singer’s home city of Tupelo, parking up at Johnnie’s, his favourite burger joint. Intrigued to try their famous doughburgers – an unlikely delicacy created during the Great Depression where flour is mixed into the patty to bulk out the meat – we both ordered one and the singer’s preferred RC cola in tribute. They were surprisingly fluffy, perfectly flavoured with mustard and pickles – and so moreish we shared another. As part of a tour with the Elvis Birthplace Museum, we also visited the modest 400-square-foot house in which he was born (and where his identical twin brother Jessie was tragically stillborn), and also took a moment to sit in the church he attended as a child.

It was an hour and a half before we reached the neon glow of downtown Memphis, driving past buzzy Beale Street – the home of the blues, where artists such as BB King used to play – and Sun Studio, a place that tops the bucket lists of 1950s-music fans. This was where the DJ Sam Phillips helped launch the careers of some of the world’s most legendary musicians: Elvis made his first hit ‘That’s Alright Mama’ here at the age of 19; Johnny Cash recorded ‘Cry, Cry, Cry’; and Jerry Lee Lewis ‘Great Balls of Fire’.

The city has had an overwhelming impact on modern music-making; to its south is Stax Records, which produced some of the most emblematic soul songs of 1960s and 1970s, including ‘I’ll Take You There’ by the Staple Singers and Otis Redding’s ‘The Dock of the Bay’. Just 10 minutes from the centre is Graceland, Elvis’ beloved home. The house is exactly as he left it, a time capsule of his eccentric Seventies extravagance, with outlandish interiors that include a shag-pile-clad jungle-room with an indoor waterfall.

Where to stay? The Peabody Hotel , a Memphis institution, whose five resident Mallard ducks march daily through the grand lobby.

Where to dine? Book in at Amelia Gene for an unbeatable cheesecake; for hearty Italian dishes, try Catherine and Mary’s.

Bring home… memorabilia from Sun Studios and Graceland.

Road trip tip: forgo the interstate roads and take the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway, which runs for 444 miles from Louisiana to Tennessee through a picturesque national park.

Days eight to ten: Nashville

While New Orleans and Memphis are clearly strong contenders, Tennessee’s capital clinches the title of ‘Music City’. Although it’s known as the heartland of country, Nashville is home to many genres – bluegrass, jazz, gospel, rock ’n’ roll… The best place to immerse yourself is in one of the intimate venues where songwriters debut their newest melodies, such as the Bluebird or the Listening Room Café.

Just a short hop from the honky-tonks of Broadway is the Country Music Hall of Fame, where I almost lost my guitarist husband among its extensive collection of memorabilia (especially exciting was Les Paul’s Log – the first-ever modern electric guitar dating from 1939). From there, you can also jump on a bus to visit another historic studio – RCA Studio B – where Dolly Parton recorded both ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘Jolene’.

Of course, a trip to Nashville is incomplete without a visit to the historic live-radio hall, the Grand Ole Opry. We ended our final evening with a backstage tour, mingling with the musicians in the green-room as they waited to go on and watching the triple Grammy Award-winner Steve Earle perform from the side of the stage.

Where to stay? The Hermitage Hotel – Tennessee’s first five-star hotel, which has hosted everyone from Patsy Cline to Amelia Earhart since opening in 1910. Designed in the Beaux Arts style, it is impressively grand, with polished marble, ornate plasterwork and an intricate stained-glass ceiling in the lobby.

Where to dine? Audrey, the flagship of the acclaimed chef Sean Brock. Dishes are inspired by his Appalachian roots and the comforting recipes cooked by his grandmother (the restaurant’s namesake), such as chicken and dumplings, and warm sesame and citrus cake.

Bring home… denim from the Nashville label Imogene + Willie in the 12 South neighbourhood. While you’re in the area, pick up some pastries at the Butter Milk Ranch (a dulce de leche cookie is a must) to enjoy on the flight home.

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Graceland foreclosure: Emails allegedly from company claim sale of Elvis' home was a scam

Graceland has for a long time been a pilgrimage for tourists from around the world looking to pay homage to the late Elvis Presley .

But recently, the King’s estate in Memphis has been less a mecca for pop culture and more for the bizarre.  

An attempted foreclosure auction due to an alleged loan taken out by Lisa Marie Presley from the mysterious Naussany Investments and Private Lending. A lawsuit filed by Graceland owner Riley Keough claiming the foreclosure attempt was a fraud and that documents had been falsified. And now, emails in multiple languages have been sent to various media outlets claiming to be from the person behind the scam.

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"The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office is aware of the email from someone purporting to be Gregory Naussany that says, essentially, that he is a scammer from Nigeria. We will continue looking into the matter of the failed attempt to foreclose on the iconic Graceland, beloved home of Elvis Presley," Amy Lannom Wilhite, the Tennessee Attorney General director of communications, said in an email Wednesday.

Here is the latest on the investigation into Naussany, the lawsuit against the entity and the emails from the alleged scammer.

What are the next legal steps regarding the attempted Graceland foreclosure?

For starters, the foreclosure was halted after a hearing in Shelby County Chancery Court on May 22. Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins ruled the pending foreclosure sale could not proceed.

On May 24, Memphis-based law firm Morton & Germany — which is representing Keough (the late Lisa Marie Presley 's daughter) and The Promenade Trust — filed the court-ordered injunction bond following the May 22 hearing. The order stopped the foreclosure sale and maintains the restraining order filed by Keough and The Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland estate, regarding the sale and fraudulent claims in the lawsuit.

Representatives from Morton & Germany told The Commercial Appeal, part of the USA TODAY network, that no further litigation or hearings are scheduled regarding the case. That is a result of May 22's hearing and the arrival of a pending investigation from the offices of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.

On May 23, Skrmetti formally announced his offices would begin looking into a fraud case regarding Naussany Investments' claims on Graceland .

Did Naussany Investments admit attempted Graceland foreclosure was a scam?

There's been no shortage of twists and turns regarding the Graceland foreclosure case and alleged representatives from Naussany Investments.

The initial lawsuit filed by Keough's legal team mentions two persons affiliated with the company: Kurt Naussany and Carolyn Williams. At the beginning of May 22's hearing, a Gregory Naussany came into the fold, first filing a request to delay the court hearing. That request was denied by the court.

After the hearing, the alleged Gregory Naussany emailed The Commercial Appeal and claimed to drop the foreclosure case. Despite the claim, the Shelby County Chancery Clerk's office confirmed it had received no correspondence from the company since the hearing ended the morning of May 22. As of Wednesday, May 29, the court has still not received any correspondence from Naussany Investments.

The email was riddled with grammatical errors and the alleged Gregory Naussany sent The Commercial Appeal a follow-up email claiming Kurt Naussany was no longer affiliated with the company and had not been since 2015. In addition, the emails received from Gregory Naussany came from a Hotmail account.

The two other emails associated with the company are Outlook accounts and are both listed in the lawsuit filed by Morton & Germany. The email for Carolyn Williams contained three "Ls" instead of two in "LLC."

Emails from alleged Naussany Investments associate claim foreclosure was a scam

After the emergence of Gregory Naussany, the email associated with Kurt Naussany contacted The Commercial Appeal on May 25. This email from the alleged Kurt Naussany came after a "please do not contact any further request" from the user.

The email from Kurt Naussany to The Commercial Appeal was written in Spanish. Using Google Translate, the email states:

"To all the press I am the Yahoo Ring Leader of Nigeria. I have Google worms in the United States, the Presly is all made up and a hoax, my ring preys on the dead and the elderly for money, we make things up by finding things on the Intanet to scam US citizens out of money, this it's something invented to get my worms to get money.

"As you know, we Nigerian Yahoos have been doing this for many years. We steal US birth and death certificates, hack into people's accounts, make up addresses, steal identities, search everything and hack all kinds of records. We hurt innocent people who don't know that we took their identity and used innocent people's names to do it. My ring has failed in this matr. We have stolen millions from you Americans, you blind fools.

"We move on to the next project and continue drinking. A press threat and we sit and laugh at you idiots and watch you make fools of yourself. Come find us in Nigeria."

In the email signature there is a request to translate the message from Nigerian to English to understand (it is written in Spanish), along with contact information for the Hotmail address associated with Gregory Naussany.

On May 28, the New York Times reported receiving a similar email from Naussany Investments; however some details differed. The Times reported the alleged Naussany Investments representative claimed to be a "ring leader on the dark web" and that the ring preyed on the elderly and deceased, "especially those from Florida and California."

Additionally, the email the Times received was written in Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda, according to the report.

Other media outlets, including the Daily Memphian , reported receiving an email from the same account, though the details in the message differ. The outlet reported the message they received was written in English and Ganda (also a dialect from Uganda) and claims to have "worms in AZ."

What will happen next in the Graceland case?

At this stage, no additional hearings are confirmed regarding the foreclosure case. With the Tennessee Attorney General's office looking into the fraud case, any additional news at this stage is likely to come from that investigation.

On Tuesday, The Commercial Appeal contacted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation regarding the case. TBI communications director Josh Devine said the TBI has not received any requests from the District Attorney General in Shelby County, which would be the mechanism for the TBI to open an investigation.

The Shelby County District Attorney General's office has not returned request for comment.

When asked about Shelby County involvement or the process of partnering with local and state agencies for the investigation, the Tennessee Attorney General's office did not provide additional information or comment.

The Tennessee Attorney General's office provided additional resources for consumer safety regarding real estate scams .

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Graceland foreclosure: Emails allegedly from company claim sale of Elvis' home was a scam

More From Forbes

New exhibit looks back at the night elvis presley peformed on the grand ole opry.

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Photo of Elvis PRESLEY; Posed studio portrait of Elvis Presley (Photo by RB/Redferns)

In the 1950s, families gathered around the radio every Saturday night to hear the Grand Old Opry. It was live music at its best, featuring performances from some of the biggest names in music. The Ryman, built as a church before becoming a music venue, served as the home of the Opry from 1943 to 1974.

Stepping onto that coveted stage launched the careers of famous names like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and many more. They would return time and time again.

Crowd waiting to see the Grand Ole Opry gathers outside the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

And yet, that wasn’t the case for a young man from Memphis who would become one of the greatest performers the world has ever known.

Although Elvis would take the world by storm when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan two years later, he didn’t quite “wow the crowd” during his performance on the Opry.

“From Memphis to the Ryman”

A new exhibit called “From Memphis to the Ryman” walks visitors through Elvis Presley’s one and only appearance at the iconic venue. It’s done with photos, artifacts, and an audio account narrated by Matthew Ramsey of the group, Old Dominion, telling the story with the help of actual recollections from people who were there.

New exhibit "From Memphis to the Ryman" tells the story of Elvis Presley's one and only performance ... [+] on the Grand Ole Opry.

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The year was 1954 and Elvis was 19 years old, living in Memphis, and recording music at Sun Records. He hadn’t connected with Colonel Tom Parker yet, and Sam Phillips (of Sun Records) was his manager. Elvis had just released “That’s All Right” and was starting to get some traction locally but wasn’t well-known outside Memphis. So, Phillips decided to try to get Elvis on the Grand Ole Opry

Phillips connected with the Ryman’s General Manager, Jim Denny, who agreed to let Elvis appear during country artist Hank Snow’s late-night segment of the show.

Denny, however, refused to let Elvis perform “That’s All Right.” He would only allow Elvis to sing his version of the Bill Monroe song “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

Elvis Presley records "That's All Right."

Elvis Presley records "That's All Right" in 1954.

Still, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Elvis Performs on the Grand Ole Opry

As Elvis prepared to take to the stage with guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black that Saturday night, Hank Snow forgot his name and introduced Elvis simply as, “A young man from Memphis.”

The trio (Elvis and his two musicians) took the stage and Elvis belted out “Blue Moon of Kentucky.

As you might expect, his high-energy version of the bluegrass hit wasn’t quite what the Opry audience was used to hearing.

So, how did the crowd react?

The exhibit delves into the response, even touching on stories that have circulated for years that Elvis “bombed.” It addresses claims that Elvis was so poorly received, Denny said he should go back to driving a truck.

Did that really happen? Visitors will hear from people who were there the night Elvis performed.

Regardless, it’s interesting to note, Elvis never stepped onto the Opry stage again. He did go back to the Ryman a few years later, but only to visit backstage with Johnny Cash and others.

Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley backstage at the Ryman Auditorium (1957)

His performance was part of music history, both his and the Ryman’s. And perhaps it can offer a lesson for other aspiring artists pursuing a dream that whatever the result, each exerience simply serves as a a stepping stone to the next. Keep moving forward.

From Memphis to the Ryman” is included in all regular daytime tours of the Ryman, available seven days a week. And while the Elvis exhibit highlights “his” story, the Mother Church of Country Music, as the Ryman is called, has many more stories of legendary artists to share.

To learn more or schedule a tour visit:

The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN

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Elvis Presley's Personal Bible Sells at Auction for $150K - Here's a Verse He Highlighted

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The personal Bible of rock legend Elvis Presley has sold at auction for a record-breaking amount. 

Kruse GWS Auctions reports to CBN News that the special Bible sold for $150,000 over Memorial Day weekend to a bidder whose identity remains private. It received 23 bids before the final gavel. 

The remarkable item was discovered by Elvis's cousin, Patsy Presley, and his father, Vernon Presley, when they sorted through his items after he died in 1977, Christian Today reports. 

The gold-embossed cover of the Bible features Elvis Aaron Presley's name and pages highlighted with the singer's most studied scriptures including this passage from Job 31: 24-28:

"If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security,' if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high."

Accompanying this passage was a handwritten note from Presley's cousin explaining how he discovered the Bible. 

"Shortly after Elvis' passing, my uncle Vernon (Elvis' dad) and I went up into Elvis' bedroom at Graceland to organize and pack many of his personal belongings. This Holy Bible was one of three that Elvis had on his night table. After packing them, Uncle Vernon had me take them home for safekeeping and eventually gave them to me," Patsy wrote. 

What Do We Know About Elvis' Faith?

"The King of Rock and Roll" is often celebrated for his musical talents, but little has been shared about his faith. 

"He was a Christian, and most people don't know that," Presley's stepbrother, Billy Stanley told Faithwire . "When I say 'Christian,' he was a Bible-carrying Christian…wherever he went, he took the Bible with him."

***Please sign up for  CBN Newsletters  and download the  CBN News app  to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***  

Stanley, who worked for Elvis when he was on tour, was tasked with carrying the performer's Bible and shared that he often observed his stepbrother praying before performances and singing gospel songs afterward.

"He read the Bible almost every day," he said.

Stanley authored The Faith of Elvis: A Story Only a Brother Can Tell , which reveals other unique details of Elvis' faith and life.

"Nobody can really imagine the position Elvis was in…here you have a man that really changed culture," Stanley said. "I always thought…he had the devil on one side, and he's got God on the other side, and there was a constant battle going on inside of his head."

Tragically, Elvis died at the age of 42 due to heart failure, but Stanley says that without a shadow of a doubt, Elvis remained connected to God. 

"I would hear people say, 'You're the king.' He said, 'No, no, I'm sorry. There's only one true king, and that's Jesus,'" Stanley told Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , adding, "He was not afraid to show his faith."

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About The Author

Talia Wise has served as a multi-media producer for CBNNews.com, CBN Newswatch, The Prayer Link, and CBN News social media outlets. Prior to joining CBN News she worked for Fox Sports Florida producing and reporting. Talia earned a master’s degree in journalism from Regent University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia. More

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Who Plotted to Sell Graceland? An Identity Thief Raises His Hand.

A person using an email for the company seeking to foreclose on the former home of Elvis Presley says his ring was behind the threat to sell the beloved landmark.

By Matt Stevens

The writer said he was an identity thief — a ring leader on the dark web, with a network of “worms” placed throughout the United States.

In an email to The New York Times, he said his ring preyed on the dead, the unsuspecting and the elderly, especially those from Florida and California, using birth certificates and other documents to discover personal information that aided in their schemes.

“We figure out how to steal,” he said. “That’s what we do.”

Recently, the writer suggested, the group had turned its attention to a major target: the estate of Lisa Marie Presley, which last week faced a threat that Graceland was about to be foreclosed on and sold by a mysterious company, Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC.

Media outlets often receive unsolicited emails from people who make outlandish claims. But this email arrived Friday in response to one sent by The Times to an email address that Naussany listed in a legal filing sent to a Tennessee court reviewing the foreclosure case.

In its email, The Times referred to the company’s claim that Ms. Presley had borrowed $3.8 million from it, using Graceland as collateral. In the responses, which came from the email address The Times had written to, the writer described the foreclosure effort not as a legitimate attempt to collect on a debt, but as a scam.

“I had fun figuring this one out and it didn’t succeed very well,” the email writer said. He said he was based in Nigeria and his email was written in Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda. But the filing with the email address was faxed from a toll-free number designed to serve North America; it was included in documents sent to the Chancery Court in Shelby County, Tenn., where the foreclosure case is still pending.

Since the news broke last week that a company was trying to sell Graceland — Elvis Presley’s former home and a beloved tourist attraction in Memphis — the Naussany company has been a persistent puzzle. It is difficult to find any public records that prove that the company exists. Phone numbers listed in court documents for the company are not in service. Addresses listed by the company are those of post offices.

In September, eight months after Ms. Presley’s death, Naussany Investments did file papers in probate court in California posting what it said was Ms. Presley’s debt from 2018. It included a deed of trust, with a signature represented as Ms. Presley’s, that put forward Graceland as collateral.

But Clint Anderson, the deputy administrator of the Shelby County Register of Deeds , said his office does not have on file a deed of trust or any other documents from Naussany Investments “to legitimize this company foreclosing on any other property in Shelby County.”

In its September filing, Naussany Investments said it would agree to settle what it described as the debt for a discounted $2.85 million, which would be paid by the Presley family trust. But the trust, now led by Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, the actress Riley Keough, did not view the debt as legitimate.

Naussany Investments then took out an ad in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, giving notice that it planned to auction Graceland in a foreclosure sale last week.

That led Ms. Keough to court last week, where she fought the foreclosure, declaring in a legal filing that the loan was a fiction, the company “a false entity” and the effort to sell Graceland a fraud. The signatures of Ms. Presley and of a notary public on some of the documents had been forged, lawyers for Ms. Keough said.

At a hearing on Wednesday , the judge blocked any immediate foreclosure on Graceland, saying that he needed to review more evidence.

No one representing the Naussany company attended the hearing. But shortly before it began, the court received a filing from a person identifying himself as a representative of the company, Gregory E. Naussany. The filing disputed Ms. Keough’s allegations, asked for time to present a defense and included an email address, [email protected], for further contact.

By the end of the day, though, Naussany Investments appeared to have given up. The Commercial Appeal and The Associated Press reported receiving emails from the company withdrawing its claims. Elvis Presley Enterprises, which operates Graceland as a tourist attraction, told The New York Times that a lawyer for the family’s trust had also received an email from a person purporting to be Gregory Naussany who said Naussany Investments did not intend to move forward with a sale.

Court records, however, do not yet list any motion by Naussany Investments to drop its claim.

A lawyer for Ms. Keough declined to comment on Tuesday.

In a bizarre case with so many unanswered questions, it is difficult to determine how much weight to place on the recent communications to The Times from the email address associated with Naussany Investments. While the writer says he is based in Nigeria, it is difficult to pinpoint his location.

The Bantu language used in the two emails to The Times is clunky in spots, according to a translator who reviewed the emails, while the English of the court documents the company has filed has been fluent.

NBC News is among several media outlets that have received other emails from people who suggested they have ties to the company, but it does not appear that those emails contained any acknowledgment of misconduct.

Naussany Investments has listed several email addresses in its court filings. Both emails received by The Times in recent days came from the address associated with Gregory Naussany that was listed in the company’s court filing. In each, the writer advanced the view that he was part of a sophisticated identity fraud operation that had particularly targeted Americans, who were described as gullible.

When The Times sought further clarification on specific issues, the writer replied, “You don’t have to understand.” The writer did not suggest any reasoning for being so forthcoming in the emails beyond taking credit for what he described as the ring’s success in other cases.

“I am the one who creates trouble,” the writer said to open his first email on Friday.

On Thursday, the attorney general of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti, said his office would review Naussany Investments and investigate its attempt to foreclose on what he said was the state’s most “beloved” home. A spokeswoman for the office said Tuesday that officials were aware of the correspondence sent to The Times and that it would “continue looking into the matter.”

On Friday, even before the recent emails from the company had been sent, Darrell Castle, a Memphis lawyer who has worked frequently on foreclosures for more than 40 years, called the whole situation “extremely unusual to the point of being unbelievable.”

Mark A. Sunderman, a real estate professor at the University of Memphis, was struck by the audacity of such an effort, but also noted how vulnerable the system can be.

“They picked the wrong piece of property,” he said. “If this had not been such a high-profile piece of property, they might have gotten away with it.”

In this case, the person who took credit for the scheme in emails conceded in a mixture of Luganda and English that he had been outmaneuvered.

“Yo client dont have nothing to worries,” the person wrote, “win fir her.”

Then the writer added: “She beat me at my own game.”

Musinguzi Blanshe contributed reporting from Kampala, Uganda, Abdi Latif Dahir from Nairobi, Kenya, Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal, Jessica Jaglois from Memphis and Aaron Krolik from New York. Kitty Bennett and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Matt Stevens writes about arts and culture news for The Times. More about Matt Stevens

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Omar Apollo Plots North American ‘God Said No’ Tour, With Stops at the Hollywood Bowl and Forest Hills Stadium

By Thania Garcia

Thania Garcia

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After making multiple appearances at international festivals and headlining shows, Omar Apollo is coming home for a North American tour in support of his upcoming album, “God Said No.”

The Grammy-nominated singer will perform in amphitheaters across the country including two dates in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theatre. He’s also set to appear at the Red Rocks and Forest Hills Stadium, starting with a launch date of Aug. 20 in his home state of Indiana. Apollo will be supported by Kevin Abstract, Malcolm Todd and and Rayvn Lenae.

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The album title is said to be Apollo’s interpretation of  “ lo que sera, sera ” which translates to “whatever will be, will be” or “it is what it is.” In a press release, the album is described as embodying “Omar’s tongue-in-cheek humorous outlook on the suffering that comes from surrendering and accepting whatever is thrown at you by life, a relationship or lover.”

Tickets for the tour will be available starting with Citi and AMEX presales beginning June 11. An artist presale will begin June 12, starting at 10am local time. Additional pre-sales will run throughout the week ahead of the general on-sale on June 14.

Tour Dates 

8/20 – Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park  

8/21 – Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre 

8/23 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island 

8/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage at The Mann 

9/3 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion 

9/4 – Toronto, ON @ Pavilion at Budweiser Stage 

9/6 – Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion

9/7 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium 

9/10 – Cincinnati, OH @ The ICON Festival Stage at Smale Park

9/11 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater  

9/13 – Charlotte, NC @ Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre 

9/16 – Miami, FL @ FPL Solar Amphitheater at Bayfront Park

9/17 – Orlando, FL @ Orlando Amphitheater 

9/19 – Houston, TX @ The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall 

9/21 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park

9/22 – Irving (Dallas), TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory 

9/24 – Bentonville, AR @ The Momentary *

9/26 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre 

9/29 – Vancouver, BC @ Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre

10/1 – Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater

10/2 – Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield * 

10/4 – Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre * 

10/5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl 

10/8 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl *

10/10 – Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Amphitheatre 

10/11 – San Diego, CA @ The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

* Non-Live Nation Date

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Stanley Booth’s Encounter with Elvis

• Text Sean OHagan

As rock’n’roll’s greatest chronicler, Stanley Booth has spent much of his life on the sharp edge of excess and destruction. Here, from a new collection of essays, are two of his close encounters...

Taken from the A/W19 issue of Another Man:

If, as they say, a man is known by the company he keeps, Stanley Booth is lucky to be alive. Now 77, he counts Keith Richards as a longtime friend, having fallen under his sway while covering The Rolling Stones’ 1969 tour of America. Booth’s time with the Stones began just before the death of Brian Jones in July of that year and ended with the deadly violence that attended their infamous free concert at the Altamont speedway in northern California in December. “You really had the feeling you could die the next minute,” Booth told me in 2012, referring to the spiralling chaos of a concert that was ‘policed’ by Hells Angels wired on booze and speed.

When the tour finished, he returned to London with the Stones, spending several months living in Richards’ house. “We did indulge in some daredevil behaviour,” he recalled, matter of factly, “but, finally I realised I was going down a road that could lead to my destruction.” He returned to America, chastened but not clean. That would take another decade or more. Likewise the completion of his now classic book, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, finally published to critical acclaim in 1984. When I asked Booth why it took so long to write, he replied: “I had to become somebody different from the person who went on the tour… I had to devise a new persona in order to tell the story.” It was worth the wait. The book’s novelistic style perfectly evoked the dissolute glamour of the group. It was hailed by Keith Richards as “the only one I can read and say, ‘Yeah, that’s how it was’.”

Since then, Booth’s output has been fitful but never less than intriguing, his writing a mixture of deep, often first-hand knowledge and undimmed passion. Inevitably, a biography of Keith Richards appeared in 1996, knowingly subtitled Standing in the Shadows. It referred to the life and musical role of the musician, but could just as easily have applied to Booth himself. He is an acute observer but not a detached one, his best work often infused with the sense that he is recalling a time, a place or a style of music that is past, or in the process of passing into history.

Now, after another long interregnum, comes Red, Hot and Blue. It comprises 26 essays, painstakingly crafted and well-wrought. This time around, the subtitle could be his own defiant elegy: Fifty Years of Writing About Music, Memphis, and Motherfuckers. The book is dedicated to the wayward Memphis legend Dewey Phillips, whose hyper-charged 1950s late-night radio show first broadcast raw rhythm & blues to a new postwar listening public mainly made up of young, restless teenagers. Dewey was the first DJ to play Elvis Presley’s debut single, That’s All Right Mama, and to alert his enthralled listeners to the fact that the young, unknown singer was, in fact, white. “He may have been crazy,” Booth writes of Dewey, whose unhinged rock‘n’roll spirit and doomed life pervades the entire book, “but he was a genius and very like a saint.” He was also, like Booth, an outsider, a country boy in thrall to black rhythm & blues and the primitive boogie made by wired white kids like himself who poured their demons into countless rockabilly records. Booth hailed from the rural swamplands of Waycross, Georgia, where country rock visionary Gram Parsons also grew up. It was an insular community even by the standards of the deep south. “People around Waycross think of Atlanta the way you and I think of the moon,” Booth later wrote. After a spell in Macon, Georgia, his family settled in Memphis, where he befriended – and wrote about – local bohemian hellraisers like the legendary photographer William Eggleston and the maverick musician-producer Jim Dickinson. Memphis looms large in Red, Hot and Blue: his astute and wildly anecdotal essay Situation Report: Elvis in Memphis, 1967, begins with the words, “Talking about eating pussy...” and continues with a tantalising mention of Elvis’s carnal tryst with the young Natalie Wood.

It was at Graceland that Booth overdosed on Darvon, an opioid painkiller given to him by the perpetually wired Dewey, his entrée into the court of the King. Later, in 1979, he interviewed, befriended and became a patient of Dr. George C. Nichopoulos aka ‘Dr. Nick’, who had previously been Elvis’s personal physician. Red, Hot and Blue could be read as 26 meditations on the blues according to Stanley Booth, with his own wayward life as the connecting thread. As well as being a deeply personal take on the people and places that once inhabited, and defined, rock‘n’roll and its myriad musical precedents, it is also an autobiography of sorts. The writer is present, palpably so, in every portrait he paints of these charismatic, messed up, visionary characters. We will not see their like again. Nor his.

ELVIS IN MEMPHIS, 1967

On a day not so long ago, when Presley happened to be staying at Graceland, the house was crowded with friends and friends of friends, all waiting for old El to wake up, come downstairs, and turn them on with his presence. People were wandering from room to room, looking for action, and there was little to be found. In the basement – a large, divided room with gold records hung in frames around the walls, creating a sort of halo effect – they were shooting pool or lounging under the Pepsi-Cola signs at the soda fountain. (When Elvis likes something, he really likes it.) In the living room boys and girls were sprawled, nearly unconscious with boredom, over the long white couches, among the deep snowy drifts of rug. One girl was standing by the enormous picture window, absently pushing one button, then another, activating an electrical traverse rod, opening and closing the red velvet drapes. On a table beside the fireplace of smoky moulded glass, a pink ceramic elephant was sniffing the artificial roses. Nearby, in the music room, a thin, dark-haired boy who had been lying on the cloth-of-gold couch, watching Joel McCrea on the early movie, snapped the remotecontrol switch, turning off the ivory television set. He yawned, stretched, went to the white, gilt-trimmed piano, sat down on the matching stool, and began to play. He was not bad, playing a kind of limp, melancholy boogie, and soon there was an audience facing him, their backs to the door.

Then, all at once, through the use of perceptions which could only be described as extra-sensory, everyone in the room knew that Elvis was there. And, stranger still, nobody moved. Everyone kept his cool. Out of the corner of an eye Presley could be seen, leaning against the doorway, looking like Lash LaRue in boots, black Levis and a black silk shirt.

The piano player’s back stiffens, but he is into the bag and has to boogie his way out. “What is this, amateur night?” someone mutters. Finally – it cannot have been more than a minute – the music stops. Everyone turns toward the door. Well I’ll be damn. It’s Elvis. What say, boy? Elvis smiles, but does not speak. In his arms he is cradling a big blue model airplane.

A few minutes later, the word – the sensation – having passed through the house, the entire company is out on the lawn, where Presley is trying to start the plane. About half the group has graduated into the currently fashionable Western clothing, and the rest are wearing the traditional pool-hustler’s silks. They all watch intently as Elvis, kneeling over the plane, tries for the tenth time to make the tiny engine turn over; when it splutters and dies, a groan, as of one voice, rises from the crowd.

Elvis stands, mops his brow (though of course he is not perspiring), takes a thin cigar from his shirt pocket and peels away the cellophane wrapping. When he puts the cigar between his teeth a wall of flame erupts before him. Momentarily startled, he peers into the blaze of matches and lighters offered by willing hands. With a nod he designates one of the crowd, who steps forward, shaking, ignites the cigar and then, his moment of glory, of service to the King, at an end, he retires into anonymity. “Thank ya very much,” says Elvis.

ELEMENTARY EGGLESTON

“The murder is always in the past,” William Joseph Eggleston said, leaning over the bar, speaking in a conspiratorial tone to my right ear. It was about 11 o’clock, and the Lamplighter, on Madison Avenue in midtown Memphis, glowed like a dim bulb. The three other men sitting on the black leatherette bar stools wore bill caps, two with slogans: “Everybody’s goodlookin’ after 2AM” and “This is my PARTY cap”. Jim Reeves was singing, “Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone...”

Eggleston and I were out of the Lamp’s sartorial swing, me in Irish tweeds, him in a four-button glen plaid jacket, knee-high English riding boots, and a full-length Nazi SS overcoat. (“This town is no place to wear a Nazi uniform,” one of his Memphis friends said, and another answered, “I should think it would be the safest place in the world.”) Eggleston wears the coat not out of Nazi sympathies but a kind of fierce irony that seems remarkable in such a sweet-tempered man. When Hitler’s name chanced to come up in one of our conversations, Eggleston quoted Sir Christopher Wren’s epitaph: “If you seek his monument, look around.”

Eggleston went on: “The first thing you know in the dream is that you’ll have the killing hanging over you for the rest of your life.”

“I never kill anybody I’d really like to kill.” “Me neither.” “Do you have precognitive dreams?” “I have a thousand déjà vus a day. But when I’m asleep, I’m in a world quite removed from me, with moving lights and perfectly contoured shapes. As a child I had a recurring fever dream with a fine thread of something, like a silver ribbon, running at a speed so high it looks like it’s sitting still – then it starts getting a little messed up, then it goes into whole galaxies of confusion, then, at last, because there’s no conceivable way out, it’s a complete debacle. They’re the worst ones.”

“Nightmares?” “Dreams. Sometimes the silver thread straightens itself out – feels pretty good.”

In the Lamp’s men’s room, things bite you on the legs and light in your hair. “Shirley, could we have a couple of beers?” Eggleston had asked the dour, dumpling-shaped bartender as we came in.

“Don’t wear my name out tonight,” Shirley had said, moving slowly toward the cooler.

I came out of the men’s to find Eggleston, having spilled his drink, asking Shirley for a Kleenex “to blow my nose”. The front wall of the Lamp had been rearranged a few days earlier by a young man who’d attempted to drive a stolen rental car through it. “I guess he wanted curb service,” Shirley said.

More people had come in. “Every day is a good day,” a man at the left end of the bar, near the jukebox, was saying. A girl sitting near the middle of the bar said, “I can’t help it if you don’t like my gay friends” to the man in the party cap. At the far right a white-haired man was finishing a beer. “I’m ’on have one more and go home,” he said.

“All right, Vern,” Shirley told him. “Hard to believe how simply we started,” Eggleston said as I sat down.

Excerpts from  Red Hot and Blue: Fifty Years of Writing about Music, Memphis, and Motherfuckers by Stanley Booth, presented with permission from Chicago Review Press. 

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Salinas Line Run – Sundays

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