[Steve]

(IMG:http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~presley/jpg2/JerryScheff.jpg)

PART 1


Q : When did you first meet Elvis?

A : First time I met him was at RCA recording studio in Los Angeles. And that was the first rehearsal that I had with him. James Burton called me and I had done an album with James and he remembered me, fortunately. So he called me and asked me if I wanted to do it. And I wasn't an Elvis fan. And I wasn't big on it. I wasn't gonna do it. But I wanted to go down and see what Elvis was like, you know. So, I told him, "Yeah, I'll come down." And so I went down there. And there was Elvis. And he was sittin' on a stool, and all the guys were around, you know. And he was just very personable. Very down to Earth. And smiling and stuff. And so we started to play, and he started to sing. And he had a way of -- he entertained anybody who was around him. He was a consummate entertainer. And if it was the musicians, then he'd do what we liked, you know. What he thought we liked. And so that's what he did. Cause it was just us, you know. James and myself and Larry Muhoberac, we were auditioning a couple of drummers, I think. And so we started to play. I went home that night and I told my wife, ex-wife, Vivian. I said, you oughta come hear this guy. And she said, "Aw come on, you gotta be kidding." I said "No. Tomorrow night, you come down and hear this guy." And so she came down. And we both became fans. Just like that.

Q : Was the reaction because of his movies and he was enjoying a lot of serious music at the time?

A : No, even in high school when, you know he was -- My background was a jazz background. I was a jazz string bass player. And I loved R&B too. Rhythm and Blues. During the fifties, I was a big fan of like the Midnighters and Annie, you know, like, there was a series of songs, "Annie Had a Baby" and "Work With Me Annie" and all the Annie songs. All that stuff. That was my kinda music. And plus I was playing bee bop, you know, jazz. So he didn't compute to me. Until I got face to face with him. And also I was a little more mature by that time. So it was like going to school for me.

Q : So it was like an audition for Elvis, wasn't it?

A : Well it was an audition. There weren't any other bass players there. I was the only bass player. But I mean if, you know, if he had said, "Well that guy sucks," you know, I'd have been out of there. But fortunately, I had the R&B background. And I'd been playing some pop stuff here in L.A. in the studios too. But I'd never played country music. I knew nothing about country music. I knew nothing about rockabilly at all. And so it was an audition. But fortunately, it worked out good, you know.

Q : So was this when he wanted to go back on the road on tour?

A : Yeah, this was just, like 1969. They were putting the band together for Las Vegas. For the Las Vegas opening. And that was gonna be his first in nine years, his first stage performance, or something like that.

Q : Did you start playing some of his old hits at the beginning, to warm up?

A : Oh, we did some blues things. I can't remember which ones. But, cause he knew everybody likes, all musicians like to play blues. And "That's All Right, Mama," you know, which is sort of a blues bass kind of things, you know. Easy things. That he knew that, you know, we'd all be able to play and pick up on.

Q : All of you guys were so tight as Elvis band. Do you have any stories about how you all came together?

A : Well, you know. There was a couple of drummers there, the first night that I played. And one of the drummers, he was a really fine drummer named Gene Pello. He was a L.A. studio musician. Originally from New York. And very, very, lot of chops, you know. Real flashy drummer. And he played on quite a few Motown records and things like that. But he wasn't a loose feeling drummer, you know. Which a lot of Elvis stuff required, you know. But anyhow, he played, and everybody was, all of the guys, Elvis guys, everybody was going, "Oh yeah, this is it." You know, cause he was flashy and had a lot of chops, and he was really good. And he thought he had the gig, too.

And then Larry Muhoberac, the piano player, said, Ronnie Tutt's sitting over there in the corner, and he just flew out here with his drums from Dallas. And of course Elvis immediately, being the kind of person he was, said, "Oh well, Ronnie, come on man. Set your drums up and we'll wait for you and then we'll play." And so Ronnie did. And the minute Ronnie started playing, you could see Gene's face, and you know, Ronnie was just perfect for it. And then Ronnie says that Elvis told him that one of the reasons why he liked him so much was because Ronnie watched Elvis. Watched what he did, paid attention to him, you know. Didn't play 'em like a show drummer, per se, like a, you know, like you would for strippers. But Ronnie just had that combination of where he could gear everything to what Elvis did without making it, you know, seem like a burlesque show, you know. And that's not easy to do, you know.

Q : How long was it from the time you began rehearsals with Elvis that you played The International?

. A : Oh, I can't remember exactly how long. You know, it was, we'd rehearse here a couple of weeks, here in L.A. And then we moved up to Las Vegas. And I think we rehearsed for two weeks up there.

Q : What was it like working with Elvis on stage? That first night, performing with him.

A : Oh, well, the first night was amazing, because Elvis wasn't really quite sure how the fans were going to receive him, you know. And we were in his dressing room, hanging out. And everybody was laughing because his leg was going like, you know, his hands and stuff. It was really going a million miles an hour. And when the curtains opened and he came out, he had a certain look on his face, you know. And it reflected his concern. I remember I was watching him. And the crowd just went crazy. And you could just see his face, just transform, you know, from sort of this doubtful look to this, oh yeah, okay. I remember this. Then, from there it was just, that was one of my favorite moments of working for him. Was that moment, right there.

Q : What were the tours like with Elvis?

A : Did you have a specific date in mind? There were all different kinds of tours, you know.

Q : Madison Square Garden.

A : Madison Square Garden. It was, you know, you have to understand that people think of us doing those shows, and they think of us being like every one of 'em was like the end of the world. And it wasn't like that. It was work. It was work, you know. And we went, we were out to have as much fun as we could doing our work. And Elvis was too, you know. A lot of the time. And so we had fun. You could never count on him to do the same thing twice. Which also made things really interesting, it really did. He loved to play stump the band. He loved to see if he could fool us. He started songs that we'd never played before on stage. Just to fool us, you know.

Q : Any particular one come to mind?

A : Oh, no, I can't remember the names of any of 'em. Somebody always knew the songs. Glen Hardin was usually the one that remembered the songs. And so we would key on whoever knew the songs. Glen and James. And Ron and I would key on them. And then we'd drop into it, you know. Fortunately we were able to slip in pretty good, you know. So Elvis would, you know, he'd go, "God damn." Cause I don't think he'd fool us too many times, you know.

Q : He had fun with your name and Ronnie Tutt's name.

A : Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well, you know, there's an old saying, it's tough shit. And so, he started to do, he says, "Ronnie Tutt on drums, and this is Jerry Schiff on --," he'd always say Schiff so it would fit with his jokes, you know. He knew my name was Scheff, but it was Jerry Schiff on bass, that's Tutt Schiff any way you look at it. He loved to say that. So he'd say that, you know. Not every concert. But later on, when we started playing solos, I don't think he said that.

Q : Do you have any other memories of Elvis sense of humor?

A : His sense of humor. I know that he loved to play practical jokes, and he hated them to be played on him. He didn't like 'em. But especially on stage. Well, I'll tell you a story. And this was Elvis at his best. This was the Elvis that I loved, right. Okay. We were at Graceland. And this was in the later years. And we were sittin' downstairs and Elvis was up in his bedroom. And Charlie Hodge came over and said, "Elvis wants to see you up in his bedroom." So I went up to his bedroom, knocked on the door. He opened the door. I walked in and there policemen in uniforms sitting all over his room. On his bed. And he was standing there in a Denver police captains uniform. So he introduced me to all these policemen. And he took me in his closet. And he had these five suits in among jillions of other things. But they stuck out, because they were sort of bright colors. One was green, and one was like sort of a lavender color. And then there was a red one, and some, they had fur on the cuffs. And the hats had like rhinestone buckle on the front of 'em. They looked like Superfly outfits, you know. I said, "Where in the hell did you get those at?" And he said, "Oh, we were walkin by a store, I said, look at them suits. Next thing I know, they're hanging in my closet." So anyhow, he said here -- he pulled the green one, I remember, he said, "Try this on." So I put it on. And it just swam on me, you know, it was too big. So he gave me a velvet jacket that he had and a ascot. And so I went back down. You gotta picture this.

And one by one he brought everybody up and dressed them, put a costume on 'em. Cause he was gonna wear that police captains uniform and he decided he was gonna dress everybody else up. So when he got to the Stamps Quartet, the Superfly outfits fit them. And so here they are, they come downstairs. We were just dying laughing. It took us a half hour just to get started recording, because you'd start recording something, and you'd look at Elvis, and Elvis would look at you, and you'd just break up, you know. So anyhow, we recorded about 6:00 in the morning like that. All dressed in our costumes and that was it. We got all the tracks done. And Elvis said, "Well, we'd better get the jets to take the guys out to L.A. Get the Stamps back to Nashville." He says, "Charlie, go get the white stretch limousine." So Charlie goes around and brings out this white stretch limousine. And Elvis gave it to the Stamps. He had the keys, he says, "Here, this is for you boys." So we went out on the porch. The suns coming up. And we're standing on the porch of Graceland. Charlie brings the stretch limousine out. And here's the Stamps in the Superfly outfits, getting into this white stretch limousine. And Elvis was on the ground laughing. We were all just cracking up. That's the Elvis I loved. That's one of my favorite stories about him, you know. He just, he loved to have fun, you know.

Q : Briggs pulled a fast one on you at one of the recording sessions too, didn't he?

A : Oh, yeah. I had flown to Graceland from Los Angeles. I had worked in the studio all day here. Recording with somebody else. And got to Graceland, and I was just bushed. It was in the middle of the night when I got there. And David Briggs was sittin' there. And I said to David, I said, "You know, I am so tired. I don't know if I'm gonna get through this." I said, "You got any uppers?" He said, "Oh, sure, just like this." And he reached in his pocket and handed me a pill. And I popped it down. So then we were cutting, it was during the take on one of the songs we were cutting that night. I was sitting there, and I couldn't hold my hands on the bass. My hands kept falling off. And I kept nodding. And what had happened was, is that he had given me a Quaalude. Which I had never taken before. Never taken one. I never liked the downers. And he gave me a Quaalude. And then he went and told Elvis and everybody else in the room, "Watch Scheff. Watch Scheff," you know. So they were all sittin' there, and when I started just nodding out, they were cracking up laughing. So I had to redo the bass part on that song after they got me sobered up, you know. Oh, God. Yeah. That was that one.

Q : How about the night you played Wagner, and you were going to have David Briggs and yourself pull a fast on Elvis, and David didn't come through?

A : Oh, yeah. Well, you know. Elvis got to where he wanted us to take solos when he introduced us. And how the hells a bass player take a solo after a drummer, you know. I mean, it's impossible. I said, "I'm gonna play a slow blues." You know, I'll go the opposite direction, and Ronnie can play the razzle-dazzle and all. So every night Elvis would come on, he'd say, "Jerry Scheff on bass. Play the blues, Jerry." So I'd play a slow blues thing. And one time we were in Louisiana, and I was sick of playing the blues. And so we were in Louisiana, you know, and I said to the guys in the dressing room, I said, "Listen, I'm gonna play sort of a Cajun thing about this tempo, and I'm gonna play something else, you know, key of D." So we got out there, and Elvis came over and he said, "Jerry Scheff on bass. Play the blues, Jerry." And I started in this other thing. And he looked at me like, what the hell you doing, man? So anyhow, the next night, he would never say anything, though, you know, but the next night I came out and he said, "This is Jerry Scheff on bass. What are you gonna play for us, Jerry?" So I said, "I'm gonna play this Cajun thing." So the next night he asked me that, and I said, "Well I'm gonna." He said, "What are you gonna play, Jerry?" and I said, "I'm gonna play a little Wagner." So I played da da da daaaa, you know, laughing and stuff. And so anyhow, then the next night he came out and looked at me, and, I knew he was gonna say "What are you gonna play." And so I was gonna say, "I'm gonna play the piano." And I know, he knew that I didn't know how to play the piano. So I, with David Briggs before the show, I set it up with him. I said, "Okay, you get under the piano and put your fingers on the electric piano. And I'm gonna come over and stand, and you play, and it'll look like I'm playing." Briggs, just like he did with the Quaalude, went to Elvis and told him the whole thing, right? So Elvis came out that night, he said, "Jerry Scheff on bass. What are you gonna play, Jerry?" And I said, "Oh, I think I'll play the piano." And he looked at me, and he said, "Why don't you play the blues, Jerry?" And that was it. And I found out after that Briggs had tipped him, you know.

(to be continued)

[Gordon]

Funny besides being interesting...i'm getting to like Mr.Scheff even more than before [img]style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif[/img]