I had the privilege to see Elvis Presley in concert on February 15,1977 at the Orlando Sports Stadium. It was the first concert I ever attended. I was 13 and was a huge Elvis fan, having already been doing my impersonation of him professionally for 2 years. I went with my Mom and we ran into my friend, Celeste at the concert. She is the biggest Elvis fan I know and she used to come and see me perform all the time.

As much as I loved Elvis and wanted him to be great, even at my young age I could tell that it wasn't quite up to par with the Elvis I had seen on tv and in the movies. Elvis looked bloated and tired and obviously not into the show. I suppose I caught one of his bad nights, as I hear there were many towards the end. I still loved his records and even liked the '77 CBS special that came out later that year. He wore his "Indian Feather" jumpsuit.

The acoustics in that place were horrible too. It was like a big tin barn in the middle of a cow pasture. It only seated about 3500 people, so it was an intimate show compared to the arena shows of today. This was Orlando in 1977, well before the Amway O-rena. You had to go to Lakeland if you wanted to see a concert back then. Not that any of it mattered...the women still screamed, Elvis still threw out his scarves, and everyone got to see a legend, which is what they came for.

For some reason, the one thing that always stuck out in my memory of that concert was when during the song "Teddy Bear", Elvis sang "Feedback aint the kind you love enough" instead of "lions aint the kind you love enough". I recently was able to find a bootleg cd of that night and when it got to that part, sure enough you can hear him say it. I got a little bit of a flashback and it confirmed to me that this recording was, in fact, from that night. They even mentioned it in the liner notes. I remember when I got home and told my Dad all about the show, he said "I'll bet that sound guy lost his job tonight!".

Another funny memory of that night is that my Mom actually CALLED the Orlando Sports Stadium the day of the show and left a message with the ticket window for Elvis to call ME! She described my whole show and gave them the whole story on me, and said "he would just really love to talk to Elvis if he has a minute".... TOO FUNNY! That was how my Mom was... it's even funnier if you knew her.

In August that same year, just 6 months after seeing him in concert, I went to Elvis' funeral in Memphis with my friend Celeste. It was because of our love of Elvis that we became friends. (For the whole cool story on me and Celeste, read my blog about her 80th birthday party on 8/8/08!)