colonel tom parker interview

He did make him by 1961 a talent that would reign eternally, probably a career that could be of import for 20 years. Did Parkers accent really sound like the one Tom Hanks is using in the film? "Playing Elvis is like playing Jesus, and it doesn't really matter who plays Pontius Pilate because if you have a good Jesus, you got it," Hanks says. Elvis picked up an impressive seven Oscar nominations. He is passionate about film, comics, TV and spends way too much on collectibles. However, Parker claimed that his issue with overseas performances was over security issues, as well as poor venues not suitable for the star's stature. I was expecting to hear stories about the distrust she had for Colonel Tom Parker over these many years. MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A judge says Col. Tom Parker made so much money by molding truck driver Elvis Presley into an international singing phenomenon that it 'shocks the conscience of the court . "We ended up talking for well over an hour," Hanks recalls. Thank you so much for your work. Baz Luhrmann is much like Colonel Parker. Davis went to have a look and went back to tell Colonel Parker all about him and how he wiggled and girls went wild. But then Colonel cheated Hank out of half of Elvis and that was that. Dean Reed was an incredibly handsome guy. Then we didnt see her at all for the next five or six years until she was presented with a demo that we had done of Is That All There Is? She said the song was written for her, that it was based on her life which it wasnt, but she said it was her life story. and he sounds entirely American to me. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (on piano bench) with the Coasters, Lester Sill and Ahmet Ertegun (far right), Willie Nelsons 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl, How Wynonna Judds Judds Final Tour Resulted in a Celebratory, All-Star Concert Special and a Doc That Deals With Grief, Billy Strings and Willie Nelson Commit to Going California Sober in Duet Released for Willies Birthday, Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia Judge, Dies at 46, Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Premiere Date Revealed by Steve Martin and Martin Short at Comedy Show (EXCLUSIVE), Matthew Lawrence: 'My Agency Fired Me' After I Refused to Take My Clothes Off for an Award-Winning Director, Netflixs Saudi Arabian Psychological Thriller The Matchmaker Tackles Controversial Subject of Temporary Marriages, Says, Super Mario Bros. Movie Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally, Bill Hader Is Open to Playing Stefon Again, One Year After Saying He Might Retire the Character Due to Being Seen as a Stereotype, The Morning Show Renewed for Season 4 on Apple TV+ Ahead of Season 3 Debut, The Late Late Show With James Corden Series Finale Scores 1.43 Million Viewers, That Old Jack Black Magic: As the Villain of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie,' the Actor Gives His Peachiest Performance in Years, COVER STORY | How a Sex Scandal, Big Egos and Putin Led to Jeff Shells Sudden, No Payout Exit From NBCU, Ryan Goslings Greta Gerwig Barbie Tee and Margot Robbies Pink Two Piece Embrace Barbiecore, The Brilliance of Harry Belafonte in 12 Songs, Bob Odenkirk Joins The Bear Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE), Is This 'Beau Is Afraid' Character a De-Aged Joaquin Phoenix? Thats total and unequivocal bunk, a complete invention in the movie. Did Elvis ever really fire Parker on stage, followed by Parker getting back at him by threatening to demand repayment for every tiny expense item over the years? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member (class of 1987) told us about everything from why he never much liked Presleys version of Hound Dog Big Mama Thornton was a hard act to follow to how he realized a Broadway musical rooted in the duos songs, Smokey Joes Cafe, could be a smash if they just dispensed with a storyline and script. I'm just going to say, sir, it is always a pleasure to talk with you. He said, Well, I gotta do a session with her, so you better get Jerry and come over to my place and listen to it, because Im gonna need some songs. So we went over, and she knocked us out. The Colonel, who was neither a colonel nor named Tom Parker, was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in the Netherlands and came to the U.S. without documentation at the age of 20. That interview gets at the heart of what both Hanks and Luhrmann wanted to say about the Colonel and the give-and-take between manager and artist. ", For Butler, doing the heavy lifting as Presley, he saw the casting of Hanks as a stroke of brilliance in complicating the Colonel's villainy. In the film, when the Colonel goes to the Louisiana Hayride and first sees Elvis, hes told backstage that Elvis is on the pop charts and that the country DJs are playing him too, and that Black and white kids are buying Elviss records. He also says in the film that if he could find an act that gave the audience feelings they werent sure they should enjoy, but did, he could create the greatest show on earth. HANKS: There's a YouTube, one was named Comrade Rockstar and another movie called Red Elvis. Dont worry about it. I think Jerry said, You cant, were unmanageable. Which was somewhat true. ", "Why include the Colonel in all of this?" "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. By the third day, you're in love with him. Do you think, based on your experiences with the Colonel, which werent great, that its easy to paint him as a villain? Snow eventually led Parker to Elvis Presley. He was in for a surprise. Colonel Parker is seen as under pressure from secretive governmental forces who want to keep Elvis from corrupting youth and to try to get him to tamp down Presley, they threaten to expose. We found that a lot of the blues singers that we knew, he knew them also, which was a surprise to us. Coupled with the fact that the character of Tom Hanks' Tom Parker isn't his usual role, and Hanks was eager to play the part. Is there a song you wrote for Elvis youre proud of that doesnt get as much attention? With writer-director Baz Luhrmanns Elvis opening in theaters this weekend around the world, I recently got to speak with Tom Hanks about playing Colonel Tom Parker in the biopic. Variety fried it. But he was being very respectful and polite. Procols Ninth was the name of the album. But once Elvis was onstage, controlling the music, he did what he wanted. The actor has proven time and again that he's up to the challenge of playing a real-world personality and the role of Elvis and the Colonel is no different. Oh, sure. He was both a genius and a scoundrel, Hanks said of Parker, Elvis only manager. And that's what you do in order to get there on Monday at 10:00. The Elvis Presley manager did a lot of controversial things during his time in show business, and the Baz Luhrmann movie reveals just how much of a monster he really was. In an. And I mean, we enjoyed being in the studio with Elvis; we enjoyed being in the studio with the Drifters, with Ben E. King, with Peggy Lee. In an exclusive interview, David E Stanley said his brother's manager Colonel Tom Parker - played by Tom Hanks in a new movie about the star - treated the iconic singer as a "product" and. The single record was done with the Jordanaires and with D.J. And he pretty much disappeared after we started talking and telling him what to do or suggesting this and that; he just took off. He wanted Elvis to go not to Special Services, where the army was happy to put him, but to serve his time as any other soldier. We could write pretty fast, but that was an unusual situation. Elvis wasnt ready for hear all that yet. But before that he did have another big hit with a cover of one of your tunes, the ballad Love Me. Although Elvis sang it more seriously, It was surprising to read in your memoir that you had originally written Love Me as a country parody song a spoof of a subservient hillbilly who doesnt put up any objections to his lover treating him like garbage. Was there a late 50s concert riot in which Elvis deliberately disobeyed Parkers orders not to move around or wiggle on stage? He could turn down scripts. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. Not a singer-songwriter, Elvis' rep suffered because to do both became prerequisite after the Beatles. Tom Hanks' portrayal of Elvis' manager Colonel Tom Parker in the 2022 biopic created controversy - here's the true story behind Hanks' Tom Parker. He was astonished to discover Parker was a poorly dressed, slovenly PR hack, rather than the authoritarian, ram-rod image the word "Colonel" summons. If not the term producer really coming into usage in music? How many times do you want your name on the record? He was annoyed! Its all a Baz Luhrmann fever dream. He was a wonderful man, and I wish he was alive today. Tom Hank's Col Tom Parker accent . That caused a big to-do, because they didnt want anybody presenting him with a song that they might not own the publishing rights to. Related: Elvis Cast Guide: What The Characters Look Like In Real Life. Watch what Tom Hanks had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below. Never one to miss an opportunity to make money off of his prized client, Colonel Tom Parker jumped on Elvis' death as a marketing cash grab. COLLIDER: I want to start with congratulations on the movie. I told him pay us our regular fee and if Elvis gets the Oscar well give him his money back. With B.B. The music publishers for Elvis were there. Yes and no. We were picked up by a freighter, and I had to pay cash to send a wire to Atlantic Records that we were arriving. Did Parker really do everything in his power to make sure Elvis didnt fulfill his wish of touring internationally? By Ken Sharp "The King" is back in the forefront of popular culture with the new Baz Luhrmann bio pic Elvis starring Austin Butler as the hip-swiveling Memphis fireball of a singing sensation and Tom Hanks as notorious manager Colonel Tom Parker.. On the heels of the film's release comes a new re-pressing of the must-have book The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker . Baz Luhrmann's musical biopic Elvis explores the eponymous singer's career, leading up to his tragic death, and one of the characters that has caused a fair amount of controversy is Elvis and the Colonel, Tom Parker. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying, much less remembered it. But we did an album of the score with an orchestra and some wonderful British singers and actors. Fortunately I managed to get down a Jacobs ladder into a broken lifeboat. Elvis would never have been so crass as to have fired Colonel from the stage. Elvis Information Network, May-June 2022). That's what makes him so delicious.". In addition, he revealed. Then we worked with her seven years later after she was no longer at Capitol [on the critically hailed, little heard A&M concept album Mirrors). Why dont you wait outside? So we waited, trying to imagine how we were going to be rewarded for bringing this great plumb. I dont like the choice of all the songs. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987 We were having brunch one day in the suite, and Jean Aberbach came in and said, Boys, where are the songs? And I think Jerry said, Dont worry, Jean, youll get em. He said, I know I will get them. As opposed to the more methodical camera coverage Hanks is accustomed to, Luhrmann is more free-wheeling. He was a heavier-set man with balding hair and frequently wore a fedora and a suit of some type, sometimes made of gaudy designs to help promote something. And Jean Aberbach said, Well, fellas, let me speak to the Colonel. The Beatles and the Stones both covered your songs (Kansas City and Poison Ivy, respectively). First of all, have you seen the Elvis movie? Parker realized early on the bigger potential of Austin Butler's Elvis and transitioned to managing him full-time. Related: Why Elvis' Reviews Are So Positive. HANKS: He was a promoter and not a manager. Stand by Me as the song for the royal wedding, where they had the Black choir singing it, that was apparently Meghan Markles choice as the song for their wedding. Charlie Lamb, who was present that day, told me that Parker got up from the lunch table and got in his car that minute and drove to find him. But here was a guy that took him from the worst rental apartment in a bad part of town in Memphis and put him in Graceland, which is the mansion that's right there. I mean, he took him away from Sam Phillips, which was not nice, but proved to be an amazing boon to his career and popularity. Tom Parker Is Dead at 87; Controlled Presley's Career While Elvis and the Colonel carried the movie to several awards, Hanks' omission stands out above most others. "The promotion. But we do remember Elvis and are remembering him more universally than we have since his 1977 death, thanks to Baz Luhrmanns new Elvis biopic. She growled it both times. "One reason is because the Elvis story has become a trope. On top of that, Parker found venue upon venue for Elvis to perform in, be it recording studios, Hollywood films, TV specials, and even satellite broadcasts, immersing the artist into the cultural zeitgeist while keeping him landlocked in North America. While director Baz Luhrmann's take on the complex dynamic between Elvis and the Colonel goes far behind the black-and-white shades of good and evil, what makes it even more compelling is that the grotesque figure of Tom Parker is played by, arguably, the most beloved actor of the last 40 years, Tom Hanks. And there's the fault that I think also has to land in both of them because Elvis could have said no. Hanks recalls. Elvis kind of liked Jimmie. He was a fabulous singer, fabulous performer, and very special and hes very hot, again, still. He would sniff out talent and attempt to milk them for all they were worth, including Elvis, whom he initially saw as an act that wouldn't last more than a few years. And heres a guy who carries his pictures by himself the rest of the guys on the list have three or four stars to back them up., Fessier pointed out that the Presley-Parker partnership was one of the few in Hollywood that confined its demands to money. 6 pop hit in 1955 for the group the Cheers). Baz Luhrmann is much like . In their rush to denounce him for failing his client in later years, many Elvis fans forget that there may not have been an Elvis Presley were it not for Tom Parkers work in those early days. I do know that while researching for my bookElvis 57: The Final Fifties Tours, I became increasingly impressed with how the Colonel managed Elvis during the 1956-57 period. Does it veer off in ways that seem unnecessary? 'Elvis' Fact or Fiction: Colonel Tom Parker Biographer on What's Real Fontana. Tom Hanks and Elvis Butler come to an understanding on a ferris wheel in Elvis film, Elvis (Austin Butler) and his parents sign contracts and pose for pictures with Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) in a scene from Elvis, Willie Nelsons 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl, How Wynonna Judds Judds Final Tour Resulted in a Celebratory, All-Star Concert Special and a Doc That Deals With Grief, Billy Strings and Willie Nelson Commit to Going California Sober in Duet Released for Willies Birthday, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia Judge, Dies at 46, Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Premiere Date Revealed by Steve Martin and Martin Short at Comedy Show (EXCLUSIVE), Matthew Lawrence: 'My Agency Fired Me' After I Refused to Take My Clothes Off for an Award-Winning Director, Netflixs Saudi Arabian Psychological Thriller The Matchmaker Tackles Controversial Subject of Temporary Marriages, Says, Super Mario Bros. Movie Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally, Bill Hader Is Open to Playing Stefon Again, One Year After Saying He Might Retire the Character Due to Being Seen as a Stereotype, The Morning Show Renewed for Season 4 on Apple TV+ Ahead of Season 3 Debut, The Late Late Show With James Corden Series Finale Scores 1.43 Million Viewers, That Old Jack Black Magic: As the Villain of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie,' the Actor Gives His Peachiest Performance in Years, COVER STORY | How a Sex Scandal, Big Egos and Putin Led to Jeff Shells Sudden, No Payout Exit From NBCU, Ryan Goslings Greta Gerwig Barbie Tee and Margot Robbies Pink Two Piece Embrace Barbiecore, The Brilliance of Harry Belafonte in 12 Songs, Bob Odenkirk Joins The Bear Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE), Is This 'Beau Is Afraid' Character a De-Aged Joaquin Phoenix? "The blues singers that we knew, Elvis knew them also," says Stoller. No, Luhrmann has really framed this through a present-day lens. The story made no sense. The second take was perfect. King used to visit some in Las Vegas, but that was in the 70s. I thought you guys did such a great job. The Coasters were different characters. And we finally were called in, and Jean Aberbach, in his Viennese accent, said, Vell, ze Colonel said, if you ever dare try to interfere in the career of Elvis Presley, you will never work anywhere again New York, London, Hollywood nowhere. And I dont think we ever wrote anything more for him. But living in a colored neighborhood, as he did, he certainly heard early R&B, jump-blues and swing tunes pulsating through the walls at the nearby juke joints, and he loved it, as he did both Black and white gospel. It was more American, more rural. So everything is a paradox and a coin flip. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. So we hit it off and we had a great relationship. We had no contract and we were not compensated, but it turned out OK. He might have gone to Black churches with his friend, Sam Bell, in Tupelo, as a kid. And, yeah, she was very difficult to work with, and very wonderful. We did Procol Harum [in 1975]. There were concert riots, most notably in Jacksonville, Fla., but not a concert for which Parker issued orders like that. It has been my thought that Elvis was afraid that his success would evaporate, and therefore it was business, a formula that worked. Despite the court controversy, Parker continued to appear at Elvis-themed events, from anniversaries to special events, etc. Here's why Colonel Tom Parker is so controversial. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action Little Mermaid with a new generation's Ariel. However, as he always does, Hanks shone as Tom Parker in Elvis, and the Colonel proved to the world that he could play a complex villain. That interview gets at the heart of what both Hanks and Luhrmann wanted to say about the Colonel and the give-and-take between manager and artist. One of the offers he turned down was for Elvis to appear on the small screen for $150,000. However, there were some interesting omissions from the award announcements. Any thoughts on that? Does the phrase Thats All Right, Mama apply to the new Elvis movie as in, thats all correct, maam? But we were having too much of a ball, going to jazz clubs and going to the theater, and hanging out with Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. King, Xavier Samuel as Scotty Moore, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jimmie Rodgers Snow. An early hero in Tupelo was a hillbilly singer named Mississippi Slim. Elvis is famously quoted as saying, Down in Tupelo, Miss., I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said, if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, Id be a music man like nobody saw. But its unclear whether this was on the radio or in person.

Cancel Arcis Golf Membership, Patio Homes For Sale In Hamburg, Ny, Mladenovic Babos Split, Articles C