After all these years, what more can possibly be written about Elvis Presley? In life, his career was kept under a microscope by the media for over 20 years, and in death everyone has weighed in with their story of the man, the myth and the legend. His bodyguards, his hangers on, his family, his friends, his acquaintances, his spouse, his nurses, cooks and maids, the historians, the journalists, those who met him in life, or claim that they did, as well as those who claim to have met him since his death, or those who have fantasized about meeting him, have all penned their tomes. There was the girl who wrote that she is the “real” Lisa Marie, and that Lisa Marie Presley Keough-Jackson-Cage is the imposter; there are stories of alleged love children, and the odd nuts that claim Elvis’ spirit inhabits their pet and even their sliding glass door. So much of his life and career has been dissected in the last quarter of a century that the latest trend in Elvis literature is to focus on the spiritual Elvis, the metaphysical Elvis, and the religious cult that has grown around him in life and death. So hungry are Elvis’ diehard fans for any new tidbit of information; any new perspective no matter how skewed, that these books sell worldwide. But what about those on the fringe who are interested in Elvis, but want to read a more down to earth tale about the mortal King? Well for the first time in many years the novel AROUND ELVIS tells a story that will not only be savored by Elvis fans, but will certainly be embraced as a socially relevant piece of American literature. Scheduled for release in the Summer of 2003, AROUND ELVIS was written by author Thorne Peters, who is President of the Yours In Elvis Forever Fan Club of Memphis, TN, and is based in part on the story told to him by Steve Blackwelder, a local Memphian that has lived his life around the corner from Graceland, and provides an inside look into the everyday world where Elvis lived, worked, dreamed, honed his talent, triumphed, frolicked and died. As a child hanging around the gates of Graceland with his family, Steve Blackwelder saw Elvis at play, and later, as one of the stars of the Hillcrest High School football team, was befriended by the Stanley Brothers and invited to hang out inside the mansion. Well documented is Elvis’ lifelong love of football and of his interest in that Hillcrest team that got better and better until they finally played for the state championship in Memphis. Many books have made note that Elvis would often park beyond the field or stand under the bleachers in disguise to take in the game. “One night, while I was in the T.V room with the Stanley boys, Elvis came down and they introduced me to him,” Blackwelder recalls. “Well sure enough Elvis gets a big grin on his face and says, ‘Hiya 22,’ which was my jersey number. Well you could’ve knocked me over with a feather.” Along with some not so well known inside stories about Elvis, and the people in his life, AROUND ELVIS tells the story of Memphis and of how a boy that came from rural Tupelo MS., grew up to be its leading citizen. “With all the unbelievable talent that this city has spawned in the last 75 years, even if Elvis was only the King of the Memphis music world it would have been quite an accomplishment, and Elvis achieved that distinction in one night,” Peters notes. “But Elvis went on to become the King of the whole wide world of music and took Memphis off the map and put it on the globe.” Peters also tells of how Memphis is the most important musical city in the world, more so than even Vienna or Liverpool. “From the Delta to Beale Street, more genres of music were born here than anywhere else. Memphis is the home of the Blues, Delta Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Rockabilly, Rock & Roll, Southern Rock and Southern Gospel, not to mention a bastion for soul music. From the Overton Park Shell, to Stax Recording Studio, to Beale Street, to Hernando’s Hideaway, to Sun Studios, to long gone 'Hole in the Wall' jukejoints, some of the most legendary moments of music have occurred in Memphis. The fusion of Black and White music began right here during the most racially turbulent times of the 20th century, in the most racially violent region of the country, and Elvis was the catalyst that forever broke down that musical barrier.” The backdrop of this book delves into the social landscape of the Memphis/Shelby County area of the era and tells of how football was the common ground that brought a group of kids from different ethnicities together and bonded them as teammates. Elvis had tried to play for his High school team and was run off by the coach when he wouldn’t cut his hair. Some of the team members followed Elvis into the bathroom and tried to cut his hair and Red West stepped in and put a stop to it. Later on, Elvis put together his own team and Steve and his family were among the locals that would go out there to cheer him on. “The Stanley boys were the ‘Team Managers’ of our High School football team, and it was a big deal for them to hang out with the players,” team co-Captain Steve Blackwelder relates. “The thing that they had going for them was that they were Elvis’ stepbrothers, so they shared their access with us.” While they were winning big games year after year, including going undefeated for a season, the city opened up for the team and it was all laid at their feet. “For one moment in time we were bigger than Elvis here in Memphis and that says a lot.” Before anyone can start burning Hillcrest football jerseys over this John Lennonesque statement, Blackwelder quickly adds; “Of course he was still more popular than we were everywhere else and ever since then.” His glory days as an All Star running back for a championship team are long behind him, as are the nights when he got to shoot pool at Graceland and have a laugh and a cheeseburger with the King and his court, but Steve can often be found outside the gates where he has been going for forty-five years. “I love to visit with the Elvis fans and I’ve made friends from all over the world. During International Elvis Week I interview people, and I have hundreds of hours of tape shot over 20 years. Maybe some of you are on there.” Steve doesn’t talk much about the times he spent inside Graceland hanging out with the Memphis Mafia and their leader. “It would be like bragging, or acting like I’m an Elvis insider when I wasn’t. I was just around Elvis, like the book says.” One night he happened to tell Thorne Peters about his connection to Elvis in passing. “I knew Steve for years before he mentioned that he was a High School football star,” Peters says. “He pulled out his yearbooks and scrapbooks, and all at once I realized that he played for the High School that the Stanley Brothers attended, and I knew that Elvis had watched that team play. Steve casually went on about his friendship with Elvis’ stepbrothers, his association with Elvis’ guys, and his occasional contact with Elvis himselvis at Graceland and how later, when he was the Bell Captain at the Travel Lodge where Elvis’ band members and entourage stayed, Elvis would call him up and say, ‘Take care of my folks, 22.’ Well I felt like I won the lottery and I rushed home to begin writing.” The more Blackwelder told him of the time and place of these happenings, the more Peters saw the big picture. “Elvis was a part of the scene here; he was a large part of a greater whole, and that story has never been brought to light . . . until now.” The novel chronicles Elvis’ odyssey in Memphis, from his arrival at the Lauderdale Courts as a 13 year-old Tupeloian, who was often harassed and ridiculed while growing up—until that fateful night in July of 1954 when his debut song took the city by storm—right on through the glory years and on into the realm of superstardom that has been known by no other entertainer living, dead or yet to be born. “You know, part of the reason Elvis never left Memphis was because he had been given such a hard time here when he was coming up and he was determined to triumph,” Peters believes. “He came here as a hick from the sticks and not only survived, but thrived in this tough town and struck gold. Even after he made it big, he still had a rough go of things. His neighbors on Audubon Drive wanted him to leave their suburb, because all of his hometown fans overran the neighborhood, and the homeowners took him to court to try to get him out. Elvis told them that he’d buy up all their houses and throw them out then pointed out that he was the only person on the street whose house was paid off. Later on, when he got richer and moved out to Whitehaven, his neighbors complained about his mother feeding her chickens in the front yard. That’s why Graceland, more than anything else, more than the jewelry, the awards, the Cadillacs, the records, the money, the movies, and even the massive estates he owned in Bel Air and Beverly Hills, was the symbol of his success; it was the trophy that he got for persevering and emerging victorious over his enemies and detractors.”

AROUND ELVIS tells the story of the man and the city that have become synonymous with each other, and gives the reader an eye level look at how Elvis was viewed by his hometown and what he saw when he looked back . . .