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I was born in 1954. The very same year that Elvis Presley thundered up the charts with
"That's allright, mama".
When I was 8 years old, my parents wanted me to take piano-lessons. At first I liked it but then I got
tired of playing classical music, when all they played in the radio was Cliff, Elvis, Beatles and so on. So I began playing more rock'n'roll-piano and when I was
15 years old I got my first guitar. I taought myself to play it and I can still remember the blisters on my fingers trying to figure out, how "Bad moon
rising" was played. Today I'm grateful for the opportunities my parents gave me.
I was a kind of shy person and therefore an easy target for mobbing. I was bright and upfront in
class and I wore glasses. In highschool we were supposed to sing alone in front of the class and I was very scared. I blushed, I sweated; but I think I
made it OK That was the first time I ever sang and I was about 18 years old!
I started playing music with some of my class-mates and in 1972 I first noticed that Elvis did have something
special (it was "Love me tender" that made me see the light). I began collecting his records and started singing like he did ( when I was at home).
The music took more and more of my time and in 1974 we had our first gig. In the years after we played rock'n'roll of the 50's and then I joined a band where
they played their own songs.
One day in 1979 the bass-player asked me, if I would like to do a "Tribute to
Elvis"-show. If I would ! I had dreamt about it; but never dared to propose it. So we worked hard in the next couple of months and finally
in january 1980 we were having our first performance. The audience were going wild. I'd never heard anything like it. I got
it on video and today I know it wasn't all that fantastic; but I think the audience were cought by surprise.
We toured with our show in Denmark for 2 years. In 1982 it became too difficult and we broke
up. I started doing the shows on my own with the music on tape. I did that for 7 years performning in Spain, Germany, Tunisia, Austria, Sweden
and Denmark. I've performed at the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club in Denmark several times. I take that as a big compliment ( I mean:
"There's no one like the real Elvis"). The unfortunate thing about the solo-period was that many of the jobs were to start after midnight and not ending
before early in the morning. At that time I thought it was to hard, so I quit in 1989.
For a time I auditioned with other bands and tried out new musical styles as soul, R&B and
country. I 1990 I met The Black Devils. It's an original group formed in 1959 who has started again after a minor break. I told them about my
Elvis-show and we made a small version with a 6-piece band together with eletronic gimmicks. I didn't think the result was good enough, so in 1994
we decided to go "full-scale" and we formed a band behind KING MEMPHIS (to whom I've now become). The Black Devils were the basic band with 2 guitars,
drums and bass. Since I used to play keyboards, we had to have another keyboard-player. We got 3 girls to sing backing-vocal along with The Black Devils and
furthermore a 3-piece brass-section. Now it is really rocking. For me it's a dream come true ! Though it's
hard work keeping such a large ensemble together - it is all worth while.
From 2003 and up til now I do my shows as a solo-performer. It has brought me to many countries in
Europe - and to weeks performance in Las Vegas at MGM Grand ! There has been a steday flow of gigs; but unfortunately it has not been possible to make a living out
of it. Sometimes I miss the shows with the band; but they are all involved in their own musical carreers. So I've decided to make a live-tour in 2007 backed
with a bunch of professional musicians. Right now the planning is taken place - that's gonna be exciting !
Thank you for hanging on so far.
I hope, I'm going to meet you someday.
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