so
Welcome to the Elvis Showroom my name is
Rob Nekich i'm the
president of the Always Elvis Fan Club
we're here this
evening to talk about
Elvis his legacy and today we have a
gentleman that
performed with elvis on stage did some
recordings with him as well
from Nashville Tennessee we welcome
Larry Strickland from
JD sumner and the Stamps Quartet
Larry hey Rob yes how are you Rob
good evening thanks for joining us
yeah absolutely man i'm glad to
i'm glad to be here well 
as you know it's August the week of
August and 
fans typically are heading out to
Memphis Tennessee
to you know join in the Elvis
festivities but with
the world the way it is at the moment
fans have a little bit a little
more
challenging getting out so we're glad
that we could bring bring them together
here
with a discussion with
different folks like yourself
yeah we were man what a
disappointment not being able to go to
Memphis we were all geared up
ready to go and of course my wife and I
love going over there every year and
meeting fans
that not being able to do that this
year was just so disappointing
yeah you know that's one of the things
uh
you know uh you know with a situation
wherein
the fans just that was their time right
to get together with with that and and
meet
uh folks like yourself and and and just
share and
obviously the legacy of elvis presley
but uh we're here
we to uh send them uh some information
virtually and uh
we're glad that you can share some of
your information uh with your time with
elvis and
uh in general uh uh your
your career as a as a gospel singer
so yes but uh yes go ahead sorry
i was just saying yes i'll be happy to
yeah
talk about any any and all of that
wonderful
so larry uh you know uh elvis liked a
lot of different gospel music
uh quartets um what got you into
uh gospel music and uh if
obviously the folks hearing you you got
that nice bass voice
uh what brought you into the the
musician gospel uh
era well the big thing was
uh i grew up in a in a preacher's home a
pastor's home my dad was a minister
and he loved gospel music
and of course back in back in those days
this was in the
mid-40s there wasn't a whole lot of
live music to go listen to but he loved
to go listen to the gospel quartets
and when i was about i don't know 12
years old or so he took
took me to my first live gospel
concert and it was i think it was the
blackwood brothers
and the statesman a couple of those
and i'm telling you man when that sound
came off of that stage that four-part
harmony
it just went all through me and
i could never shake it it was you know
it was i knew immediately that it was
something that
that i needed to do or was going going
to do
and so i started going to as many
concerts as i could
with my dad of course i was too young to
go anywhere else and i got
a handful of records from these guys the
big
lps bought me a little stereo
and i started listening to that music i
would listen to it every day
i mean it wasn't just like here and
there you know it was
i was on a mission even that at that age
when i would come home from school i'd
go into my my bedroom and i'd turn that
music on and for hours
i would stand there and sing with it and
teach myself
to sing the bass part and
of course you know listening to it that
much and then just
loving it that much it was i was
i guess pretty much destined to to be a
part of it in
some way and so i started singing with
when i was
about 16 or 17
searched around town i lived in raleigh
north carolina and
i don't remember how i met these people
there was but there was some
a couple of people that were looking to
put together a group
that i found out about and
i went over and sang with them and we we
formed a group and then started
traveling around north carolina uh
singing wherever we could you know in
churches or
festivals or just anywhere like that and
and then i can i continued just um going
from one group to another you know and
singing
until i finally went i had to go in the
military i was i spent four years in the
army
and most of that time was spent in over
in germany and uh
frankfurt so i didn't didn't get to do
much thing and then i was
um there was none of it going on over
there and so
um i was without it for several years
but then when i came back to the states
the first thing i did was
find a group and got into another group
and then started
touring and we toured north carolina and
south carolina mainly you know just in a
regional group but we sang a lot we were
singing almost every weekend
and that's that's how i got in it yeah
so
uh you know you said you you listened to
the records were you were you vocally
trained did you have
training or did was it just something
that you
a natural gift yeah yeah i i guess it
was a gift
i had no training i i taught myself
i told myself to listen to the you know
to the bass part
and the other harmonies and it was all
it was all self-taught now you know
being in a quartet i think what
you know most people are drawn is just
the wonderful harmonies
um did you find that when you started to
sing with with
the others in your group or you know
when you i was talking about early on
when you're learning
uh you know is it really
a challenge to figure out where your
place is in a group
of four you know it's isn't
it's not really because each one of
those parts and a quartet are pretty
well defined
you know the base part is on the bottom
then you got a baritone part
that's slightly above the bass and then
there's the lead or the
the melody singer and then there's a
there's a tenor
which sings a third part above him and
those
those harmony parts are pretty well set
you know and um
once you learn how to hear that and to
follow
but the bass part was pretty easy to
sing because you know as long as i
followed the bass guitar
you know i'm singing the right part you
know so that was
that was the easy part about the bass
singing right now uh so you
toured locally you said down south
uh was this several years la you know
where did you go from actually singing
locally
regionally to to you know i i guess more
of a
would you was that professionally done
were you doing other work or was this on
the side or
you know yeah i was i was doing other
work i was uh
i had worked in computers in the in the
military in the military
in the army and so i continued
that when i got out i was working with
the the
employment security commission of north
carolina was i had a state job
which was a good a good job but then
every weekend and
you know i was we were on the road
traveling and singing
and then one day this was probably in um
you know 1969 or so
uh 68 we were doing a concert
and this was in federal north carolina
singing at a church
and they had brought in a professional
group
to be the main act and we were just we
were just the opening act
and that group happened to be j.d sumner
in the stamps quartet
that we opened the program for and after
the
after the program ed enoch who was the
lead singer
i'm sure you know that sure yeah um ed
came up to me and
asked for my phone number he said you
know
you never know when we might when we
might need somebody
so i gave him my phone number but it was
five years
five years later he carried my number
and his
in his billfold for five years
and they had at the time richard sturman
was singing base with him
sure and and richard
got hired by the oak ridge boys and so
that put the stamps in need of a
in need of a base singer and they called
me had called me in north carolina was
at work
one day and then called me there and
um i immediately came out to nashville
and auditioned and
got the job went back to north carolina
and packed up all my stuff and
and then came back and hit the road so
uh
as a base singer is the audition to see
how low you can go you had uh jd
sumner there so that was a that was a
challenge there right
oh yeah no they they weren't concerned
it was it was more about
the blend than being able to hear the
part sure yeah
they didn't need me to sing low because
jd could
you know jd was one of the lowest base
singers in the world he's in the
guinness book of world records
as having hit a lowest
uh human note that a human can sing and
so any anything i would sing he would
sing an octave
under me so you know it would kind of
make it sound like i was more of a
baritone singer than a bass singer
but that was part of and that was part
of our our
gospel program would be i would do a
song
that had some bass lines in it and i
would sing them and then jd would come
behind me and sing that so
same lines an octave under me right
kind of make it look like i was i was a
wimp you know i really wasn't
really wasn't doing the job but
so you really couldn't have much of an
ego in that gig because
anything i did jd was going to sing
lower and the
lower bigger and a bigger sound
oh sorry guys go ahead no good i'm i'm
i'm good
no i was going to say so uh were you in
nashville at the time
um they called you or were you no i was
still in north carolina
north carolina okay so did you end up
moving to nashville for
at that point or just stay where you
were oh you did
yeah i mean well i had to you know
because in those days
the gospel groups they when they hit the
road they were you know they were
traveling all the time and then
when you know when elvis wasn't touring
the stamps would go out and do gospel
concerts on our own
so between elvis and our own concerts we
were just on the road all the time so
um you know it was i had to move
even if the gig had hadn't lasted but a
few months i
yes i still had to move here yeah i
always wondered uh
you know what elvis did his engagements
in las vegas and then he did some
touring i was
always curious how much work you guys
had but uh jd and those guys kept you
kept you guys going pretty good then
oh man we 250 days a year you know on
the road at least
um and most of those most of those are
working every night
yeah somewhere good so so prior to
you getting obviously on with the stamps
and
uh you know as far as elvis
uh was he in your repertoire you're a
gospel guy
uh elvis did perform gospel albums
himself so were you a fan of elvises at
the time
where were you on on the on the elvis
connection
prior to to working for him yeah that's
that's a good question because i
i was so beat up with the gospel quartet
thing
i i knew elvis and i was familiar with
his heads obviously
um but it wasn't like i was a uh
you know a big follower i mainly just
you know was into the into the gospel
thing working churches every night and
that was my life you know that's that
was what i
was focused on ninety percent of the
time
musically we got uh questions coming in
uh
somebody was asking uh sarah was asking
what part of north carolina where you're
from she must be from down south wanting
to know
raleigh mainly i was born and raised in
raleigh and then
my dad pastored some churches in
the outlying areas from small towns
and my family were all from johnson
county
uh north carolina which is the next
county away from
wake county to raleigh's county
so we never got too far away from
raleigh at any one time
so you now become a member of the stamps
quartet
obviously you had been singing uh uh
with quartet music and
to be uh with that group obviously uh
they saw your talent uh
even though they didn't get you until
five years later um
so what was the the first connection
with elvis were you
in rehearsals to do something were you
on tour
what happened next well my first gig
with him was
was in las vegas okay and
man you talk about a head spinner i've
never been to vegas before
you know i was unaware totally of what
that was going to be about
um and then to meet
elvis out there and do those shows and
having that be the first place to do it
that was
that was quite an experience but i'm
sure some of the folks listened
as has heard because i've told this
story several times on
other interviews and things but my first
meeting with elvis was not
was not the greatest thing that ever
happened to me okay
they called the rehearsal this was the
first day that we had gotten
to vegas so i'm still head spinning just
from
seeing the place you know the lights and
pounds
and all that and they call a rehearsal
and
and so they tell me where to be at what
time and this kind of thing and i show
up
it was upstairs in the hilton there's a
big banquet room up at the top floor
and that was where they were gonna hold
the rehearsal
well in that in this particular time
this was 1974 and
one of the things going on fashion wise
with younger people especially
was bib overalls guys and girls
wearing bib overalls you know it was
like it was like a fad
right so like you're talking about like
the gene
the gene thing right yeah yeah with the
bib yeah
and the straps over it and and yeah
girls but
particularly girls we're wearing them
all the time a lot and i don't see all
the time but a lot
and i'm sure some of the people
listening can remember seeing
and seeing that well i've had me as pair
those overalls
and that's what i was wearing in las
vegas in
las vegas i had those overalls on
and and i wore them to the rehearsal
and when elvis came in of course i'm
i'm intimidated and scared to death you
know when he walks in the room because
it's you know when he
the atmosphere really changes when he
comes in with his bodyguards and
everything else you know it's a it's a
whole different
place so he's going around he's hugging
everybody and
seeing you know glad to see you you know
and this kind of thing haven't seen him
in a while
and he finally comes over where i'm
where i'm standing with the stamps
and jd and they're hugging and slapping
each other on the back and laughing and
carrying on and then finally ed
says uh he i want to introduce you to
our new bass singer and elvis looked at
me i put my hand out he shook my hand
and then he put his arm put his hand on
ed's shoulder and pulled pulled ed
away about you know not more than a
couple of feet away from where i was
i could still hear everything he said he
goes ed
where in the hell did you get the
blank farmer and i heard himself
oh my oh and i went and so
uh i mean that that just scared me man i
just thought
wow i have made the wrong impression in
this place
and i thought sure you know that i'd be
on the next plane out of the next
morning
and then he and then they'll just went
around the room he would go went over to
the suites and
the band members and stuff and pointing
me out
and they were of course elvis was
laughing he was just having a big time
so everybody was laughing i was a
laughingstock of the whole
entourage because everybody was
everybody was laughing at the farmer you
know
with the overall zone so that was not a
good
that was not a pleasant time for me but
you know i mean that was one
but what they didn't tell me what no and
they just said nobody thought to tell me
that
was that he really didn't like any time
type of blue jeans we didn't nobody was
allowed to wear any blue jeans on stage
uh ever and
of course i guess nobody had ever
considered the whole idea about the bib
overalls
but if you remember some of the photos
you know of seeing elvis as a little
child
sure he's wearing those overalls
that's what he is and i'm i'm probably
i'm
making this up but i'm thinking he
when he that was in a lot of poverty
really poor
and i'm sure he had said to himself you
know i'll never wear those things
again you know when i can have something
else
and i just and i don't want it around me
well i didn't know that you know i had
no i had no clue so he really didn't
like the overalls
so it was kind of a mixed a whole lot of
mixed emotions going on there
yeah well yeah go ahead no just the new
guy
uh coming in there right and your
expectations so
oh man yeah and so then and then the
next night you know is
is our first show and this is my my
first time so i'm still
i'm still rattled from the whole overall
thing and i'm
trying to watch and listen to the show
and
learn my part standing next to jd and
hearing
hearing the whole thing but
but that was a that was a mind blower as
well because i've never been
on a stage you know with that kind of
orchestra a huge orchestra like that and
then all the background singers were all
all together and that
that's that sound the audience is
screaming i've never i've never been in
an audience
around an audience you know with people
screaming like that
just going crazy so i was my mind was
just totally
shattered man i'm sure i just stood
there all night with my mouth open i
didn't probably didn't sing a note
yeah one of the one of the commenters
said uh well because you were from
from the south and your country boy
meets sin city so
right good comment there uh
they should have said they should have
said preacher's kid meet sin
city
but uh so you know obviously you know
an interesting first meeting uh
after that did you settle in and uh
i did um you know i was concentrating on
the show and i was just
i was just happy that they hadn't sent
me home you know that i was gonna at
least have some kind of a shot to
learn the show and maybe work myself in
and then it was it was a few nights it
was on that same tournament a few nights
after the show uh it's when elvis had
the big
plane you know elise marie um
he wanted to go out to the plane after
the show because they're always looking
for something to do
in the middle of the night like that and
so he wanted everybody to come out and
sit with him on the plane you know we
didn't go anywhere we just sat on the
tarmac you know and sit
and hung out in the plane and i'm
sitting up at the front
just trying to keep a low profile you
know i'm really
not going around him and trying to be
one of the guys you know i'm just trying
to really
really not be seen too much um
but then at some point while he's
sitting on the plane he's at the back of
the
i don't know if you've been on that
plane but there was him still is but a
big conference table thing uh
in the back section um like this it's
still there
and he was he was set
sitting at the uh at the one end of it
at the head and looking up
toward the front of the plane where i
was sitting and he
he uh finally in front of in front of
all the entourage and everybody that had
laughed at me before you know he said
hey
larry man uh you're doing a good job you
know welcome
you know i just want to make you feel
welcome or something like that i don't
remember exactly what it said but he
he kind of redeemed himself and and
welcomed me into the group
in front of everybody and that and so
from then on
i was able to settle down and settle in
and
feel like i belonged yeah well
you know like you said you were at first
your star struck and and uh
yeah you know on the on on a big plane
like that and it was great that uh
that elvis recognized you so you know i
never got over the starstruck thing i
mean anytime
he came on stage or came into the room
where i was
you know you just you get you get
bug-eyed and you just go on this elvis
you know that's elvis there you know
it's never like just well it wasn't for
me
i'm just settling settling down that
much and not being totally aware that
that i was you know in in his presence
right
so you started off uh in vegas in 74.
uh one of the uh folks online is asking
uh
you know how did do you rehearse a lot
with elvis was
at that time was he rehearsing very much
or was it just
show show after show that that first
rehearsal that i was in that's the only
time we ever that's the only time we
ever rehearsed
anything wow from then from then on
there was no more
no more rehearsing even when we were
recorded you know the songs and
when we were recording in in the jungle
room at graceland
it wasn't like we did a lot of
rehearsing and then they turned the
machine on and recorded you know it was
it was uh we
worked our parts out among ourselves
among the backup singers and then would
would run it a couple of times and and
then record it yeah
so there wasn't a whole lot of a whole
lot of just
you know digging in and rehearsing note
by note yeah so the
the first rehearsal that you had in 74
when you came in was that just
coincidence or was it because they knew
that you were new and
that's why they did it or no they didn't
do it for me no
no that that tour
they had been for some reason and i
don't remember why but there had been
several months
since they had all been together and of
course
i think there was a couple of songs that
new songs that i always wanted to put
into the vegas show
and so that's why they call the
rehearsal to just to run those songs for
for vegas now one of the folks online is
saying that uh
he thinks that was august 16 1974.
so said that they think that was they
rehearsed that or
did they tape that rehearsal he's saying
that they might have taped it
i don't i don't know if they ever taped
i don't know if they did or not but that
sounds
that sounds right i never i didn't even
thought about i couldn't remember what
the exact exact date was
yeah well i remember i don't remember
been being very hot
and um in vegas i've never i've never
felt any heat like
before in my life yeah well especially
you know august it's
it you know it's a hundred and some
degrees right
yeah in the shade but uh we're gonna
uh as we're talking here we're gonna
show you a show a few uh
photos of of of you with uh elvis on
stage
got one up by i know you can't see this
larry but uh it's just a picture of
elvis with the
with the the uh sweet inspiration in the
front and
and you guys in the back you're in the
in the back right so
just so the fans can kind of see uh uh
you with uh with elvis back back in the
day
so not much rehearsals you're in vegas
um
in august and then uh you toured so were
you part of the uh the memphis show in
74
i guess no that would have been in may
so you would have been if you were to
come in this summer time
um how was touring compared to vegas
which did you prefer
um you know i liked all of it i get
vegas was easier for us i know it was
more boring for elvis because
he couldn't get out you know like like
we could in the date
in the daytime you know we would we
would be out
at the pool and uh in the casino and
meet and greet people and whatever you
know so and and having
everybody in that one place and the
people would come from all over the
world to the
to the hilton hotel and so it was just
a lot of fun and easy because we didn't
travel every day
we would just
do our have all that time to ourselves
you know
in the daytime yeah so on tour and
traveling but vegas you
got a little down time i guess is what
you're saying right oh yeah so it was
much easier and it was and it was more
fun because the crowds
working to work in a room that size
you've got the audience right next to
you
and uh that's always more fun you know
than where you
when we worked at big arenas and and 99
percent of the audience you notice you
hardly even see them because the lights
or lights are on you and in your face
and
you can only see the first few rows of
people right
um although they did uh they did keep
the
unlike a lot of concerts you know elvis
loved to see the audience
and they would keep the lights up
for him quite often because he he'd like
to be able to see the people
right so in uh my uncle
seen elvis uh twice in 75 with my
brother and uh
76 so that would have been the time that
uh
that you you were there and yeah that's
one thing he said this
um the electricity
even though the concert wasn't happening
that day it could have been in the
middle of the date but just the fact
that
the uh elvis show was on for that month
it was like that town went crazy
did you feel that same way as as a
member of his group
could you feel that electricity oh yeah
yes
you know from the minute we would get uh
be in the car
heading toward the hotel from the
airport and we would
could see that big billboard in the
distance
you know with elvis name on it and jd
summer and the stamps underneath that
and all that
that that's when the excitement would
kick in you know and then it was just
it was just a fun time you know for the
next week or more yeah
a friend of mine is a a big uh
photo uh collector he's got one of the
biggest photo collections that i know
were you did you take a lot of pictures
uh back in you know i know you're
working so i know a lot of times people
say like i didn't think of taking a
picture did did you have those kind of
memories
taking pictures of of the other group
no i i didn't you know because that was
we didn't we didn't have cell phones
right you can walk around with it not
easy to walk around with it with a
camera and that's one of one of the
things that i
i kick myself for is is not
you know not having a camera once in a
while especially in vegas
and getting some shots somewhere yeah
but you know we just
we you know i didn't have didn't have a
clue that he was not going to be around
that we were going to lose him
sure and so it just it was just no big
uh
urgency you know for me to have a have
all these pictures yeah i'm just
really thankful that so many fans have
taken the ones from the audience you
know that
sure that you can see me and
so i'm always looking for those if
anybody out there
happens to have any photos uh on stage
that's that's elvis is in and and that
i'm in and i'm in
also enough to have a copy of well uh
larry i probably can help you out with
that this like i said this friend of
mine has been collecting
forever and he's actually provided some
uh
quite a few photos for um for sony
uh legacy you know and a lot of the
stuff they do so uh
i'll ask him if he's got any uh stage
photos he'll
he'll come up with something for you i'm
sure yeah that'd be wonderful
that would be wonderful so uh elvis love
gospel music you're a gospel guy we know
that elvis did a lot of
singing after concerts um we know that
happened a lot in the early 70s did that
happen in the time you were there it
never did
i never got to be a part of that for
whatever reason
he had he had stopped doing that
um and and i don't know why you know
the guys and and and i would have loved
to have been a part of that but at the
same time the guys
the other stamps talked about how brutal
it was you know for them to do the show
and then go and be up
all night long you know the four five
six o'clock in the morning
and having to stand around a piano and
sing you know
it was just brutal to have to do that
and so they i mean looking back on it
i'm sure they're
very happy to have gotten to be part of
that but when it was going on it was it
wasn't it wasn't too much fun
right yeah well you know it's uh
i i think elvis didn't realize that
these guys worked and you guys rehearsed
and uh
you know but who's going to tell all of
us no right you know no exactly we
were we worked for him we you know you
do whatever he
whatever he wanted but he he loved it
you know he grew up a lot like like me
in the
in you know the gospel music that he
heard
as a child you know it got into his soul
and that's part of that's a big reason
of
him turning out the way he did and
going in the direction he did musically
and was you know the black
gospel and and the white gospel quartets
you know he loved all that stuff
yeah and you could just you can just
tell uh he always
he always kept uh you know
some gospel repertoire in his concerts
right uh
even in vegas you know you're in vegas
and you're hearing him sing
uh a gospel song so uh we're saying
uh you saying how great they are every
night
he had us the stamps he had us come out
front
uh at times and sing uh
acapella sweet sweet spirit you know
which is
and it didn't matter how wild the crowd
was or anything
he would make him be quiet for us for us
to sing a cappella
sweet sweet spirit right yeah yeah great
stuff
um so you know elvis uh
did record in albany 75 which which was
the today album
uh which was done in california uh i
don't think the stamps were part of that
but uh eventually
elvis uh and rca trying to get some
records going
um they did some recording at his home
in graceland
people know as a jungle room back then
was the den and uh
uh you were part of those uh two albums
am i right uh
from elvis presley boulevard and moody
blue the recordings that came from 76
yes yes those were
those were singing in the middle of the
night you know it was elvis did
everything at night
he slept slept during the daytime and
then the night the night time was
whenever he
came alive to to work and sing
and so we would go over eight o'clock at
night or nine o'clock at night
and we'd wait downstairs
uh you know down in the pool room or the
tv or i guess they call it a tv room
down there
and we'd sit there until you know
midnight or latest you know because they
wanted us to be there whenever he
decided he was going to come down the
scene
um so it was uh
it was a lot of fun because when he came
down and when the singing started when
the music kicked in man it was
it was awesome to be able to be that
uh involved with him and to you know
it's kind of like we had him all to
ourself you know what
it wasn't wasn't an artist it was just
us and him making the music
that was that was a very good time yeah
is it true that there was uh
uh sometimes there was some wait time
till he was ready to come and sing
uh during those sessions that you were
there
oh yeah yeah there was a lot of there
was a lot of waiting
and then one night one night rob uh
they had called us to come upstairs into
the jungle room so he
thought he was about ready to come down
from his bedroom and
so we're standing around waiting and
charlie hodge comes down and
he says uh you know we're gonna we're
gonna record a little later he said
right now elvis
he's decided he is going to change out
his entire wardrobe
okay so he's yeah he's so he's upstairs
he's going through his closet he's going
to throw everything out
and he wants you guys to come up
and see if there's anything you all want
oh wow and so and and so charlie would
take we went up one at a time because uh
they didn't want a whole gang up there
so just one at a time we would go up
uh and and be with elvis in his closet
going through his clothes and stuff and
of course you didn't
i don't know how the other guys handled
it but when i when it was my turn to go
in
you know i didn't just go looking
through the claws and handling stuff you
know i was like i just
i just kind of stood there and elvis
would he he'd take some clothes off of
off the rack you know and he'd kind of
hold it up to me you know or
hang it up you know and i would i'd i'd
go yeah
a sudden yeah i can wear that i think
that that would be good
you know i was just i was willing to
take whatever he would let me have you
know
but i was acting like i was going to
wear it which i knew i would something i
would never
never wear you know would be too
valuable for me to wear
so we all left we all left the recording
session that night with
arms arms full of clothes
is that still is that still in your
wardrobe collection or any of that stuff
um you know sadly sadly not they're in a
they're ahead of the sky that was
opening up a museum in las vegas
okay uh bought bought them bought them
from me and i
bought a nice car okay
what he paid me for him was that was
that jimmy velvet
uh no no okay
i can't remember the guy's name now and
i think that
i think maybe the museum is no longer
there okay
yeah i know jimmy velvet uh the club had
some connections with him over the years
and i know we had a lot of
a lot of stuff yeah out there but what a
great story uh
you know let's let's go into elvis's uh
closet and see what he's got going there
that's pretty pretty interesting
so i know i look back on that and i wish
i'd have been bolder and
kind of said yeah i want this give me
that and give me this i should have been
was just not my style you know to be
that way i was yeah
so the jungle room uh if the fans have
been to graceland
you know it it's a fairly large room for
uh
for a den uh but it's not a very large
room for a recording studio
with uh with uh
a whole quartet of male singers i assume
the uh sweet inspiration were there as
well
correct everybody was everywhere cheryl
nelson and
ronnie drums and and every anything like
that so
how did that how did rca manage to
handle all that
musicians and and all that and and get
the sound they needed to
to produce these albums you know that's
a
that's a huge question because you know
in a normal studio you have
you have everything isolated each each
instrument is isolated
and the all the vocals are isolated the
the main vocalist which was elvis you
know he would have been
totally isolated you know in a booth so
that
none of the instruments could come
through his mic you know the only way he
would be able to hear the instruments
would be through his headphones
and that's how you keep you know all the
tracks clean without
all this bleed over but we had none of
that
and elvis uh at one point
he was uh using a handheld mic which you
don't do in the studio
you don't you don't hold the microphone
all right
but he was he hadn't had a handheld mic
and he would he'd be walking around the
room and so you can imagine you know the
engineer that's outside in the in the
truck
it's it's just going crazy because one
minute he's hearing
too much of the background singers
because we're all bleeding in the elvis
mic and then the next matter did too
much drums or too much guitar or
whatever so and that was the way those
sessions went down
yeah and how in the world
this the uh studio here in nashville
that they brought them to
to uh that felton jarvis you know used
to
mix all that stuff how they were able
to make records out of that stuff and
and good sounding records you know right
and it's
it's not schlock i mean it's it's good
stuff and how they did that i don't know
it took a long time yeah so was was
uh elvis do you think elvis was happy
with the outcome of it uh did he
uh you know was there a lot of hey this
doesn't sound right stop starts or or
did he just
kind of roll with the flow you know what
he was he was having a big time
singing you know he would come over and
sing stand with us and sing and
he was having fun doing that i don't
know if he and and
he was kind of to the point where he was
just trying to
trying to fulfill his contract with rca
okay and
i'm i'm i wasn't around whenever he
heard the outcome or whatever so i don't
know what his feelings were and i never
heard anybody say but
he couldn't have been too displeased
with him because they were good
and especially his performances i'll
never forget the night he came
downstairs and
the first song we did was hurt okay yeah
and
and you would have you would have
thought that he had been singing that
song his whole life
and he and he might have he might have
because he i've never heard him sing it
on
on stage but i mean the minute he opened
his mouth man it was like
so hurt and i mean it was
i think we took two takes of that song
wow just just just two
and and they made a record at it i mean
he's
he's saying the dog out of it it was
unbelievable yeah
one of the fans is asking uh trish is
asking uh
what kind of a tire does elvis wear
going to a recording session in his den
was he all garbed up still or no no he
had it was more casual looking stuff it
was still elvis stuff
it was still you know stuff that you
don't see on the street but it was
it was more casual you know uh
kind of a tire light leisure attire
the uh uh got a question somebody was uh
saying that you know the fans after 40
some years they
you're always wondering is there a
recording that the fans have never heard
and
and uh somebody had uh asked about the
song
feelings do you know if elvis ever did
feelings while
at the at the den there
i you know i remember the song but i
don't remember
him doing it there okay did you ever
hear him sing feelings or
i mean i don't know of it but uh a fan's
asking that so i just thought i'd ask
you if
you recalled or not i don't and i don't
i don't remember yeah never hearing that
so uh how long were you down there
uh because uh he did most of that in
was it two sessions in 76 correct for
for the
the those recordings or was it just one
whole session well we were there
it was i think a little more than that
we were there for it seems like um
five or six nights okay um
of course all we were recording every
night we were just there
um but it wasn't
it wasn't many could have been more than
it couldn't have been more than
than three or four yeah so you know i
uh some of the fans you know i
when when from elvis presley boulevard
came out in 76
i was a young young guy and and to me
uh that was a record that was a new
release right i was old enough to
you know my uncle was getting the elvis
record so i've always i've always had
some sentimental
uh thing to that stuff but uh you know
uh
you guys the stamps the the the gals
that
were singing and the musicians elvis
really had a top-notch crew would uh
you know i mean he really knew how to
pick him i think yeah
yeah the uh that whole
background group was was awesome that
the
sound that that they generated
together was just
so big and wide i mean you could drive a
truck through it it's just a huge sound
and then you add an orchestra and elvis
voice
you know it's an unbelievable show i
mean it just
nobody could nobody could duplicate that
i mean it's just it's
not not on that level
and that's why it took me so long to
learn the show because i was so in awe
and just but then once you know once
i've learned it then it's
you just so looked forward to every
night you know to get the performance
because you know
that it's on this it's on this level
that you're going to get to perform on
that's that you don't get to do every
day
and so the the excitement and the
pleasure and getting to do that was
was just to the max wow those recording
sessions uh
you know like you said he he nailed hurt
in a couple takes
um any frustration to the band mates
elvis i mean did he did he correct you
guys
or anybody in the band or was he just
kind of casual
someone's asking so i just thought i'd
ask he was he was very casual
that's you know one thing about when
elvis was involved in
in the music and singing and around
the band and and the singers and
everything he was i think he was
as as happy as he was ever going to be
yeah because he was doing what he was
meant to do and he and he loved it
and he was in great spirits and he would
come over in fact at one point
i said something to him during that
after a song
because he would he liked he loved bass
he loved bass vocals
and he would if you if you remember in
this concert
on some of his songs you know going into
a song
just hit the lowest note he could or or
in the song that usually would be really
a high ending he would end it
down and hit hit hit his lowest notes
and he liked to do that and there was
one song that we were singing
recording and he uh he was singing
the same notes that i was singing and
and uh
he was standing real close to me okay he
said
he said i'm singing you'll know larry
hope you know that and i said all right
that's fine i said i want it
i won't let it mess me up i can't
believe i said that
i won't let it mess me up like i was
some special you know
he could sing my note all day long if he
wanted to
but the you know just nervousness of
whatever that makes you
not realize what you're saying
but it was all just a lot of fun it was
a lot of laughing
and just a lot of enjoyment and that's
probably why the records turned out as
well as it did because we were having
fun
right well one of the one of the songs
uh from those sessions uh was on the
moody blue
album was way down and it it focuses a
lot on bass vocals obviously
jd um had his his
low uh bass voice
how did your vocals in that song how did
your vocals uh
come into play there well i don't know
how it i think jd kind of helped arrange
the background singers for that
particular song
and then when the courses come in the
courses actually start with a
way down then and then the way
down the doo doo and the way down
and that's me doing those and but then
at the end of the verse
at the very last one you know where it
goes really low that's jd doing that
so she you and i both got to
got to share in doing that song yeah so
now next time fans when you go put way
down on your uh
itunes there and you listen to the bass
vocals and you can
kind of see and pick out uh what larry
just told us about the the different
portions of the song
great great information larry so
uh uh you record with elvis
uh in 76 you're still on tour
um tv special um
is announced uh how aware was the the
group of
of what this tv special was about did
you guys really know what was really
happening with that
you know we knew that it was going to
happen but it really didn't change any
anything for us you know we just it was
like just a normal
normal concert for us
we just had to do our do our music right
so um i'd like to share uh larry if you
don't mind is take a
minute here and uh so you know we've
kind of went through
you joining the group and and we talked
a little bit about rehearsals and then
you know uh elvis toured like a son of a
gun right from
76.77 uh yeah yeah we love
we loved it yeah you know it was anytime
that was that mean that meant we were
gonna
we're gonna be flying to all our dates
and we're not gonna be in that old bus
you know trying to get to our
trying to get to our gigs and we're
gonna be we're gonna be traveling in
style and doing the
doing the great shows that we love to do
so right
we would have wished he worked worked
even more right
well what i want to do is i'm going to
show a little segment here from
from you know that television special in
a 77
and we're not going to play the whole
thing but we're going to uh i got a
little
segment of of elvis doing how great thou
art and and
i want the the fans that are listening
to to listen to what elvis
what elvis loved about gospel quartet
singers he gave you that
you know and how great thou art sing it
fellas yeah so we're going to play a
little bit of that part
and then uh we're going to there's a
little segment of
of that concert where elvis is leaving
you know for ken out falling in love and
he
he passes by the stamps quartet and if
you
look next to jd stummer you're going to
see larry there
so let's let's the fans get to hear what
elvis heard
from you you boys singing some gospel
we'll be back in a minute
joy grace
falling in love
there we go we gave the fans a little uh
bit of how great thou
art and uh they saw you uh
a young larry strickland next to uh jd
sumner
and the stamps with all that with all
that
all that long black hair there you go
all down in my face and everything well
the 70s were that way everybody had the
long hair right
yeah but uh in that uh
in that uh segment uh where elvis is
doing how great thou art
um you know and you guys do your your
your part where he you know sing it
fellows but at the end of
of this one particular thing is you
could tell elvis is just trying to give
it all he got and he's
he said about how great how great i
don't want to sing it but you know he
did it about three or four times
and i noticed the whole band has to keep
that note it seems like a little bit
longer
right um well while he was doing that
you know he he did that every every
night that he sang that song that he
he put as much or more into that song as
any
anything he ever sang right he
he loved it and he really he really felt
it
and just sang it real hard it was
it was great to be a part of that yeah
so you know we all know that that elvis
physical appearance uh you know at 77
um you know we have the footage now and
we can
it's it's so well documented um but it's
like anything in life when you're living
it
um did you notice it or did it
just seem like it was still elvis uh any
any kind of
feedback on on on elvis
i mean we you know we'd be would be off
of off a
tour for a month or whatever and then
and then
get back uh on tour and then when when
he would first we would first see him
uh would realize you know that that uh
he wasn't himself
right and so yeah we recognized it but
um you know there was only
there was only a couple of times though
when
um when he didn't sing his
saying his best even though he didn't
you know wasn't looking his best he was
still
he was still singing it you know still
he was still elvis and
and
you know so we were we were
trying not to be too scared or upset you
know i mean we were
because the music was still the music
was still there
right yeah yeah you know and you know if
you'd listen to the record
uh you know obviously that elvis in
concert came out
um in october of 77 and i remember
playing it and
you know well this just sounded great uh
yeah you know it could be the elvis and
me but uh
you know he did sound sound well um
76 he also did the the concert in
pittsburgh uh
for for new year's eve i assume you were
part of that show as well
yeah and pontiac yeah there was pontiac
and then there was pittsburgh
uh was another one that he did pontiac
was
in the in the larger arena right
yeah pontiac michigan is the one that i
really remember
because it was in the you know they had
they just built that
big stadium right and um
so that you know that was a that was
interesting and
exciting but the thing about working
those big
big arenas like that you know the sound
is never good
you know you can't see people uh you
can't see their faces
right so it and then elvis said
i don't know if you did were you one of
those shows did you go to that one
i never i never saw all of a snow um
it was um you know they had a big
stage built in in the middle of the
arena
and it was a tiered it was a
three-tiered stage
okay kind of like a wedding kick a big
wedding cake
and they actually had steps that come up
through the middle of it the way that's
the way we got on stage
okay and so on the first tier was was
the orchestra
and the second tier was uh backup
singers
and then elvis was on the very top tier
you know where he did most of his
performing
okay and you know he
he didn't like it when i was one you
know
you know how he's always going inside
from one side to the other stage and
he likes to come over he used to like to
come over where we were and sing a
little bit and then he'd go back across
you know and just
he worked the whole stage and he wasn't
able to do that plus he wasn't able to
see the people so it wasn't
it was a great event you know because of
68 000 people
and something that you know didn't
happen very often but musically and from
that standpoint
it it wasn't all that it wasn't great
because of
those things that i just mentioned right
so a bunch of wonderful memories right
uh
concerts and concerts in las vegas and
and uh
being in an elvis's home recording um
and uh you know traveling uh with the
stamps and doing all the wonderful
things you did
but how did you hear the news of august
16th 1977
larry you know that's a you know i'll
never forget that for sure
we were at the airport
in nashville and the plane was coming
from memphis
to pick up all the the nashville
contingent of the of the tour
and we get a call we're going to we're
going to start a tournament in
portland maine i think is where we was
going to be the first date
and so we got a call that the plane was
on it on its way
and then 30 minutes later
we get a call and and felton jarvis who
was elvis's
producer was with us and he he was
taking the call they were calling him
for some reason
he took a call and then felt and says
turns to all of us you know standing in
the
in the waiting room there he said hey
guys
tour's been canceled you all go home
we'll tell you more later
yeah and that when that was it they
didn't tell you what the reason was
no no okay we get in our cars
to head home and i hear it on the radio
yeah so i had to so when i first heard
about him passing him
i heard it on the radio with everybody
else you know
i don't know why they didn't want to
tell us you know us i guess they were
you know didn't want a word going out
all over the place you know from there
from different uh
people and and get different stories out
there
so i can i can understand why they
didn't
why they didn't just tell all of us at
that point but
still it was it made it hard you know to
accept that
i did hear it on the radio like that all
right were you able to attend uh the
funeral and it was
pretty chaotic with different people
there were you able to attend that at
all
well we didn't just attend we sang at
the funeral
yeah in fact jd was uh jd was in charge
of
part of it you know in getting uh um
i can't even think of the guys the
pastor now the preacher from virginia
that elvis loved jd was in charge of
getting him to
to be this yeah i've lost that too um
yeah i think i know what you mean but
and then and then we we stood of course
we're it's in the living room there you
know graceland we're all at
where the funeral was and which was
small you know other than rather than
being in a church of some kind it's just
family and and
and us and we're actually standing over
behind
the casket okay he's laying there
in front of us in an open casket for a
while
you know and we're trying to we're
trying to say you know we were singing
our
gospel stuff that he loved you know and
that i guess he had requested
i don't know if he'd requested that or
just
you know vernon or whatever was what he
knew that he wanted
we were just kind of doing whatever
vernon wanted us to do
um so
yeah that was that was awful yeah that
was awful and what a sad
sad time it was very surreal yeah
you know you you don't you don't really
feel like you're
you're present or you don't feel like
you're in your skin you know you're just
kind of disbelieving right it's
it's just just oh yeah yeah so uh
yeah we're getting help from the uh from
our our uh
watchers it's uh rex humbert hubbard
yes right hamburg yeah bombard yeah
thank you
uh several people mentioned that so yeah
yeah yeah jd had a jd had a had a
connection with with rex and was able to
call him direct and they
got him to fly in um
so uh obviously you know
that changed a lot for those musicians
and the people working for elvis
what uh what became of yourself and the
stamps uh
after after elvis passing
you know what strangely enough we became
we became more popular you know
for several years after that you know we
were we were
getting uh
gigs all over the place you know to come
and
talk about elvis and and do some of the
songs that we did
you know in his show and so we started
traveling a whole different circuit
ourselves right
you know with a with a band and and
doing a much bigger show ourselves those
people were you know they were
they were kind of desperate to kind of
cling to
anybody anybody you know that was
connected to him
and so we were working a lot yeah well
i i uh i happened to see the
jd summer in the stamps um like you said
you started working
traveling really around the world i
guess
uh after elvis passed away and
unfortunately elvis didn't get to
to do that i know there was you know a
lot of talk that that was something that
he wanted to do but never had an
opportunity to do
right okay yeah and uh but uh
i uh back in 1978 i i lived in uh uh
alberta canada and jd sumner and stamps
i got to show you something here see
this
tribute to elvis king of rock and roll
and that magazine obviously if you're
seeing it
on your camera larry's seeing a
different camera than we are
but uh it was a tribute concert uh
and this was in my hometown the arena
held like 17 000
places was jam-packed and it had the
stamps uh
jd and the stamps and some other gospel
and country singers
here's uh i'll show you here
can't tell i'm getting a light thing
there there here
jd's autograph and then you you're just
talking about ed right
yeah there's eddie nick eddie and uh
enoch
and uh the blackwood singers were there
um so yeah so the legacy continued
you know continued after that so i i got
this in 78
and uh you were probably there
larry didn't know that at the time we
were there and
uh um you know went on to uh
to uh you know the stamps uh kept going
for
quite a long time right so you stayed
with the stamps till what you're
uh until uh about the middle of 79
okay i don't remember exact the exact
time that i
till i left but we uh me and a couple
other guys in the group
decided we were to break off and start
doing uh more of a country
thing and we actually formed a we formed
a country group
called memphis and
we we just played we played
clubs all over the country and in canada
we were canada in the united states we
were we were still working a lot
but just under another another name and
a little bit different music we wanted
to
we wanted to try to be the next oak
ridge boys you know so okay doing that
kind of a show
so uh after that time period uh
uh you ran across a uh a lovely lady
redhead right yeah
naomi judd right yes uh
tell them tell the fans how that
connection happened
well you know i actually actually met
her bef
while i was still with the
with the stamps you know was toward the
very end of the stamps okay so near like
79 78 79
79 okay and she
uh had gotten a job her and her and
wynonna and ashley
had just moved to nashville
ashley was 11 years old and winona was
15
and naomi got a
job working in the office of a guy that
was managing
that was our manager the stamps manager
okay
and so me and ned enig one day
needed to go to the management office
and we walked in the door and
and uh naomi was sitting at the
reception's desk
and uh so obviously
obviously caught my eye
so something something i'm i'm going to
tell this on them
um it was a real hot day it was in the
summertime
real hot and something ed when we walked
in
saw her i think he had started wiping
sweat you know he said man i'm really
sweating out there
and but i wasn't i wasn't sweating
for for whatever reason and uh and ed
just
he looked looked over at me and he said
i don't i don't know why you don't sweat
he said man this
sweat's pouring off of me and we turned
and walked away
headed back into the manager's office
and i heard
i heard naomi say i bet i can make him
sweat
i heard her say that so obviously that
that was kind of the the open door right
then yeah
and so it wasn't long after that we
started started dating
and uh now been married for over 30
years
am i right 35 years we've been together
i've been together
40 been together 40 years and married 35
like that so and she's still making you
sweat right
oh yeah yeah
so great so obviously you know uh
her and her her daughter wynonna were
were
a singing duo country duo doing uh
great things back uh back in the day and
uh oh yeah
um i understand you uh
helped out with their uh with their uh
kind of their managerial stuff i'm just
showing a couple different pictures of
them
um yeah you picked the beauty there
larry yeah
i managed i managed them for a little
while which was
not the smartest thing i ever did but
i'm not in the room to hear you is she i
needed i was just looking to see she was
she did walk through here a minute ago
okay um i should have stuck to singing
you know
i wanted to get into management so i
tried that for a while but uh
let's tell her all the elvis fans say
hello and uh she married a pretty uh
pretty nice guy
well thank you well she she loves you
know she goes with me every year to
to memphis okay then she goes and she
walks through the
hotel and and meets folks and
and talks to them and she really enjoys
in fact when this one
when the first time she went with me she
was
walking through and some this lady came
up to her
and said you know i i really think your
hotel here is just beautiful
and the lady the lady thought that that
naomi was priscilla
oh really yeah
so that was kind of unique oh
she's now getting priscilla impersonator
is that what that is
yeah well it's you know a
wonderful story and uh you know uh
you know how people connect right and uh
through through through the business and
and there you go right
uh no no and you've been connecting so
for 35 years so uh
what's uh future plans for for larry
strickland uh
got anything in the burners
you know i do i just finished recording
my very first
solo record if you can imagine that you
know i've
sung my whole life since i was a
teenager
um but it's always been with a group you
know
singing the bass part just being just
the bass singer
and i'd do a few solos here and there
you know on
bass bass solos on those
recordings and i just had never
even had a desire really to go out and
just do my own record but
then you know i got i had a friend of
mine that's a producer a gospel producer
here in uh
here in uh nashville and he had been
after me for a couple of years you know
just insisted you know he said man
there's no
reason why you're well you don't have
your own record
and so finally i just i just finished
recording it just a few months ago
um because mainly because
so many of us are you know we just lost
ed hill right
yeah our barricade singer and you know
we're not going to be here forever and i
wanted to
put my voice on something you know that
would be representative of me
and and would kind of so that people
would know that i
actually can sing and was a was a singer
with elvis so um
i wanted to have i'm calling it legacies
it's kind of gonna be my lick my legacy
that i'm gonna leave you know that's
that's my
my voice on it and um i took i picked up
some gospel songs some old real old
songs that that
uh elvis sang that he liked to sing
okay and and then also i put a couple of
uh other country songs this long black
train the josh
turner song and
lord i hope this day is good
i don't know if you ever heard that lord
i hope to stay as good as
on don williams song okay i don't think
i like
don williams but i'm not sure if i i
heard that one
and um so it's just out and
if anybody is interested in looking at
my website
it's a larry strickland music
dot com larry stricklandmusic.com
and then go on there and they can learn
about a little bit about the record a
little bit about my life
and i talk about you know my first show
with elvis and
in vegas and uh
kind of what it was like and my thoughts
around that and there's
a lot of pictures on there to look at
with me with elvis and you know me and
my wife naomi and mm-hmm
so uh when will uh so this is uh then
it's a six song ep some gospel and some
some a little bit of country flavor when
will this uh when when do you think
it'll be out uh
for release it's going to be out by the
end of next week
okay but but if anybody wanted to get it
they could go ahead and get it and
they'll just
you know we'll we'll have obviously
we'll ship it just a second okay so
you're doing uh pre-orders now at your
website
all right wonderful
i think the fans will uh enjoy hearing
that i can't do the
deep voice i shouldn't even try but uh
enjoy enjoy
hearing uh hearing your voice and uh
it's great to know that you're
you know you you know like you said
i have elvis books all over the place
right and everybody writes a book
but music music is it seems like it's
forever you know the book kind of
stays on the shelf but the music kind of
it's you know people are listening to
elvis 50s music and we're in
2020 right and uh you know for you to
uh to record your own stuff i think
that's uh
that's going to be great well you know
all just about every
everybody that was part of the elvis
show they all have their books
they all wrote you know books from from
all different perspectives and
and i just never wanted to do that um
but i thought i did music was a it was a
totally different thing and i did want
to
do the recording right and so
yeah and i'm probably going to do more
i've i enjoyed the process so much i'm
probably gonna
probably gonna do more now that that
i've started you know i really enjoy
really enjoy doing it and um and next
year
probably you know when we all show up in
back in
in memphis and we're all together and we
do the gospel shows i'll i'll be doing
some of my music you know at that time
too so great
yeah a few of the fans are they're
chatting amongst themselves what's the
name of the album
they're not they're they're answering
legacy so legacy is is
is the is the ep uh album that's coming
out
and uh people are still asking questions
larry i don't know if you have a few
more minutes to
to answer a couple or uh sure so uh
uh one's asking uh please ask
larry about elvis vocal range as a
singer
where where's elvis stand in the vocal
range department
you know he had to have had had to at
least have
uh over three octave range i mean it's
it was incredible you know just when you
think he's
he's hit his highest note you know he he
goes a few steps above that you know
the same thing on his on his on his
lower end
you know and that reminds me he whenever
it was
about the last year that he was living
in touring
um he started
on on the song it's now or never
every night when he would get to the end
of that it's now whenever
my love will wait and then he dropped it
an hour never
my love won't wait well he would have me
do that line
okay whenever my love won't wait
and i just he would he would sing it as
far as he could and then i would then i
would get the you know like the last
note of it
and he would always recognize he would
he would say um
he turned to me and said larry
strickland he's my alter ego
and then give me give me give me credit
for singing those couple of notes you
know every night right
yeah i think obviously do that right
he's the kind of turn of the mic and
then
you're hitting the note behind him right
yeah
yeah yeah interesting stuff he didn't
yeah but that's just the kind of guy he
was you know he like
but he his vocal range was was
incredible that's why
that's why his show was so wonderful man
he could he could sing hard and
loud and high i mean it was and then hit
some low notes
yeah a little bit for everybody yeah i
got one more uh
uh thing here uh
obviously uh you guys the stamps
and uh some of the other gospel folks uh
got together
recently on an album um that was
done with a couple of tracks that uh his
daughter lisa marie
uh did a track on uh where no one stands
alone
how was that experience getting back uh
into the studio with all those
those folks no it was it was fun we all
we were all together it was it was the
stamps and the
and the imperials you know we were just
we all went in together
okay and and redid all the backgrounds
you know
on several of those songs it turned out
good it was
it was fun i i
some of it i wish they had you know i
wish they had done them
the more traditional way they didn't try
to change them up
a little bit yeah a little bit too much
for my taste but that's just me but um
but it was a good job yeah i mean it was
they did a good job in the tracks and
stuff and
and then if anybody has a record if they
listen to um
bosom of abraham yep that's me doing the
uh i'm going down in the bosom
down in the bosom uh so that's all me
doing all that stuff
should have brought your band we
should've just had a concert tonight
sounding so good there larry
crank them up and did a number two right
so someone just asked us how's your
brother reggie doing
somebody else well somebody knows my
brother's bridge
cindy huh somebody named cindy miller
asked that question oh reg is is doing
great i just
was just texting with him a couple of
nights ago
and doing really well thanks for asking
all right so you uh
fans if you want to uh check out larry's
website larry stricklandmusic.com
and he's got his uh new cd uh i assume
it's a cd 60d
uh track called legacy and uh you can
hear
um larry doing uh some solo vocals
great bass uh vocals and
cindy just responded when i when he was
in the second grade i lived across the
street from you
so you can tell your brother reggie that
cindy miller lived across the street
from you in second gr from him in second
grade
so when when reg when reg was in the
second grade he says when he was in the
second grade i lived across the street
from you
when i was in the second grade i think
was it he uh she said he so i don't know
if he's referring to your brother
or or or you so
wow wow then that name sounds familiar
okay her name sounds familiar yeah we
got the fans asking how is
naomi doing naomi's doing really well
yeah okay she's doing really well
she uh she thinks did she sing around
the house for you
is she still singing around the house
for you no
not not much you know she only she'll
only sing when
she sings harmony to to winona but this
i can't really talk can't give any
details but there's going to be some
there's going to be some new stuff new
stuff in the works in the next year or
two so
oh okay um be on the lookout
all right so i'm inside scoop here at
the in the elvis discussion
right yeah well larry i you know
you know when we started we said you
know how much time will we take and
we've been uh
chit chatting here for an hour and 20
minutes and we really appreciate your
time
wow yeah and the thing is these people
keep asking questions but uh
uh you know it's great uh you know to
to i just enjoyed you know hearing the
history
i love gospel music elvis love gospel
music and see how
how you came up in that uh you know in
that industry
and uh connected and you know meeting jd
and and uh you know and eventually
meeting your wife uh just a great
a great great story and uh hopefully uh
when the world uh turns the light back
on uh
we can we can hear you actually singing
those those new songs that you're doing
so that yeah that'd be a great uh time
so a bunch of people saying
thank you larry for uh the time and the
interview
and from myself and and and all the fans
to
really appreciate your time uh once
again everybody
stop over to larry strickland music dot
com
and uh check out larry's website and uh
he's got some photos of elvis there you
can see a
long haired larry right back in 75
yeah and they can they can't ask me uh
there's a comment section on my website
where they can ask me questions there
okay um if they want to so
well larry all the neighbors are going
to all your old neighbors are going to
be coming now
pretty interesting but uh larry again
thanks for your time
uh spending spending it with us here
uh we're calling this week always elvis
week we're always
thinking about elvis and if it wasn't
for uh you know wonderful people like
yourself uh spending some time with the
fans
um you know it gives us a little bit
more insight i learned
some new stuff today i'm i'm gonna go
listen to uh way on down
after this and kind of hear hear larry
in the first part and jd in the second
part
so we wish you all the best in in your
your other music endeavors i'm sure
it'll do great
uh you're just a great guy i appreciate
your time thank you and uh
stay with me here we're gonna just
finish up larry again thank you
to the fans out there for all your
questions i know you're saying thank you
thank you
and larry uh can do the
uh see all those all those messages and
if you want to
like larry said if you want to touch
base with him you can go to his website
and
and and send him a message um so and
tell the fans that i
recognize that if it wasn't for the fans
it wouldn't be me
i wouldn't be sitting here so yeah well
you know elvis
elvis connected fans um
your one real quick thing before we go i
just thought of it
you you've seen the guys when you're
doing the uh the
no one stands alone are you still close
with any of the other folks uh from the
stamps
touch base well i i just talked to uh
bill baez just a few days ago and i
talked to donnie sumner
ever so often right and then the terry
blackwood with the imperials
lives probably just a couple of miles
from me so i
we get to see each other quite often and
he and i stay in touch on
facebook and great so yeah i
do get to could see him okay so what
we're going to do larry if you don't
mind we're going to
uh put a little blurb on our website uh
the always elvis fan club website so
they can uh
just in case they want to connect to
your website we can send a link to there
again thank you for your time
everybody uh thank you for joining us
today and uh
thank you for taking care of business
and loving elvis as much as we do
yes
you
