THEA: Okay, this one will start with an admission:

[INHALES DEEPLY] For six months when I was about 21, I played keyboards and sang in an Elvis impersonator’s back up band.

I was young. I needed the money.

(Apologies to the Elvis fans out there…but playing in this particular band was truly one of the weirdest gigs of my entire life; I’m sure most of them are good.)

Many years ago, I was trying to describe this extremely colorful bandleader to a friend of mine, so I did a Google search. I discovered at that time that the bass player who’d been in the band before I was in it had written a book about his experiences playing with the same guy.

Well, obviously I had to talk to him, and I had to read his book.

The author’s name is Frank Siraguso, and the book (which I highly recommend if you are entertained by gig and road stories, which I definitely am) is called “He Don’t Look Like Elvis”. It’s available on Amazon.

I found Frank’s email address, wrote to him right away, and the two of us started to compare notes. This will surprise precisely no one, but our experiences were remarkably similar. We quickly became electronic friends.

Now for the details:

Yes, there was a diner called “EAT”.

Yes, people threw underwear at “Elvis”.

Yes, “Elvis” was cheap.

Yes, the show was actually pretty good if you’re into that sort of thing.

Yes, women were very disappointed when they saw him without makeup. (My close friend Dennis Varo was playing bass in the band when I was in it…we personally witnessed two girls who came looking for his room in the hallway of the Best Western in Butte, who were bewildered and completely let down by his appearance when he came to the door without makeup.)

So this song is only slightly fictionalized. I asked Frank if it was all right with him if we used the title of his book as the title of the song and the hook, and he said it was.

And on a happy personal note: It was at that Best Western in Butte that I met my future bandmates from Seattle, who were playing in another room…one being the great songwriter/musician/vocalist Rob Moitoza, formerly of the legendary Bay Area band The Sons of Champlin. Rob’s resume is far too broad and impressive to recite here (that’s Rob playing bass on the classic Sugarloaf tune “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You”) but if you get a chance, look him up too.

Those were the guys that rescued me out of the Elvis show. And now I get to write about it with Chad…who just…ran with all this.

What a life I’ve had. [LAUGHS]