Elvis Presley breezed through Asheville, North Carolina virtually unknown in 1955, opening for acts he’d soon eclipse. By the time he reappeared there for three sold-out shows in late July 1975, it was anyone’s guess as to whether the superstar would shine on or burn out.
He was getting mighty big, and not exactly in terms of popularity. With faint praise, an Asheville Citizen reporter who attended the first show judged Elvis "paunchy but pretty." Nancy Fox, a local resident at one of the shows, perhaps put it better: "He was still Elvis, just a bigger version of him. He sounded as good as he’d ever sounded, to me."
But bigger Elvis was a handful, with his Asheville stay marked by all his late-period excesses: stellar performances punctuated by bizarre onstage antics, bouts of generosity beset by severe selfishness. It was as though Good Elvis and Bad Elvis were starting their final battle for his soul, which would come to a head all too soon and leave Asheville wanting more.
Asheville was the last stop on Elvis' East Coast Tour, being awarded with three concerts. Elvis was both sincere and flamboyant, both rooted and reeling—and, as was his wont, frequently armed. The stories about what went on in the hours when Elvis was off stage are many and very known to the general public. They may have been kept secret at the time, but there's always someone who'll enjoy sharing one or two cents about Elvis.
Staying at the Roadway Inn east of town, Elvis apparently got off two shots. One afternoon in his hotel room, an emotional Elvis slung his arm around his father, Vernon, who was making a rare tour trip with his son; the embrace was cut short when a pistol in Elvis' hand discharged, sending a round ricocheting before it bounced, spent and harmless, off the chest of Elvis' on-the-road physician. Another afternoon, one of his bodyguards sheepishly approached the hotel manager saying that Elvis had put his foot through the TV screen during an impromptu wrestling match - a couple of years later, a member of Elvis' crew confessed that "Elvis shot the damn thing out of frustration with the set’s spotty vertical hold."
The three shows in the city - the only three he'd do there in the 1970s - were among some of the most memorable of 1975 for their rousing atmosphere and for occasional signs of Elvis' decline.
On July 22, Elvis abandoned the stage mid-song, leaving his band members to introduce themselves and wonder if he’d return. A few minutes later, he was back with a clear and shameless expanation: "I had to go to the bathroom." But Elvis was ever the crowd-pleaser in Asheville, even taking audience song requests, which he rarely did. That night, he'd sing a solo version of "Why Me Lord?", "Shake a Hand", "Memphis Tennessee"and "Mystery Train / Tiger Man".
Elvis was scheduled to return to Asheville on August, 26, 1977 for another performance at the Civic Center. Again, the show sold out - but, as we know, he never made it. Asheville fans were distraught but sprang to action, and on the scheduled concert date, a committee of locals instead held a memorial service where The Stamps Quartet debuted "Elvis Has Left the Building".
The Asheville concert of July 22, 1975 was first released through PA as "Live in Asheville" in 2002 and was re-released by Touchdown Productions as "Still Crazy After All These Years!" in 2014. All three concerts were released together and with enhanced audio for the first time by AudiRec in 2018 as "The Asheville Marathon '75".
Below we review the July 22, 1975 concert in Asheville.
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