[Well, My Daddy Taught Me How to Sing, and That’s Why This Voice Means Everything]

I’ve loved Elvis since I was six years old. I didn’t realize that’s who I was loving, but god, did I love him.

I almost wish I had some wonderful story about sitting in the car with my daddy while he played me Elvis. And that I was an enlightened enough child that I realized how great rockabilly was right from the start, so that while all my little friends were listening to Hanson, I was listening to Elvis and Johnny.

But of course, that’s a lie. The earliest thing I remember my daddy really introducing me to that I adored was The Proclaimers.

No, no. The one who introduced me to Elvis was Don Bluth with Rock-a-Doodle. You might not think loving an Elvis-like rooster really counts as a proper introduction to Elvis, but you'd be wrong. It was a fabulous introduction to rockabilly. Also, the kid totally turned into a kitty in that movie, and I really wanted to do that. It was a win-win sort of deal.



Seriously, just watch like 10 seconds and tell me that's not Elvis. Eventually, of course, I (technically) grew up and came to love Elvis for his actual awesomeness, not just that represented in a cartoon with farm animals.

The first thing we did when we got to Memphis was tour Graceland. I didn't exactly have high hopes for the place. I mostly had it pegged as a giant tourist trap. Which is pretty much what it was. Though it was cool to see Elvis' home. It just very definitely had that staged sort of feeling to it.

But today totally made up for it.

Today, we toured Sun Studios, very arguably the birthplace of rock and roll. Home of the Million Dollar Quartet: Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. We heard the original recordings done by them and other pioneers of rock, including the very first song Elvis ever recorded. Cute story, actually. He just came in to use the studio because he wanted to record the song for his mother for her birthday. The secretary was just so charmed by him that she passed a copy of it along to Sam Phillips, the owner.

I'm not one who's usually genuinely awed, but today definitely hit me. I stood where Elvis stood and held the mic he sang into. Sun Studios is the only recording studio in the country that's a historic landmark, and everything about it is exactly as it was back then. Gotta say, I felt infinitely closer to the King there than I did standing in front of his grave at Graceland.

Without those boys doing what they did, none of the music I love would exist. So thank you, guys. Thank you very much.