ANDERSON ON THE BOX - ELVIS PRESLEY JR

hello hello hello my people my people my woman has shrunk hello punters and welcome to anderson on the box i wish you the viewers at home and your housing executive property i wish you could feel the atmosphere in the studio here tonight i may be i may be mistaken but do i feel love coming from the audience certainly not directed at me maybe it's for my first guest he's very special he bears perhaps the most famous name in the world his father was simply the most popular entertainer who ever lived i need only say welcome elvis aeron presley jr do you prefer to be addressed as as elvis no please call me junior really yeah that seems quite odd because you went to a lot of trouble to make sure that your name was changed to elvis aaron presley i almost put on your passport definitely yeah did you have to see a lot of hassle in court about that um the first part of it is that you have to have enough proof for yourself before you can even get to the court system and when you gather enough then you have to present it to the court with an attorney and everything and once sufficient proof is presented to the judge then it's his decision to um let everybody know and it's printed in a legal letter and uh published and it's given time for anybody to step forward to um to say anything and in my case nobody had stepped forward uh affidavits letters from close friends of my fathers were presented to the judge so um once all the proof was there everything was granted and i was sworn in so you are elvis presley's son yes sir how did it all start when did you first become aware that you did you wear elvis phone well i didn't i wasn't aware until i was 21 years old because i was adopted at birth and when i was 21 years old my family sat me down and says we have to tell you something we have to tell you that you know you're adopted and i was you know kind of shook up when i heard that because it's not an everyday situation that uh you know you go through so when i did find out that i was adopted i wanted to know who my real parents were that was another shock and the only thing they had to go by was the showgirl that handed me over at birth said take care of this boy belongs to elvis presley they wanted to know what the father looked like and that's why she said that she just take care of him they never saw her again and you know that was the only thing i had to go by and a lot of research had had gone into it uh investigative reporters came up with the different uh things and uh you know different people and all that stuff and i kept on progressing like i said to myself that you know i should go through this if uh if it's so because i don't want to be you know put in a position when i'm older and say you know well why didn't i ever go out and prove this to the audience or the people you know of course i was only born out of wedlock you must have been very i don't know very confused i suppose when you discovered that you were elvis's son particularly as when you discovered that elvis had already died yeah i got to meet him when i was 16 years old though before you knew yes before i knew i met a lot of entertainers in las vegas i used to go to different hotels and casinos and meet all the entertainers because uh i've been an entertainer my whole life so i started out at the age of five in show business what kind of showbiz circus i started out at at the age of five years old as a clown a little ran away and they grabbed me and they put a face on me the other clowns and i started out that way you're a five-year-old yeah i was later on i got to uh working with the animals cleaning the animals and stuff like that and working my way up in show business yeah and worked with animals a lot later on in life i started singing and that was up at the age of 15 and then i decided well i should start singing playing little bars and places and stuff like that so one thing led to another so you met elvis when he was when you were 16 yeah i mean this may seem a ridiculous question but do you remember feeling anything or maybe perhaps just obviously you were very well i'd like to say one thing is that he was one of the greatest entertainers on this god given earth he uh he gave so much when i saw the man walking down the hallway at the hilton hotel before you know coming out to see us there was a janitor on the side there was a guy working from the kitchen area and he would stop to each and every one of these people and talk to him and the music was planned and we were waiting in the hallway me and a group of other entertainers and uh you know he didn't care to go on stage right away he knew that the audience can wait for a while that he's going to say hello and have a little chat and he walked up to us and and talked to us for a few minutes and i didn't know what to say i was just an amazement i just like you know wow you know this man is actually going to stop and talk to us and uh i congratulate him on his uh show and and stuff and uh i i told him that he's got some beautiful jewelry and and so he went like this and took off this ring like that he's here to try it on son now sun is a southern expression i took that ring i went like that and didn't even fit my finger turn back and give it to him and he says no no no no keep it son that's the ring and my friend went like this just no no keep it you're gonna get him upset now you know sorry i would have kept that too look at it can i just look sure that's true that's the ring that's ring that is the ring that's marvelous how did you feel when you knew elvis was your father did you want to be him no no uh you could never you can never be another person a lot of people have tried to make me as close as possible they said well you know you're his son why don't you dye your hair so i had to dye my hair black it was sandy brown they wanted me to sing his song so i started doing some of the songs and then they wanted me to wear his costumes and that's one thing that i don't do i did wear his costumes for a little while but i don't wear his costumes anymore in my show i believe that that image that he had was his own and nobody else can take it nobody else can take his place i can't take his place he was a fabulous person yeah you mentioned that your mother was a showgirl did you ever find that her identity yes i did i've kept it private all the time and i've never revealed it publicly or her name but there's been a lot of press a lot of newspapers that have revealed it and uh i i respect the way that she lives her choice of life she loved my father very much i mean even you know even to give me up was was something that had to be done at that time for his career because 1960s or the 50s you know to get somebody pregnant or or not be married at the time and have a child would be taboo it would have been the rumination of his career for at least five or six years i i've read those press reports and they have named jamal and she was very well known but you prefer not to talk about it i do sure okay so what about the music man did you ever i renewed interest in elvis's music when you found out it was your father well my idol was dean martin and uh later on in life i found out that his idol was dean martin which was a very very weird coincidence and sometimes when you when you listen to an entertainer and you start out singing and stuff you you idolize somebody and and the vocal talent came from dean martin on his side and also on my side so that's why it's so easy for me to do all the senior songs yeah most people here and myself included if asked how many children did elvis have we would just probably think one lisa marie she's obviously aware of your existence definitely yeah the whole family is um i'm not the only one born out of wedlock priscilla has two other children too also born out of the world you're the only one that's been accredited really i'm the only one that has gone all the way with sufficient proof and and and gone into show business in that aspect and gone out to to the public and tried to prove it left and right and been on talk shows and everything uh everybody else has gone for the claim on an estate there's there's at least nine other claims and but the first thing they think of is is money and they're going for the for the estate and they're trying to get a piece of the action and that's where you know i'm different i've never gone for something like that i believe what was left for lisa marie is to be her own because you know god looks over everybody and god's been directing and guiding me all the time do you not feel that you have um you have a right to some life with the presleys because you are warm well it would be nice if the family would step uh you know step up and and and just talk and and just have a few gatherings and stuff i'd never want to i'd never expect or want anything from the family did you ever meet lisa marie never have no did you ever make any approaches towards her uh i've never made an approach to her because of the fact that they would think the first things that i'm asking for something and uh you know there'll be a time and day that they will realize this because i'll always be there to help them if i can and your music career is going well it's going very well yes sir i've heard you singing in rehearsal and i i all i can say to the people is it's incredible you're a great singer thank you what are you going to sing for us tonight uh i will sing a song off of the cd it's a new oh there it is what's it called it's called pink cadillac and a lot of caches cd and we just recorded it in the uk are they covers or there's uh 10 original songs of mine and three cover songs of my father's that i do and it's now or never is a song that i will do off that album for you okay great we look forward to hearing that ladies and gentlemen elvis presley jr it's no when i first saw you with your smile so tender our heart was captured my soul surrendered i spent a lifetime waiting for the right time all those ways will meet again in this way it's not to just like he looks excited it's tomorrow it's it's thank you

Channel: NI TV Archive

Views: 371,316

Keywords: Gerry Anderson, Elvis Presley Jr

Id: pcf2nhTSMSY

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2016