George Harrison Tells : When Beatles Met With Elvis

 

George: ” I met him later at Madison Square Garden—it must have been in 1972, something like that. And at that time, I had my uniform; the worn-out denim jacket and jeans—looked like a rag-man—and I had a big beard and moustache, and long hair down to my waist. They took me back in the intermission to meet Elvis again and he was in the back of the dressing room—the big rooms with the showers for the footballers and stuff—and I was in the front part just talking to some of the guys. And I’m sitting there, thinking “Well, where’s Elvis, then?” And finally he came out of the back and he was… immaculate. I felt like this real grubby little slug and he looked like Lord Siva or something. He seemed to be about eight feet tall and his hair was black and his tan was perfect and he had this big white suit, a gold belt about four feet wide and he was towering above me and I just put a hand out (cowers) and said “Hello, Elvis, how are you?”—just cowering like this little rag-man. I wanted to say to him, “Why don’t you just come out in your jeans and your black shirt—get rid of all them horrible women singers in your band, all them horrible trumpet players and just have James Burton and the drummer and the bass player and the piano player? Just come out and do ‘That’s All Right, Mama.’” But instead he came out and did (sings) “I did it myyy wayyyy.” Oh, Jesus. But we all loved Elvis and it was sad to see what happened to him. We still love him and he’s still there in his spirit and in his music and best of luck to him, that’s what I say.”

Here’s George Harrison’s account of meeting Elvis in 1972, from a great Creem interview available here: http://www.creemmagazine.com/BeatGoesOn/GeorgeHarrison/Interview001.html. No mention is made of Elvis singling out only him and Paul for praise as songwriters, not that that means he didn’t tell that story somewhere else or course.