Elvis ‘Bought’ an Audience When They Weren’t Excited Enough
Elvis Presley grew accustomed to performing to screaming audiences of fans who would do anything to get closer to him. While the crush of their enthusiasm concerned his bodyguards and venue security, Elvis reveled in it. When he got in front of a particularly polite and quiet audience, he realized he had to do something to rile them up. His solution was an incredibly expensive one.
Elvis gave away expensive jewelry to one audience
When Elvis’ bodyguards raised their concerns about audience behavior at his concerts, he told them not to worry. “When they stop attacking me, I’m dead,” he said, per the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. It bothered him greatly, then, that one 1973 audience was comparatively quiet.
“He was in the dressing room and he told me that the audience wasn’t worth a damn,” bodyguard Red West said. “They weren’t responding, which wasn’t really true. This was pretty much a rural audience and they were very enthusiastic but they were polite. There were no riots, which he had been getting used to. When he would come across a quiet audience, he would often chew them out. He would tell them, ‘You are allowed to clap, you know,’ or he would say, ‘This is where the audience usually applauds.’ But he wasn’t turned on by this audience at all.”
Elvis instructed his jeweler, Lowell Hays, to bring his jewelry case onstage. He began handing out expensive rings to audience members. Understandably, their level of excitement spiked.
“The audience just went crazy,” West said. “These weren’t dress rings, these were real diamonds and sapphires and stuff like that. On that night he gave away maybe thirty-five thousand dollars’ worth of rings. It was insanity, but he got what he wanted and when he wanted it. And what he wanted were those waves of love from the audience — at any price.”
Elvis’ jeweler was embarrassed that the audience took home such expensive products
Hays recalled this night well because it was an embarrassment to him.
“He started taking pieces of jewelry out of the case and going over and was giving them to these girls on the front row and just giving the jewelry away,” he said, per Page Six. “He gave away a lot of jewelry that night; he was in one of those moods, and I was frankly embarrassed and wished it hadn’t been there because to me, it was a huge amount of money.”
After the show, Hays told Elvis he wished he hadn’t given away all the rings. The singer was unrepentant.
“So when the show ended, I ran out the back door and jumped in Elvis’ car and I said, ‘Elvis, I’m embarrassed. I just wish I hadn’t been here and then you wouldn’t have lost all that money, you just gave away all that money out there!’” he said. “And he looked at me and he laughed that little Elvis laugh he has and he said, ‘You know what, Lowell? I’m going to have to sing five minutes more tomorrow night to pay for it.’”
He typically tossed out less expensive products
Typically, Elvis did not need to give such expensive products to his audiences. He tossed sweat-soaked scarves out to the crowd during most shows. People fought viciously for a chance to take one of these home.
“Well, Elvis has reached the part of his act where he throws out about fifty scarfs into the audience,” bodyguard Dave Hebler said. “I look out into the audience and I just go cold. The crowd has gone berserk and is charging the stage.”
Elvis was able to rile up audiences in this way even in the latest stages of his career.
