Playing six nights a week in the nightclub is a great way to toughen your voice, improve your singing and hone your skills as an entertainer. And when you go on the road, you take all the lessons with you. And you need them. Yes, the road is glamorous when you're on stage and you have the audience wrapped around your finger. But at the end of the evening, when you are dog tired and you and your band have to pack 2 thousand pounds of PA, it's 20 degrees below zero and snowing... then you have to drive all night to the next city. Well, you have to love to entertain to do this day-in and day-out.
One time I was at the airport on my way to Canada to do a show for the CBC. My luggage was getting tagged as I stood in line waiting to have my ticket checked when a couple of security men surrounded me and ushered me into a room for interrogation. They asked me: "why I was traveling to Canada", "who I was seeing" and, "why my trip was so short". I told them that I had to make my flight and that if they would just tell me what the problem was we could resolve it. They pulled out an x-ray of my suitcase and it looked like a few bottles of pills had spilled out in my suitcase. I immediately recognized the problem and asked that they give me my bag so that I could open it for them. You should have seen their expressions when they realized that I was carrying rhinestone-covered jumpsuits. They held the plane for me, but I never had so many dirty looks from fellow travelers!
Recording is another creative outlet and requires different performance and singing skills. Things that are forgiven in a live performance stand out on a recording like a flaw in a master's painting. Plus the listener has the chance to listen to the flaw again and again. I'm not satisfied with my last recording, which was a Christmas CD. Sure, I know that it was recorded during my busiest month (15 dates), which means that I sang over 45 shows that month. But the listener does not care about that, they don't want excuses, they want perfection. And they are right.
To satisfy my fans, many of my recordings are filled with more obscure Elvis songs that are meant for the studio, not for a live performance. To try to sing "Girl of My Best Friend" with a 120-decibel rock'n'roll band behind you would be futile. And if I sang 20 songs like that during a show, the audience would either be sleeping or crying. Yet they are the kind of songs that most real Elvis fans want to hear. Conversely, when I'm on stage I choose songs that fit the mood of the room. If you are performing at a corporate event, the customer may ask you to perform certain material. But when I perform at a concert, it's all about my relationship with the audience. Sometimes I'll start by asking for requests from the audience, sometimes I have my own agenda. I always include a lot of Elvis in my show, because I love it and because Elvis fans come to see me because they miss Elvis so much... and hearing me sing Elvis' songs with a voice like Elvis' makes them happy.
