RUSH...

Click here to ORDER NOW!

Joe Esposito: Among the many insider stories he will share with your audience is this description of what went on backstage, opening night in Las Vegas, July 31, 1969.

"There was a lot of famous stars. It was one of those nights that Elvis was really concerned about. Opening night, all these big celebrities came to see him, and that's a tough audience to play to. Elvis was never introduced on stage. You just heard 2001 Space Odyssey, you'd hear the music and the big drums beating, and you'd think all of a sudden God was going to appear. This is the way it was, the room got dark, 2001 A Space Odyssey and Elvis walks out behind the curtains in his white outfit, and the crowd just went crazy. If you had not seen Elvis Presley in person, you don't know what the feeling is, you can't realize what he did when he walked on stage. It was just something about him, it's just like this religious figure walked out there. You just felt so good about it. And it really gave Elvis a good boost, cause everybody stood up and started applauding. He got a standing ovation before he sang one song. Then he started, got into the songs, and about every 3rd song he got a standing ovation. It was probably one of the most exciting things I ever saw in my life, and you could see Elvis, this grin on his face and this smiling feeling, when he walked off that stage after about an hour and a half, he was about three feet off the ground. He was just flying, he was so thrilled, there were tears coming out of his eyes he felt so good. Not only that, Col. Parker came running backstage immediately and I'll never forget this, the first time I've ever seen tears in Col. Parker's eyes. Cause he didn't show his emotions too much, they just hugged each other. It was like they had got over this big hurdle that they didn't know what was going to happen or what it was going to be like, it was just awesome. I get goose bumps every time I think about that night..."