The Original Drummer of Elvis Presley

Member of the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame

8 x 10, black and white photo, of Elvis Presley playing live on stage at the Louisiana Hayride, Shreveport, Louisiana, 1954. Elvis is at the front center of this view with his acoustic guitar strapped around his neck, while holding onto the tall microphone stand. It has been very boldly signed in black sharpie pen, To Lenny, D.J. Fontana. There is an imprint at the bottom, "D.J. AND ELVIS AT LOUISIANA HAYRIDE." Very rare from my personal collection obtained from DJ directly while visiting him at his home in Tennessee.

The banner hanging behind the band is the Louisiana Hayride, KWKH radio ad banner. The Louisiana Hayride was primarily broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, between 1948 and 1960. Known as the "Cradle of the Stars," this very historic venue hosted legends like Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash, helping them launch their iconic careers.

The Louisiana Hayride, hosted by Horace Logan, was broadcast live on KWKH radio, a very powerful radio station that reached a vast audience in the south. It later became a popular country music television show than ran until 1960.

This photo was given to me personally by D.J. Fontana who became a friend of mine, and it was signed by him in person. I first met D.J. in New York City, in 1978, when I went to see the Broadway Musical, "Elvis; The Legend Lives," at the Palace Theater.

This was one of the very first Elvis tribute shows ever done about the life story of Elvis Presley who had died the year before, on August 16, 1977.

Starring as Elvis was a young Chicago native, Rick Saucedo, who was a talented musician, song writer, singer, and one of the very first Elvis tribute artists.

What made the show even more authentic then just the fine performance given by Rick, was that the drummer in the show was D.J. Fontana, the original drummer of Elvis, along with vocalist Millie Kirkham, who had the heavenly high soprano voice heard on many of Elvis's early recordings and live shows. Millie Kirkham was something very special.
To round out the cast in the show was Ray Walker, who was the bass singer of the original male backing vocal group, the Jordanaires, who Elvis used, on recordings, & early stage & TV performances.

I had my camera with me that night and took many photos of the show. Afterwards, I hung around the stage area, and some of the original artist who performed with the real Elvis Presley came out to greet those of us fans who remained behind hoping to meet some of them. They did not disappoint us.

D.J. Fontana was one of those who came out to greet the fans, and at that first meeting I felt lucky to be able to shake his hand and exchange a handful of words with him. It was a thrill, but it was also gone in a flash which soon became a distant memory.

On one of my many trips to visit my dear friend Joe Moscheo, the great gospel musician, and member of The Imperials, and friend of Elvis Presley, also part of his touring and recording bands, Joe and I were invited to attend a private dinner where I got to meet some of the members of Elvis's band, among them his original drummer D.J. Fontana.

I mentioned to D.J. that I had actually met him many years earlier when he was a cast member of the "Elvis; The Legend Lives" show on Broadway, in NYC, in 1978.

He smiled and said, "Lordy that was a long time ago." When I told him that I took pictures of the show he got curious and asked me if I still had them. I told him yes I did, some place at home among all of the other things I collected since I was 7 years old. He expressed an interest to see them, and asked me to contact him if I ever came across them, and he gave me his contact info.

Well, after diligently rummaging through boxes of old photos I found them, and called D.J. to tell him. He said the next time you come up to Nashville to visit Joe, bring them with you and you guys stop by the house for a visit. I was very excited about this prospect and couldn't wait to tell Joe the news. D.J. lived just south of Nashville in the same enclave that many of the most famous country stars lived.

We made arrangements and a few months later I made the drive up to Nashville with visiting D.J. being very high on the agenda of things that Joe and I planned to do.

We had a lovely visit and I got to hear some of the coolest stories any Elvis fan could ever dream of hearing. D.J. told us stories about the early 1950's when Elvis, Scotty, Bill and D.J. were on the road touring by car doing one night stands in the deep southwest under the name of the "Blue Moon Boys."

I also got to meet D.J.'s lovely wife Karen, who became a good friend, and pen pal of mine. Alzheimer's ran in her family and when Joanne was later diagnosed with the horrible disease she helped encourage me, and sent me notes, cards, and poems to try and boost my spirits. What a lovely lady indeed.

D.J. loved the pictures, and I gave him whichever ones he wanted to keep for himself. In return he gave me some neat pictures from his personal collection, and signed them for me, and he even gave me a pair of his drumsticks which he also signed. He was a very lovely man, and I enjoyed my friendship with him.

One of the funniest stories D.J. ever told me was when Elvis had fallen asleep in their
touring car, and as a prank the boys threw Elvis shoes out the window of the car and into a river they were passing over. When Elvis woke up and found out his shoes were missing and what they had done, he told them to turn around and go back to try and find them. They all laughed heartily and said, that is not going to happen Elvis, it was quite a ways back, and we threw them into a river.

Elvis took it in good humor and didn't get mad and said oh well, the next town we come to let's stop and find a shoe store so I can buy a new pair of shoes! Elvis had a great sense of humor and he no doubt got even with the boys sometime in the future!

Keep in mind that Elvis was the youngest, and least experienced of the group, as all three other members, Scotty, Bill and D.J. had served in the United States armed forces during the Korean War period, Scotty in the navy, and Bill and D.J. in the army.

Years earlier before becoming friends with D.J., I met and became a very good friend of Joe Moscheo, who became a good friend of Elvis, and later was a member of the Imperials gospel group who backed Elvis on stage for some 500 live shows starting in Las Vegas in 1969, and they also recorded with Elvis on his gospel and Christmas albums.

Joe earned a "Grammy Award" for Elvis's live stage version of "How Great Thou Art," and he is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He was a well known and very highly respected person around Nashville. Among his numerous roles besides being a member of The Imperials, he was the Vice President of Special Projects at BMI for 16 years, he also served on numerous boards including the Gospel Music Association, the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School.

One of my biggest personal thrills I ever had was a visit with Joe when he took me to RCA Studio B, where Elvis and many other stars recorded, on a one on one personal tour. It was just the two of us in the entire studio and we visited everywhere you can imagine. We spent hours together inside those hallowed walls and Joe entertained me with some of the most fantastic Elvis stories I had ever heard, all from first hand accounts of his years spent with Elvis!

Joe originally met Elvis in 1956 at the Ellis Auditorium, in Memphis, during one of the popular all night gospel sings held at the auditorium. At the time Joe was the piano player and a member of the gospel group the "Harmoneers," a well known group of that period.

Elvis was not performing that night, but was there just as a fan to see some of his favorite gospel groups perform. He started attending these gospel sings at Ellis when he was a teenager at Humes High School in Memphis. It was on that particular night that Elvis met Joe Moscheo back stage.

Here is a story Joe told me about that first meeting with Elvis. Joe sheepishly went up to Elvis who by this time was a huge national celebrity, and asked him for his autograph. Elvis, said OK, but on one condition, and that was that Joe had to give Elvis his autograph in return. Joe was blown away by Elvis's request when Elvis added, I know who you are Joe, I have been following you and the Harmoneers. A lifelong friendship was forged that evening in Memphis.

You can see the Imperials perform on the screen as they appeared in the show, "Elvis That's The Way It Is."

D.J. Fontana, was born under the given name Dominic Joseph Fontana, in Shreveport. Louisiana, on March 15, 1931, and was given the nickname of "D.J." He first met Elvis Presley while he was employed as the house drummer at the Louisiana Hayride in 1954. He sat in with Elvis and the boys one night, and never left.

He performed with Elvis on most of his early radio, and television shows in the 1950's, his album recordings, and some of his movie soundtracks, making an occasional cameo appearance in a couple of his films, and he also played with Elvis on the famous, "1968 Comeback Special," the famous TV show that appeared on American TV in December 1968, and the whole world knew that the real Elvis Presley was back. Elvis re-splendid for part of that show in his iconic black leather suit, left his fans and the world in awe that night as "The King of Rock n' Roll" was back with a vengeance, and his skills and his on stage presence never lost a beat after his long layoff from live shows due to the obligation he had to fulfill with the Hollywood movie contracts that the Colonel talked him into signing. After his first 3 or 4 films, the movies were sub par travelogues but there was no arguing about their box office success which is all Colonel Parker concerned himself with. Elvis soon grew very tired of this low scale films and kept asking the colonel to get him some serious movie roles which fell upon deaf ears. Elvis who had signed a contract with the colonel as a minor at the age of 19 did not realize the huge mistake he made and he paid for it for the rest of his life with the denial of his artistic freedom. The colonel was a degenerate gambler and he used Elvis as his pawn to pay off his gambling debts so the money Elvis could produce was all Parker was interested in.

TRIVIA: The original Bill Black bass is owned by the ex-Beatle Paul McCartney who you can watch playing it in a couple of his videos, one in particular where he plays with Scotty Moore, the original lead guitar player of Elvis, and the aforementioned D.J. Fontana. It was recorded around 2001, when the trio did their rendition of the first record that was ever released by Elvis, "That's All Right." Paul was given this iconic bass guitar as a gift from. his wife, the lovely Linda McCartney in the late 1970's.

Other photos in my post include:
The front facade of the Palace Theater, in New York City, with the ELVIS marquee where I first met D.J. Fontana.

Rick Saucedo playing the role of Elvis Presley in his early career. He is flanked by the guys playing the role of The Jordainaires, with the gentleman on the far right being Ray Walker, one of the original Jordanaires, their bass singer, and one heck of a nice guy.

At the far right of this image you can see D.J. behind his drum kit. He wears a pink shirt with the collar turned out over the lapels of his sports jacket.

D.J. of course took all of the best photos that he appeared in at the NYC shows, which I was very pleased to give him.

It was pure excitement to hang out with one of rock's most iconic drummer's, listen to first hand Elvis stories, and receive a couple of very cool gifts from him. This was one of the great highlights of my life.