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[King Of Gracelan...]

In the first part, Jerry talks about his background and his career.
It's actually difficult to find anything other than the most basic facts on him, and even reference-books like 'Elvis - His Life From A To Z' are disappointing in that respect.
So we felt that some backgrounds were necessary to put the interview into perspective.
In the second part you'll find our interview about his years with Presley.

Jerry Talks:
"I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, played tuba in grammar school and started playing string bass in the seventh grade.
I played in junior symphony as well as the school orchestra and played tuba in the Vallejo municipal band at age twelve.
We moved to Sacramento, CA when I was fourteen .
My mother was very supportive and took me to see concerts such as Jazz at the Philharmonic and Lionel Hamptons band.
I played mostly Jazz and classical music at the time, and listened to black R&B as well as Jazz stations from Oakland, CA.
At about age fifteen, I started to play in clubs and "after hours" sessions.
I played with mostly Jazz musicians who were into the East Coast Jazz scene.
In 1957 and 1958, I hung out in San Francisco some and played in an after hour club called "Jimbo's Bop City".
All the jazz musicians who came to town would come to play there.
Miles Davis sat on as well as John Coltrane and his band.
I never got to play with them, I would have been scared to death!
It was the "beat" era and there were a lot of drugs floating around.
I would beg some of the musicians to shoot me up....
I was a skinny towheaded white kid and I always felt like I was being protected.
Fortunately they did not give in to my desires.
One morning at about 3:00 a.m. at Jimbo's, a women came up on stage to sing.
She had on a pendelton shirt with a skirt and work boots.
This was 1958 and I had never seen anyone dressed like that.
She turned around and said "blues in F" as she stomped the time with her work boots.
The dust flew up from the carpet into the spotlight and away we went.
I was in heaven!
The singer was Big Momma Thorton.

[King Of Gracelan...]

You've been quoted earlier as saying that there were some major changes.
Well, not in Elvis...
They sent me a tape of the show, but I didn't listen to it.
I went right on stage with no rehearsals.
During that first part, '69 to '73, we would play and it was just WHAAMM!!!, you know, punk lounge music or something.
So I walked on stage, we started the show, and I just hopped in on it automatically just where I left off.
Elvis turned around to me and went: "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!".
The whole energy of the show had...
Actually it was in a better place after that, because energy-wise some of the stuff was too fast, you know.
But then it had settled down to, probably where it should have been.
But I didn't know that.
So yeah, he did click down the whole show, tempo-wise and energy-wise, he clicked down a notch.
He went basically from a rock 'n' roll show to a C&W show.
That's a pretty astute observation.
Yeah, I think that's a good point.
One of the things that makes shows from that period enjoyable to listen to is the improvisation.
It seems that in particular Glen D. always knew those off-the-cuff songs that Elvis would do...
That's the way it happened, exactly!! (laughs).
Glen D. was usually the one that would know the songs.
I told you about my background, so I didn't know any of those songs.
But that kind of stuff kept the show alive for us.
Elvis knew that, too.
Maybe he would feel that people were getting complacent about the way they were playing things, and thought: "Let's shake things up a little bit, get these guys attention".

According to the Guralnick book, Elvis started making tasteless remarks about Kathy Westmoreland on stage during the Summer 1975 tour.
There's a real good possibility that part of him thought it was funny, humorous.
And a way to get his point across, without having to go up and say: "Hey, Kathy, I don't like this and that...".
Maybe he felt that way was the only way he could get his point across.