I was never a huge Elvis fan growing up. I mean, I was seven years old when the guy died. The release of Star Wars: A New Hope had a much bigger impact on me than the passing of The King. My grandmother and my mom were/are huge Elvis fans and did their best to indoctrinate me growing up. But c’mon man, it was a 42 year old blues and rockabilly singer versus John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever disco vying for my attention. The lip curl never had a chance.
To be fair, I never didn’t like Elvis either. It was just more of a take-it-or-leave-it kinda thing. If he was on the radio or eight-track at home, okay, fine, whatever; I wouldn’t switch him off. But I also never went looking for him. Dad had The Beach Boys, and mom had Patsy Cline, and grandma had Elvis. I get it. Each generation has their own stuff. My own tastes started with The Bee Gees and graduated from there into Peter Gabriel and Genesis and Madonna and The Police and U2 and INXS and Michael Jackson and John Mayer and Alanis Morissette and Imagine Dragons. Currently I’m digging on Halsey and Dua Lipa. I like to evolve my musical tastes, is what I’m trying to say. I like to stay hip and cool and modern. (The young kids are still saying, “Hip,” right? I’m sure they are. Shuddup, you.)
Our youngest son, on the other hand, while appreciating and embracing the current musical trends of his day, also worships The King. Where my mom and grandma failed in their attempts to make me drink Ol’ Snake Hip’s Kool-Aid, my son gulps it straight from the fire hose. I’m not sure exactly what made him such a huge fan, but I suspect it happened over weekends and summer sleepovers at grandma’s house. I can picture them cranking up the volume and belting out the hits while shaking it up Elvis Pelvis-style in the living room. Camden loves his grandma like Elvis loved his Gladys. So where the flame of fandom jumped over me, it landed on Camden and fully engulfed him. He’s been an Elvis fan now for more than a decade.
Two years ago, our family drove from Ohio to Alabama for a family reunion. (Yes, during the pandemic. Don’t judge me! ) Our trip took us through Nashville, and I wondered how far we were from Memphis and Graceland. Turned out we were pretty far, at least a couple of hours. But I kept it in the back of my head, and when we got back from vacation, I mentioned to Wendy that we should take Camden to Graceland one day.
One day turned out to be two weeks ago. It was also timely that the new Elvis movie had just come out. I wanted to see it before we headed down to Memphis. We asked Camden if he wanted to see it. He declined, explaining that he had no desire to see his hero making all kinds of bad choices. Fair point. So Wendy and I saw it without him the week before vacation.
Guys, I was blown away by that movie. I really was. It kind of made me…dare I say it?…yes, I dare…it made me…an Elvis fan! The performances by Austin Butler and Tom Hanks were astounding. I want to go see it again. That whole weekend, I couldn’t stop thinking about Elvis. I wanted to know everything. I read articles. I watched videos. Admittedly, I got a little obsessed. It kind of freaked me out.
The weekend passed, and it was time for our trip. I was definitely not looking forward to 10+ hours in the car, but I knew it would be worth it, especially for Camden. It was kind of a fast trip. We headed down on Wednesday. We spent Thursday morning hiking through Overton Park, then spent the rest of the afternoon on Beale Street. We had lunch at BB King’s, where Camden danced to the band. We ducked into souvenir shops. Later that night we swam in the hotel’s guitar-shaped pool. Friday was the big day at Sun Studio in the morning and Graceland after lunch.
It was exactly what I thought it would be, but also so much more. Overpriced? Yeah. Totally worth it? Yeah. Our tour wasn’t until 1:30. If I could do it all over again, I would have reserved tickets for the morning. There was really more to see and do than we had time for. And we discovered to our dismay that the place shuts down at 5:00! There were still several places we wanted to visit, and they were all closed. I mean, we saw everything we really wanted to see: Graceland mansion, the Lisa Marie, the cars, the collections, etc. Then again, we were also more than ready to be done after all that walking around in the heat. There was a lot to take in.
Whether you’re an Elvis fan or not, you have to admit the story of the King of Rock-n-Roll is a compelling one. So much history in Memphis. At Sun Studio, they even let you mess around with the actual vocal microphone that literally everyone has used — BB King, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, even U2. Everyone loved getting pictures with that.
It was a ton of fun and I would totally do it all over again. Just not anytime soon. That was a killer car ride. Enjoy the pics, and tell me who some of your favorite bands are.
My favorite part was the photo art gallery in the basement of the mansion.