Top 225 Elvis Quotes

I believe Dad will be respected in 300 years, like Beethoven. As will Elvis, as will the Carter Family, as will Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams.

When Elvis sang, it almost sounded like he was whispering. But after you heard the record, his voice was the strongest thing you ever heard. He was incredible.

I always thought that Elvis could have been a great actor, and that he was put in a lot of unimportant movies when he could have done a lot of great ones.

They were taking pictures and everything. When we got down off the plane, the minute Elvis made his appearance at the door of the plane, the screaming got even worse.

I guess I thought I was Elvis Presley but I’ll tell ya something. All Elvis did was stand on a stage and play a guitar. He never fell off on that pavement at no 80 mph.

To see someone 70 years old with dyed black hair, you’re like, ‘Hmmm, I dunno. Is that a wrinkled teenager? What is that?’ So at some point, I’m going to have to stop doing this. It’s gonna look ridiculous. I don’t wanna look like Elvis Presley at 60 years old.

I was always interested in having my own money – not my family’s money. I don’t think it had anything to do with me being Elvis’s granddaughter. None of my drive was, ‘I need to get away from my family legacy!’

Music and fashion have had a kind of incestuous relationship since the Fifties. It started with people like Elvis Presley and pop icons like James Dean. Then it exploded in the MTV days. Now, with the Internet, it’s instantaneous.

The thing is, I’ve always wanted to be a star. I’ve always wanted to be an Elvis Presley or a Tupac – like, a huge icon.

I think Elvis loved his fans – I think that’s why they loved him and still love him. Fans are very conscious and sensitive to the fact that performers love them.

My uncle was an Elvis impersonator – his name was Perry, and he went by ‘Elvis Perry’ – and my work as a wedding singer landed me a spot in his act.

Elvis Presley’s estate is making 30 million a year, and they say that Marley shouldn’t be, but he is from a much poorer part of the world, and a lot more people need the money.

I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley.

A lot has been written and said about why he was so great, but I think the best way to appreciate his greatness is just to go back and play some of the old records. Time has a way of being very unkind to old records, but Elvis’ keep getting better and better.

One night I saw Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Elvis for a dollar, if you believe that, in an open-air concert. Presley, I got to meet and go into his house and so forth. My wife says I should quit tellin’ that story, ’cause they’ll know how old I am.

There were the phone calls and Elvis had asked me to visit him in Los Angeles. This was in 1962.

Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.

I grew up in the 60s, and before the 60s, my father was into Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, so I heard those records all the time and soaked that up.

My mom bought me a guitar when I was 12 and I used to pretend that I was a rock star in my own room. I was also obsessed with Elvis as a kid.

Elvis is symbolic of a lot of things, dreams coming true being one of them.

And if there’s any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there’s any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara.

The fact is Jerry Weintraub, the handsome, bearish movie producer, the man with the long career, who worked with Arthur Godfrey and Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra and George Clooney, is a great storyteller – he’s this as much as he’s anything else. He takes time telling stories, too.

There were screaming girls, I had to learn as a blind person how to run to a limousine otherwise they’d take my clothes off and stuff. I thought to myself ‘how could this happen?’ I mean I could see it, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, but Jose Feliciano? It was a mystery to me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we worship celebrity and how we have Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and Jesus all on the same playing field.

Without Elvis none of us could have made it.

I used to come home and play piano all day by ear and make songs up or figure out my favourite Elvis songs. I’d make up games by blindfolding myself and singing the harmony to whatever notes I’d play.

I learned a lot from Elvis. He never took his image seriously. So many performers today put their image before themselves. It can ruin them. Like Elvis, I never took my image seriously.

I saw an Elvis Presley movie Jailhouse Rock, where he gets out of jail and makes his own records and takes them to the radio stations himself. And then, he puts records in the store. After seeing that, I made records an put them in stores.

I’m trying to have my own thing, and I don’t know if it’s even possible. I didn’t realize so many people actually think I’m trying to be like my dad. I read comments like ‘She’s no Elvis.’ I’m not trying to be. I never set out to be.

At one point, we were across the street from the Sharon Tate house; at another, we lived in Elvis’s old Bel Air bachelor pad. It was where he first met the Beatles.

Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and The Sex Pistols may come and go, but rebellion remains a key part of the rock n’ roll experience. However, that rebellion – the outgrowth of a youthful search for independence and identity – doesn’t always take the same form.

I certainly don’t want to die playing a round of golf. And I don’t want to die like Elvis. That’s all they remember about him – the most beautiful man on the planet.

Rock n’ roll sounded like music from another planet. The first time around, we had people like Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis – all them people.

Do you realize that I have had five albums in the Top 30. Elvis and The Beatles have never done that. I had five singles in the Top 5, I mean, no one’s ever done that.

Hip-hop kind of absorbed rock in terms of the attitude and the whole point of why rock was important music. Young people felt like rock music was theirs, from Elvis to the Beatles to the Ramones to Nirvana. This was theirs; it wasn’t their parents’. I think hip-hop became the musical style that embraces that mentality.

I don’t sing to people. I sing for them. I told that once to Elvis Presley. He bought it. After that Elvis sang not to but for the audience. A subtle difference.

When Elvis was performing, you just tried to figure out a way to get there. I think he set all the records and anyone that has ever had the good fortune to see him, you know what it’s like to try to get in to see Elvis. It was impossible, practically.

My house is a bit like a teenager’s bedroom. The kind of pictures you have hanging up on your wall say a lot about you. I’ve got ones of Evel Knievel, Elvis and Starsky and Hutch, signed by David Soul.

I was lucky enough to first meet Elvis at his house in Bel Air and he used to invite different artists, singers and musicians, to come and jam with him at his house.

To be honest I was never much of an Elvis fan myself.

Elvis is great and so is anybody who lasts like he does.

My older brother had a lot of Elvis on vinyl, and really, that was my first introduction to music during the Fifties.

I just love the idea of taking an elevator down to the stage, like Elvis did.

You have to remember that when I met Elvis, you know, it wasn’t the fanfare that it is today or even when he was here in the states and I was in Germany growing up.

My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.

When Elvis made his mass-media debut on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ – his notorious gyrations filmed only from the waist up – I fell off the family chaise longue with delight.

When Elvis came out on stage, it became electric. And the way people responded to him was such that, you know, I never saw that kind of response toward any other performer.

If you look back to a picture of me when I was 12 years old, you will probably see me in a leather jacket trying to look like Elvis!

Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.

The atmosphere is so tense, if Elvis walked in, with a portion of chips… you could hear the vinegar sizzle on them.

Most singers have their idols. I remember Elvis Presley when I was a kid. When I was about sixteen, I always said I wanted to do ‘Love Me Tender.’

I always tell my wife she’s married to the Puerto Rican Elvis.

When a guy like Elvis sings your song, well, you know Elvis didn’t cut any junk. People thought, ‘This must be a good writer.’

As a person, he was wonderful. He really was a great person. He was full of life. He had a great sense of humor. Very talented, of course, but very caring to his parents. There was a very endearing quality about Elvis.

I’ve seen many great performers on stage, from Dean Martin to Celine Dion, but nothing beats the first time I saw Elvis. There was no pomp, no pyrotechnics, nothing to distract you from the raw talent of the man in the white jumpsuit.

The Beatles never got through to all ages, nor did Elvis Presley, or any of the other monuments of mediocrity that we’ve had.

My pop culture ended somewhere north of Elvis but not too far.

Yeah, and I recently had my first Elvis moment. A gang of young girls was jumping all over me. It was kinda scary. And totally flattering.

Absolutely. I – you know, he was so that much a part of my life that, you know, Elvis, you know, once – once you bonded with him, I mean, there was no – there was no going back. He was just a great guy.

I am playing Elvis Presley in ‘Hello Darling.’ The project is really exciting for me because I get to play my idol.

My son Simon had one of Elvis’s favorite meals when we visited Graceland – a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Fried! Can you imagine the cholesterol?

Elvis and I continued to be friends, and I saw him once or twice a year. But he was a troubled person.

My dream collaboration would be Elvis.

The last time I saw Elvis was when I played my second New Year’s Eve show for him in 1970.

My dad is a big Outlaw country guy – Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Waylon, Willie. He loves Elvis and turned me onto Elvis. He was always playing me stuff. He and I would sing and entertain the family. We’d have a little skit on Thanksgiving or whatever.

People define themselves to some degree by the music that they listened to as teens. My mom had Elvis. Me, I had ‘The Who’ and later punk rock. Kids who came up in the ’80s had other songs and bands. It’s a way of placing ourselves culturally and temporally.

I have as much chance of becoming Prime Minister as of being decapitated by a frisbee or of finding Elvis.

The only person that anybody’s ever said I resemble is a young Elvis. It used to happen a lot more when I was younger, and more when I don’t wear a hat.

I would love to do musicals, sitcoms and even television talk shows. I think I have the potential. But most importantly, my ultimate goal as an artist is to create a new music genre like Elvis Presley.

I loved rock and roll when that came in, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, all those great records. So I begged my mom and dad for a guitar, which eventually they did get me for Christmas, but it went out of tune very quickly, and it hurt my fingers.

What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?

Of all the ’60s – there was Elvis, there was the Beatles, there was the British invasion, Jimmy Hendrix, and Woodstock – the No. 1 record was ‘The Twist.’

Liberace was a miracle. You talk about who he was and what he did, and then you look at who he inspired, from Elton John to Cher to Michael Jackson to Bette Midler. There are so many people that came to see him. Elvis was there, watching his shows.

In Hollywood, famous singer Elvis Presley used to wear gold chains. I was a huge follower of Presley. I used to think, if I become successful someday, then I will build a different image of mine. By the grace of God, I could do it with gold.

God’s the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That’s solely in the hands of God.

Elvis was a giant and influenced everyone in the business.

He will go down as a legend along with Elvis and the Beatles and Michael Jackson. Bob Marley is right up there. He was a leader for reggae music – he really made it appeal to a world audience.

I think that one of Elvis’ charms was that he could sing almost any kind of music. I am sure that in his heart, which I don’t know what was there, but just from his singing I could feel that he was very partial to gospel music.

I think, at some point, I might have said it must be great to be as big as Elvis, but that wasn’t a realistic dream.

Is Billy Idol just doing a bad Elvis pout, or was he born that way?

We’d play the American bases and found all these wonderful records by Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke. Without American music, there would not have been a British Invasion.

A lot of the people I’d love to work with, like John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, aren’t alive, unfortunately.

I love Jimi Hendrix obviously, and Jimmy Page and Prince. And also Elvis Presley is a really great guitar player. I don’t think he ever took lessons; he was piecing it together himself. But he has great rhythm. And rhythm, to me, you can use it to your advantage if you’re not all over the fretboard.

It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ I thought, this is it.

I did a string of about six or seven Elvis movies, all in a row. He made all of those movies in two years’ time. All of them bad. Don’t quote me.

On Sirius, I can find anything I want. They have about four or five different metal channels, rock channels; there’s a whole Elvis channel.

Elvis was sincere, and he was – he was so loyal. And he was so homespun. He loved his mother, he loved America. You know, he loved his fellow man. He had a great humanitarian philanthropic sense.

The artist that had the biggest impact on me was Michael Jackson. He was my Elvis and Beatles. When I was 15, I listened to a lot of Sinatra, but my jean jacket didn’t have, ‘I love Frank’ on it, it had, ‘I love AC/DC’, ‘Guns N Roses’, ‘Pearl Jam’. I thought Eddie Vedder was the second coming.

When I was a kid, I loved Elvis, and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. But I had no connection to Hollywood – and being a movie star was such a far-fetched idea, growing up in Hawaii.

When I was in high school in the ’50s, all pop music – Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard – was aimed at teenagers. I loved that stuff.

I’ve loved music always, and my music fire was lit by Elvis Presley, really, and all that was happening back then.

I think Jerry Lee is sad. As a musician, he was far more talented than Elvis Presley. Everybody down in Memphis knows that. Elvis became a movie star because he was beautiful. Not that Elvis wasn’t talented, but Jerry Lee Lewis was incomprehensibly talented as a musician.

You can take Elvis. You can take Marilyn Monroe. Success and fame will not be the answer if something inside of you is bothering you, if things in your mind aren’t going right.

I look good, but I probably have the insides of Elvis.

My mom listened to the Beatles and Elvis, a lot of different types of music.

My grandmother was a big Elvis fan, and I am, too, because she played Elvis, and she would keep me all the time when my dad was out of town.

I love singing some Johnny Cash, which is interesting because it’s in a guy’s key; I love singing Elvis Presley.

In 1998, I received treatment for my knee by an Israeli therapist. We spoke about Israel and I mentioned ‘Scooterman’ and he just froze. It was like he had met Elvis. I thought he was kidding me and then he called his brother, they yelled to each other over the phone, and then I believed him.

Elvis Presley was rock ‘n’ roll, I thought that was pretty mediocre. But since that time, the succeeding steps in music has been down, just more degradation. Then we got into punk rock, and now we are into rap music, which is a total oxymoron.

One seldom expects the country’s president to adequately note the passing of a rocker, but Jimmy Carter’s assessment of Elvis Presley’s appeal – ‘energy, rebelliousness and good humor’ – is remarkably close to the mark.

The first record I ever listened to was Elvis Presley, and I remember thinking, ‘Man this guy is cool!’ The swagger he had really helped my confidence, because he really made me think that a white boy could make music like this.

I remember Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen, Nina Hagen, Elvis Costello and Duran Duran. And the best concert I ever saw was the Rolling Stones, in the stadium of Sporting Lisbon.

Presley is country music, white music. Jazz is black music – it was invented by the blacks in New Orleans. And I’m really a jazz singer. I was impressed with Elvis – he was the handsomest guy I ever met in my life, and a very nice person, too. But the music doesn’t impress me.

People don’t realize what they had till it’s gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing.

As a kid, I loved any guitarists, whether it was Elvis Presley, Lonnie Donegan, Chuck Berry or even the cowboy guitarists like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. The image of the guitar appealed to me.

Elvis’s voice was unique. Like so many others, he had natural, technical ability, but there was something in the humanity of his voice, and his delivery.

Elvis and I were very good friends. We were such good friends that, on the day that he passed, I was the first one his father called, to let me know what had happened.

U2 have a lot of religion, also people like Johnny Cash and Elvis. Those people weren’t shy about it – it’s nice there are people who’ve come before that were open about it.

I’m the world’s biggest Bob Seger fan. He’s like my Elvis.

Diana Krall I met in, I think it was Canada. She’s a lovely lady. Her husband, Elvis Costello, is a great star.

I couldn’t sing without a guitar. I like the way it feels to sing and be holding a guitar, even if I’m not playing it that much. All my idols that I grew up liking always had a guitar on them, but they didn’t play it – Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello. It’s like having a partner with you.

I saw footage of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley just hanging out together in Memphis when they were young guys getting started at Sun, listening to records together. That was beautiful to me.

Maybe Elvis was inhibited by inbred religious prohibitions or an Oedipal complex, or maybe he simply preferred the thrill of a denied release. Whatever put the brakes on the famous pelvis, it ground to a halt at a certain point, and that was it.

I’ve been with certain stars; some are caring and pay attention to their fans and to their fellow performers and some are too busy. Elvis never seemed too busy.

Elvis was a great guy. We’d just horse around together or go to see a movie. He drove me around Graceland in a golf cart. He was a fan of our music and was curious about how I sounded so black.

You look back at people like Elvis and The Beatles and still get their music because it’s timeless. That’s what I want.

I never felt more loved than when I was with Elvis.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the ’68 Comeback Special.

I’ll tell you this: Tommy Morrison has a tattoo of Elvis Presley on his butt, he likes to hunt and fish, and his favorite movie is ‘GoodFellas.’

Throughout the ’50s, tons of unknown locals came through Sun to record their demos. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all made their first recordings at the former Memphis Recording Service.

Rolling Stones came later for me. I was a Beatles guy. All of us were pretty much more along the lines of Beatles guys than we were Stones or Elvis.

Elvis is this thing, this commodity, and people forget that he was a real person.

Elvis Presley’s Sun stuff – there’s an album out in England with just about all those sides on it – you know, the sound of that upright bass slapping away: that’s what I like to listen to. That and Richard Pryor, that is.

At first, when we got engaged, I asked him if we could just go to Vegas and get married by Elvis, just because I didn’t want to deal with planning a wedding.

I had an opportunity to meet Elvis, only once. It was at the MGM Grand. It was certainly not at the height of his career. No, it wasn’t at the height of his career, but it was still a thrill to see him and meet him anyway. You know?

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn’t have the other $20,000.

I looked at all the superstars. What is their different thing? Their hair. Beatles, Elvis, James Dean, James Brown, Marilyn Monroe. I wanted to be a star. I said, ‘I have to fix my hair.’

I like the Carpenters and Elvis.

I was raised on Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly and discovered the Stray Cats when I was 11 or 12 years old.

My husband was a pilot. He flew Elvis when Elvis first started making appearances around the country.

And I just remember, you know, breaking into tears and feeling so empty because, as long as Elvis was in the world, you always knew something was going and he always had something that kept everybody mesmerized.

Elvis was a way bigger influence than Waylon Jennings, but you don’t wanna tell people, ‘I never really listened to Waylon.’

Volbeat is one of those bands, where as soon as I hear them, I know who it is. It sounds like Elvis – backed by a Metal band.

There used to be Engelbert dolls with sideburns. Now they sell Elvis dolls with the sideburns, but I don’t begrudge him that.

I think that Vegas is one of the wildest places I’ve ever been to. You can look to your left and there’s a drag queen getting married by Elvis, to the right there is some old bird sticking quarters into a slot machine for hours.

I think, describing Elvis for me would be a very generous king. He was the king of rock and roll, will always be. He’s whats made it possible for everyone to be performers and to do the things they do now.

I used to go down every year for the remembrance of Elvis’ birthday. Memphis State College invited me to sit in the auditorium and speak to the people for one of those Elvis days.

As you know, I played a little trumpet with Elvis. I overdub a few drum licks here and there on a session, but I’m not a drummer by any means.

No, there will come a time where I’m not gonna do this anymore. I mean, there will come a time, definitely, where I’ll turn into Elvis – I’m gonna be fat and fishin’, I guarantee you.

My first guitar was a Gretsch 6120, and I just loved listening to artists like Elvis, Chuck Berry and Stray Cats.

I got the honor of traveling some with Kerry Von Erich. He was as close to a rock star as I’ve ever seen. He had a presence that when he walked into a room, it was like Elvis walking into the room.

With great artists like Elvis, sometimes the songs weren’t the greatest thing about him. When I tried to perform some of the songs, I noticed some of the tunes weren’t all that brilliant, but it was the performance that sold them.

A lot of your rock people, even early, like Elvis, have always come from the South.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that writing ‘I Ain’t Living Long Like This’ was an exercise in combined musical influence, mostly that of Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan – artists no one has ever heard of.

I don’t think I look like him at all. There is only one Elvis and there Is only one Shakin’ Stevens and I’m getting sick of people asking me that.

Michael’s the ultimate entertainer. After Michael Jackson, it’s Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Bruce Lee.

I’m completely absorbed by Peter Guralnick’s definitive, two-part biography of Elvis Presley: ‘Last Train To Memphis’ and ‘Careless Love.’ Meticulously researched, this is a compelling mix of history, myth-busting, and, of course, some timeless music.

Elvis walked over and signed a few autographs over the fence. They were screaming. I had never seen this.

As an entertainer, Justin Timberlake has learned from the past. He can cradle a mic stand like Elvis Presley, move like Michael Jackson, and swoon like Frank Sinatra.

Elvis used to have parties at his house – and I’ve told this story a million times – but they weren’t really parties, because there was no chips or dip. Just Elvis and his boys watching TV, and him making funny comments, and everybody laughing at them. Is that a party? Not really. But that’s Hollywood.

I was very keen on people like Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent.

I can remember just learning to walk and trying to dance like Elvis and sing like Elvis, so I was very, very passionate about music at a very young age.

I was obsessed with Elvis Presley when I was little.

I was onstage with Menudo since I was 12 years old. To us, the most successful one was the guy with the most fans. If you moved your hips and the girls screamed, you were getting it right. Who wouldn’t want to be like Elvis or Jim Morrison!

Elvis deserves a lot of credit for bringing the blues to middle America, not the Vegas stuff. The early stuff, The Sun records, and the first few RCA records. He was wonderful, he had the power, the drive, and he was so dedicated to his music.

They say Elvis is dead. I say, no, you’re looking at him. Elvis isn’t dead; he just changed color.

Anyone who’s got a guitar, you like to pick it up. I can play a couple of songs, some ’50s rock and roll, a bit of Elvis. That’s it, really – I’m not a musician, I’m not a singer.

Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.

When people say Jerry Lee Lewis invented rock n’ roll, they forget Little Richard. People talk about Elvis Presley and forget he was singing black music. I don’t blame Elvis. It was the music business figuring it could make more money from this music if it weren’t presented from the original source.

When I was a kid, and Elvis Presley broke through to a middle class, white audience, it was a sociological phenomenon that lasted through the Beatles and even a bit through Fleetwood Mac.

Every performer who ever performed in rock and roll or even close to it is lying if they tell you that they weren’t influenced in some way or another by Elvis Presley. He turned the world around.

When somebody like Elvis Costello comes along, anybody can make a good record with him.

I am to wrestling what Elvis was to rock n’ roll!

When I heard Elvis Presley, then I knew I had to do music. Music is my god, and is the only love that has never left me. It has always been there and is my best friend.

Elected office holds more perks than Elvis’ nightstand.

I’m sure that Elvis was happy for me. I think he was the kind of guy that enjoyed other people’s success, especially if he had something to do with it.

The Best of Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Hailey and the Comets, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Frankie Laine all topped the charts in the ’50s. Load a playlist of rock n’ roll royalty. You’re spoilt for choice.

I met Elvis first in Las Vegas. I think I was appearing with Tom Jones and he came backstage to say hello to Tom or we went to his dressing room to say hello.

I still have an old painting the Colonel gave me. It was the first time the Colonel had been back to the Hilton since Elvis had passed away.

When I was a little kid, I was very impressed with Elvis.

Elvis is not so difficult as Johnny Cash because his voice is so distinctive. If you try to copy Johnny Cash, it’s just going to sound dumb.

Black people created rock music, it’s a fact. Black people created bluegrass and rock and roll way before Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people.

See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn’t dead, Elvis isn’t dead. Otherwise you don’t have a hero. You can’t kill a hero. That’s why I never let him get older.

I was an avid collector of Elvis’ early stuff; for a young singer, he was an absolute inspiration. I soaked up what he did like blotting paper. It’s the same as being in school – you learn by copying the maestro.

When I met Elvis, we didn’t really have a conversation. I was introduced by my uncle, and he sort of grunted my way. What stays with me is the whole scene. I had never seen a real mob scene before. I was really young and impressionable. Elvis really did look – he looked sort of not real, as if he were glowing.

Elvis Presley’s music never meant anything to me. Mambo was the music I loved – it spoke to me.

Imitation is flattery. There was once a survey of who was the most imitated celebrity in Latin American countries, especially in Brazil and Argentina, and I was in third place after Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

What I like about Elvis is the same thing I like about James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. These guys, back in the day, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was just raw talent. They would step out onstage and command an audience. Talk about awesome.

I romanticize. I live with the ghosts of Elvis and Frank Sinatra. It seems so glamorous. They were American men who don’t exist anymore. But there are ugly things about them, too.

I don’t know any Beatles songs. My dad never listened to Elvis or Sting or Bowie. Any band name that’s on a t-shirt, I probably won’t know their music, like AC/DC or whatever. I don’t know what that is. As a kid, I would sing along to artists like Tania Maria.

A formidable game of ‘Name That Influence’ could be based on the music of the seductive rock duo Girls: The band’s first single, ‘Hellhole Ratrace,’ would barely reach its opening words before screams of ‘Elvis Costello!’ and ‘Wreckless Eric!’ drown out the music.

The album is a definite departure. I haven’t written original material before, except for one song on my first album, but Elvis and I did six songs together on this one.

You don’t necessarily have to write a song to make it your own. After all, Elvis never wrote a song in his life.

There was a misconception about me when I started off because I had my hair greased up and I have some vague resemblance to the hillbilly gene pool that Elvis came from. People would say, ‘You want to be Elvis’ and I would say, ‘No’.

Elvis Presley’s music said, ‘Free your body.’ The Beatles said, ‘Free your mind.’

I’m just glad to be feeling better. I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis soon.

Ice Cube went straight outta Compton to hearing, ‘Are we there yet?’ Eddie Murphy blew up striding across the stage in a red leather ensemble that would have made Elvis Presley chuckle, yet is probably best known to anyone born in the 21st century as the overly chatty donkey from ‘Shrek.’

Elvis said, Miss Minnie, do you think it would be out of order if I go up and speak to General Stewart? I’ve always been such a fan of his. So Elvis went up to speak to the Stewarts.

What happens with ‘Mad Men,’ it’s like an Elvis Costello album; I’ll watch it, and then I immediately have to watch it again. AMC will play it back-to-back. I have a tendency to yell at it when my wife’s not around because if she catches me yelling at ‘Mad Men,’ then it gets weird.

When I was a kid, I used to look in the mirror and pretend I was Elvis.

Elvis came along when I was 10. My father gave me a bass ukulele. I taught myself how to play from a book to play some chords, so I was laying down ‘Hound Dog’ and things like that when I was 10 years old in 1955. That’s the way I was. My ear was glued to the radio. I knew right then what I wanted to do.

Music, for me, is as important as fashion. The first visuals I remember are Elvis Presley, David Bowie, New Romantics, and different punk bands.

One of the few times I saw my mother cry was when Lennon died, and the other time was when Elvis died.

I remember hearing people like Joe Cocker, Fleetwood Mac, and Elvis. My parents were big fans of them, and they were the early seeds. My brother was more into Slipknot, and I still listen to them, too, but it wasn’t until I listened to Paolo Nutini that it really clicked.

Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis had enormous talent, and Elvis was the major contributor to an entirely new genre of music. Sometimes their exploits were distasteful to people, but they left behind an enormous body of work that endures.

I can always remember that experience in Hawaii pleasantly on account of Elvis.

It’s pretty amazing to me that my first hit record was an Elvis Presley record.

The best came from my martial arts teacher, who also taught Elvis. He said, ‘Your ego will get you killed.’

My dad sat me in front of the TV, and instead of putting on Nick Jr. or something, he put me in front of ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and all the Elvis movies.

Elvis stole his sideburns from me.

I saw a picture of Elvis in blue lame, and thought that if I could recreate that suit and walk down the King’s Road in it, someone might pick me up and take me off on a crazy adventure.

I’ve been a fan of Elvis since I was 11, so for me, it was a real thrill to make an album of all my favorite Elvis songs.

My father is the reason I’m a wrestler today. He was trained by Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart, and competed under the names Billy the Kid and Elvis Wesley on the Florida Independent scene.

I go back to, like, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Elvis. I listen to everything.

Music ignited a fiery, pent-up passion inside Elvis and inside me. It was an odd, embarrassing, funny, inspiring, and wonderful sensation.

I’m remembered as a model who dated a rock star or 10, among them Steven Tyler, Todd Rundgren, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, Jimmy Page, and Rod Stewart.

I love Johnny Cash, and I respect Johnny Cash. He’s the biggest. He’s like an Elvis in this business, but no, he’s never been the rebel.

I think Elvis would be alive today, probably, if he had been allowed to mix and mingle with his fans. I think it was a great cross for him to bear that he couldn’t get out and be with his fans.

As a kid, my parents would always listen to a lot of Beatles, Queen, Elvis. My mom was born and raised in Italy, and my dad was born in Canada and moved back and forth between Canada and Italy, so they would also listen to all the big Italian stars like Eros Ramazzotti, Gigi D’Alessio, Tiziano Ferro, Laura Pausini.

I was madly in love with Elvis Presley. Dad wasn’t into it at all, at least not for himself as a performer. He used to say, ‘Mr. Cole does not rock n’ roll.’

George Klein says that Elvis had five real friends outside of his circle, and I was blessed to be one of them. I spent a lot of time with Elvis in Vegas and at Graceland.

You’re never going to see the fat Elvis in me. People I admired like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and John Belushi all died at 27. I’ve got jeans older than that.

By the time I was 25 or 26, I would have earned a million, but if you looked in the bank account, it’s not there because I’ve spent it. That’s what it’s there for. I don’t want to be the richest bloke in the graveyard. Look at Elvis.

Never trust a man who doesn’t like Elvis.

Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether.

I met the Colonel when Elvis was recording some song I’d written for one of his movies. Elvis was just having fun with the gang and all the Memphis boys and Colonel Parker was sitting over here in like a theater seat.

In 20 years I had sold more records for RCA than any artist except Elvis Presley.

Frankly speaking, I don’t know much about rock music. But I enjoyed some when I was in college or high school. But I stopped listening after Elvis Presley!

Elvis couldn’t leave the hotel except under heavy guard. It was incredible how they went wild over him.

Elvis might have compromised his musical style a bit towards the end, but that doesn’t mean that artists from the rock n’ roll/folk-roots culture – of which he was not really a part – shouldn’t get better as they get older, like the great jazz or blues artists.

Had I been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed Elvis, had I been a white boy like Elvis, sure, it would have been different.

Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis, and you have Umm Kulthum.

I had Elvis’ number in my book and I never called it.

Elvis was, at least the times I was around him, Elvis was a practical joker. He was always, had some little mischievous something going.