In 1969, John Wilkinson was a 23-year-old folk musician living in Los Angeles. A guitar prodigy from a young age, he had moved there from Springfield in 1964 to pursue his dreams. He wasn’t rich. He wasn’t famous. But, he had built up a solid reputation as a studio musician and had a regular gig playing for a local “American Bandstand” style program. That’s where Elvis saw him on TV.
Yes. That Elvis.
He reached out to young John on a rainy Saturday afternoon and John, “half drunk on red sangria,” immediately hung up on him. “Yeah right,” he thought. However, when the phone rang again moments later, it gave him pause.
“I picked it up and said, 'Yes sir?' And he said, 'Damn it, John, don't you hang up on me again, this is Elvis, I wanna talk to you!'”
You see, even though John was otherwise an unknown kid in the LA music scene, he and Elvis already had a relationship. And it started right here in Springfield, Missouri.
On May 17th, 1956, Elvis was third-billed on a show at the Shrine Mosque. “Heartbreak Hotel” had been out since January, and he was only weeks away from his iconic performance of “Hound Dog” on The Milton Berle Show, but in that moment he was still a relative unknown to many, just hanging out in his dressing room backstage.
Little did he know, a ten-year-old John Wilkinson was making his way to the Shrine on his bike that afternoon to give Elvis a piece of his mind.
“I had seen some TV clips when he was on the Louisiana Hayride and he had a Martin D-18…and he was just beating on this guitar. It kinda hurt my feelings to beat a guitar like that. I made a decision that day I was gonna meet this hillbilly cat and tell him, 'You can't play guitar worth a damn.’”
And that’s exactly what John did.
Elvis was charmed by this precocious prodigy and invited John to play a few songs for him. That’s when security caught wind of all this and finally showed up.
“They came in, looked at me and said, 'Hey kid, who are you? You don't belong here.’ Elvis looked straight at them and said, 'Fellas, now just a minute. This is a friend of mine, his name is John Wilkinson, and he just gave me a guitar lesson.’ They said I had to leave anyway. As I headed for the door, Elvis called me back and gave me a big hug, and said, 'Johnny, I know that one day we're gonna meet again.'”
And they did, 13 years later in LA, when Elvis invited him to be the rhythm guitar player for his new band.
John would go on to play over a thousand shows with Elvis, one of only two musicians in the TCB Band to never miss a night. He played with Elvis when he conquered Vegas. He played with Elvis in the famed Aloha From Hawaii TV special. And he played with Elvis in the basement of Graceland when no one else was around and The King just needed a friend.
Elvis kicked off his final tour June 17th, 1977, in Springfield, Missouri. John was there too. They played eight more shows together. Two months later, The King was dead. But, by then, John had cemented his place in rock n’ roll history. All because a 10-year-old boy wanted to give a hillbilly a piece of his mind.
We’ll see you next week!
