Searching for Elvis Presley’s humanity with Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune

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Abstract

Sumner managed the Stamps Quartet, who worked on the road and in the studio with Elvis from 1971 until his passing, and insisted that Elvis would have committed to a full gospel tour if the August 16, 1977, overdose, had not been fatal. As a cash-strapped teenager Elvis looked up to the bassist, whose low notes elicited seat reverberations. Sumner allowed the future superstar to visit backstage at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis during all night gospel conventions featuring the Sunshine Boys]. J.D. would always look at me and say, “You know what? I wish Elvis could have known you, and you could have known him. Elvis would have loved you.” That was pretty dadgum cool.</p><h1 id="c911">DON’T GO ANYWHERE YET! Here’s Part Two of the Jimmy Fortune interview…</h1><div id="f1f1" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/thank-you-world-for-contributing-founding-statler-brother-lew-dewitt-722a8557fec7"> <div> <div> <h2>Thank you world for contributing founding Statler Brother Lew DeWitt</h2> <div><h3>The “Flowers on the Wall” composer is affectionately remembered 30 years after his premature death by successor Jimmy…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*cgZ59qg7OcQ2WivSnJvWnQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="0707" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-lew-dewitt-songwriting-discography-d7a3bf208e11"> <div> <div> <h2>The Lew DeWitt songwriting discography</h2> <div><h3>The Statler Brothers tenor launched a career by penning “Flowers on the Wall,” a 1965 crossover smash. His songs are…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*bgzLWDfCDZhxGXFg1C1p5g.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="9503" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-serendipitous-final-romance-of-statler-brothers-tenor-lew-dewitt-874be1288421"> <div> <div> <h2>The serendipitous final romance of Statler Brothers tenor Lew DeWitt</h2> <div><h3>At last Judy Wells DeWitt breaks her silence to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Country Music Hall of Fame…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*B8J0G69W2h4_rD0_fHBljQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><figure id="cc83"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*Swn8HtjiL_9QpBLlFYLtXQ.jpeg"><figcaption><b>Born on March 11, dapper-in-black Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune cradles an early 1950s Gibson J-45 vintage sunburst acoustic guitar on February 7, 2019, while publicizing “<a href="https://www.jimmyfortune.com/site/music/">God & Country</a>,” his eighth solo record and third distributed by Gaither Music Group. Dubbed “The Workhouse” by the manufacturer, Fortune acquired the J-45 from a pawn shop in Nashville around 2005. Photography by Lee Steffen / Courtesy of Jimmy Fortune</b></figcaption></figure> <figure id="3503"> <div> <div> <img class="ratio" src="http://placehold.it/16x9"> <iframe class="" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FNa5tlthH4UM%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNa5tlthH4UM&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FNa5tlthH4UM%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=t

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Searching for Elvis Presley’s humanity with Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune

Seen in the Nail Swirl aka “I Got Lucky” jumpsuit with red macrame belt and wielding the iconic 1956 Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar, a shaggy-haired, 35-year-old Elvis Presley grasps a microphone and cuts loose in front of an 18,700-capacity crowd at the Inglewood Forum on November 14, 1970. The Saturday afternoon was Elvis’s first Los Angeles concert in 13 years, and the $313,000 gross from this and the later evening show shattered the one-day box office record of $238,000 earned by the Rolling Stones over two shows the previous year according to Robert Hilburn’s glowing LA Times review. Elvis is most likely delivering opening number “That’s All Right” or Ray Charles’s “I Got a Woman.” Image Credit: Colorization by Matt Ashton / For Elvis CD Collectors message board

Youngest Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune replaced ailing original tenor Lew “Flowers on the Wall” DeWitt in 1982 and remained with the country-gospel quartet until their retirement 20 years later. Besides supporting Johnny Cash at the notorious Folsom Prison and being christened “America’s Poets” by counterculture ink slinger Kurt Vonnegut, the Statler Brothers accumulated 46 Top 20 C&W singles between 1965 and 1989. “Elizabeth” [an ode to Cleopatra heroine Liz Taylor] “My Only Love,” “Too Much on My Heart,” “Forever,” and the patriotic “More Than a Name on a Wall” were all written by Fortune and solidified the group’s continued success in the Reagan era [the former three were number ones]. In the first installment of an exclusive conversation, Fortune sheds light on a heretofore unexplored facet of his artistic development — Elvis Presley.

The Jimmy Fortune Interview, Part One

By chance are you an Elvis fan?

Elvis influenced me a lot, even though his voice was in a lower register than mine. I’m a tenor, and Elvis was a high baritone. He always put his heart, soul, and full voice into a song, and that’s the same approach I employ.

His roots were in gospel music, and that’s really what he loved in his soul. Obviously he recorded other genres and did it well, but his heart led him back to gospel. I think he was searching. He already knew all the answers led to Christ, but the physical part of him was so addicted to pills that he couldn’t get away from it.

I never met or saw Elvis in concert, but I really feel like I understand him. People can get addicted to opioids and drugs. I’m talking about good folks that you wouldn’t think would be addicted if not for the hardships that befall them. I think Elvis was in that same situation. Through all the pitfalls of fame that Elvis endured, he was a good Christian man whose love for the Lord shone through in many ways.

“Susan When She Tried” was composed by Statler Brothers lead vocalist Don Reid and turned into a No. 15 C&W hit single for the Staunton, Virginia-based group upon its October 1974 issue on Mercury Records. Five months later Elvis and his crack TCB Band faithfully covered the mid-tempo country tune on the shamefully ignored Today album. Did you get to tackle “Susan When She Tried” after you joined?

We sang “Susan” a lot onstage. Don used to talk about Elvis recording it and how much it meant to him. I loved Elvis’s version. I often though, ‘Man, if Elvis had cut one of my songs, I don’t know what in the world I would have done.’ I feel in my heart that if Elvis had not died so suddenly that he would have. To write for Elvis — what an honor.

We got to be around J.D. Sumner quite a bit [Author’s Note: Sumner managed the Stamps Quartet, who worked on the road and in the studio with Elvis from 1971 until his passing, and insisted that Elvis would have committed to a full gospel tour if the August 16, 1977, overdose, had not been fatal. As a cash-strapped teenager Elvis looked up to the bassist, whose low notes elicited seat reverberations. Sumner allowed the future superstar to visit backstage at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis during all night gospel conventions featuring the Sunshine Boys]. J.D. would always look at me and say, “You know what? I wish Elvis could have known you, and you could have known him. Elvis would have loved you.” That was pretty dadgum cool.