Elvis Had A Request For David Bowie That Could Have Rocked The Music World

By 1977, Elvis was a shadow of his former self — overweight and in poor health — and unable to deliver the kind of shows his fans were used to. By contrast, Bowie was in the midst of his Berlin Trilogy era, during which he released three albums of material recorded mainly while he was living in Germany. He put out one of his most enduring songs — “Heroes” — in 1977, while that same year Elvis released his final single “Way Down,” which isn’t particularly beloved.

Interestingly, Bowie actually grew up an Elvis fan! Born in January 1947 as David Robert Jones, he was raised in London and first encountered Elvis’ music as a child when he saw his cousin Kristina jumping around to “Hound Dog.” In a letter to The Economist, Kristina wrote, “When he was 11 we danced like possessed elves to the records of Bill Haley, Fats Domino, and Elvis Presley.”

When Bowie grew up and became an entertainer himself, it’s believed that he took a huge amount of inspiration from Elvis. The King would comb his hair in an iconic way and often wore eye-shadow on stage. In fact, Elvis’ look — including his garish jumpsuits and jewelry — was almost as integral to his success as his music, as were his boundary-pushing dance moves.

Bowie’s stage persona was, in many ways, a natural extension of Elvis’. It’s believed Bowie told designer Freddie Burretti to take cues from Elvis’ jumpsuits and he also wore garish clothes and makeup, not unlike his hero. He simply took it further, often into the realm of science-fiction. Music, after all, has to move with the times, just like any art-form.

cover for the album Aladdin Sane, Bowie had a red and blue lightning bolt painted on his face. It’s believed this was a reference to Elvis’ TCB — “Taking care of business” — lightning bolt, a design he’d incorporated into his jewelry, clothes, and even his private airplane!

At their core, both Elvis and Bowie were masters of visual storytelling and perhaps this is why both plied their trade on-screen as well. Elvis starred in a host of films between 1956 and 1969, though he grew frustrated that he could never land a truly great dramatic role. His movies always emphasized his music, whereas deep down he wanted to emulate his idols Marlon Brando and James Dean.

With Bowie, on the other hand, critics tend to believe he could’ve enjoyed a more substantial acting career if he’d wanted it. He mainly took supporting parts but his performances as alien Thomas Jerome Newton in 1976’s The Man Who Fell To Earth and the Goblin King in 1986 cult classic Labyrinth are legendary. He acted up until the 2000s, for instance appearing as inventor Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige in 2006.

In terms of other connections between the two artists, some believe there was a poignant one centered around Bowie’s final album Blackstar. It was released only two days before Bowie died, which made fans look for all kinds of meanings in the haunting record. It’s now accepted that the album’s a raw exploration of the deluge of emotions Bowie experienced while suffering from serious illness.

“Black star” is a medical term used to describe the lesions caused by cancer. The term obviously would’ve been on Bowie’s mind in his final 18 months after being diagnosed with the condition. Interestingly, though, the word “Blackstar” could also be a reference to a collapsed star or a hidden planet. A “Space Oddity” like Bowie surely would’ve been familiar with the term in that context.

The third possible meaning is the one that connects to Elvis. You see, in 1960 Elvis recorded a song for an upcoming movie — a picture entitled Black Star! The track had the same title and its lyrics delved deeply into the topic of — you guessed it — death. Listen to the song now and any fan of either artist will undoubtedly get a chill up their spine.

The lyrics — which were unusually morbid and existential for an Elvis song — read: “Every man has a black star / A black star over his shoulder / And when a man sees his black star / He knows his time, his time has come.” They continue: “Black star keep behind me, black star / There’s a lot of livin’ I gotta do.”

The title of the movie was eventually changed to Flaming Star, and Elvis re-recorded the song with altered lyrics and the new title. Bowie would certainly have been familiar with the original version, though, as it did finally see the light of day in the ‘90s. It’s therefore not too hard to believe that he was - at least in part - paying tribute to his hero with his final opus. 

Intriguingly, in 1997 Bowie recounted a regret he felt concerning Elvis. During a conversation included in Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters with David Bowie, he revealed that he’d attended an Elvis gig in New York during the early 1970s. He’d even hopped on a flight at late notice to see his hero, despite being deathly afraid of air travel at the time.

“I came over for a long weekend,” said Bowie. “I remember coming straight from the airport and walking into Madison Square Garden very late. I was wearing all my clobber from the Ziggy period and I had great seats near the front.” Unfortunately, though, Bowie would soon come to realize that he perhaps should’ve chosen different clothes for the occasion.

“The whole place just turned to look at me and I felt like a right [idiot],” continued Bowie, who quickly realized the full, garish Ziggy Stardust outfit was a bad choice. “I had brilliant red hair, some huge padded space suit and those red boots with big black soles. I wished I’d gone for something quiet because I must have registered with him. He was well into his set.”

The idea of taking the spotlight away from his hero — even inadvertently — clearly didn’t sit well with Bowie. Perhaps he was extra sensitive to any perceived slight because he felt he had a personal connection to Elvis — they shared a birthday, after all. As Bowie chuckled, “I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something.”

Amazingly, on January 21, 2016 — only 11 days after Bowie passed away — another link between him and Elvis was revealed by a very unlikely source. Country star Dwight Yoakam was interviewed by The Orange County Register and, instead of talking about his own tour, he couldn’t help waxing lyrical about Bowie. For starters, while listening to “Rebel Rebel,” he said, “I love the guitars on that and took inspiration from that.”

Yoakam added, “He was an artist all the way until the end, purely and truly in every sense of the word. He should be an inspiration for all musical artists. He showed a lot of respect to the audience and was grateful for the gift that the artists are given in being able to make music and continue to have the opportunity to express themselves.”

At this point in time, Yoakam was engrossed in Blackstar — which, incredibly, was Bowie’s first Billboard 200 number one album. “Clearly he was aware at that point of his mortality throughout the process of creating Blackstar,” Yoakam reflected. “He did it all with such dignity and grace. And I think that’s an absolutely overwhelming illustration of what the definition of an artist is, through and through.”

“In David’s case, he did that all the way to his dying breath,” Yoakam continued. “He just kept giving art to audiences.” All in all, he considered Bowie’s artistry and love of his fans to be “a lesson in just remembering to be grateful.” Given his intense fandom, it stood to reason that Yoakam would’ve interacted with Bowie at some point — and his story of their meeting certainly didn’t disappoint!

Yoakam spilled the beans on meeting Bowie in 1997 following one of his concerts. After Bowie wowed the audience at the Hollywood Athletic Club, he and Yoakam discussed people they’d collaborated with, such as when Bowie worked with T.Rex’s Marc Bolan. Then Yoakam mentioned Elvis, someone who’d influenced them both.

Bowie then dropped a bombshell, revealing that The King had actually asked him to produce his new album in 1977! Unfortunately, Elvis passed away just six months later, so the plan never came to fruition. “That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie’s ‘Golden Years,’” Yoakam said. “And I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s a tragedy that he was never able to make that.’”

The country superstar — clearly still stunned that such an epic collaboration almost happened — added, “I couldn’t even imagine 1977 David Bowie producing Elvis. It would have been fantastic. It has to be one of the greatest tragedies in pop music history that it didn’t happen, one of the biggest missed opportunities.” And most fans would surely agree wholeheartedly with Yoakam.

Fascinatingly, though, there’s someone who may dispute Yoakam’s precise version of events here: Bowie himself! First of all, in 2002 he did confirm that Elvis wanted to work with him, saying, “There was talk between our offices that I should be introduced to Elvis and maybe start working with him in a production-writer capacity. But it never came to pass.”

Naturally, this was hugely disappointing to the singer. He admitted, “I would have loved to have worked with him. God, I would have adored it.” But this is where things get a little hazy. According to Bowie, though Elvis may indeed have been impressed on hearing his recording of “Golden Years,” that wasn’t Elvis’ first introduction to the song.

Instead, Bowie claimed that he actually wrote “Golden Years” for Elvis, prior to recording the song himself for his 1975 album Station to Station! By the early 1970s, Elvis was nowhere near the cultural force he’d once been and his management were looking for ways to freshen up his sound for a modern audience. This is when Bowie said he was approached by Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

Bowie recalled that Parker wanted him to write a commercial track for Elvis — a request he was only too happy to oblige. And this is supposedly when Bowie wrote “Golden Years.” Sadly, after it was submitted to The King, he allegedly rejected the song, though not before sending Bowie a message stating: “All the best, and have a great tour.”

Bowie supposedly treated this note as one of his prized possessions, keeping it safe and sound right up until his death. So, there you have it — if this version of events is the correct one, perhaps it took Elvis to hear the full song, recorded by Bowie himself, before he could appreciate its genius. Or maybe there’s yet another potential origin for the song!

At the time Bowie wrote and recorded “Golden Years,” he was married to his first wife Angela. She once claimed that the song wasn’t written for The King of Rock & Roll at all — but was actually written for her! Angela, a singer herself, said, “I did The Mike Douglas Show, singing ‘I’ve Got A Crush on You.’ And David was so astonished that he wrote ‘Golden Years.’”

Bowie isn’t the only star to have had an unusual run-in with Elvis, though. In fact, for Tom Jones, one fateful shower in Las Vegas wound up being nowhere near as private as he might’ve liked. It’s not so strange to utter the two names in a single sentence, however. Jones is a music legend in his own right and has sold over 100 million records, registering 19 Top 40 hits in the U.S. and 36 in his native U.K.

Interestingly, Elvis and Jones weren’t rivals, despite singing similar music during the same period — in fact, they were good friends. Jones first met Elvis in 1965 when they were at very different stages in their careers. Jones was only two years removed from fronting Tommy Scott and the Senators in his native Wales, and one year removed from going solo under the guidance of manager Gordon Mills. His first single “Chills and Fever” saw release in ’64 but made little impression.

Things changed drastically with his next single, though. “It’s Not Unusual” became a global hit in early ’65, topping the charts in the U.K. and reaching the Top 10 in the U.S. That same year, Jones sang the hit theme songs for the films What’s New Pussycat? and Thunderball, the James Bond blockbuster. He was a new superstar on the rise.

Conversely, Elvis was on something of a downturn, at least in terms of his music career. He had been a cultural phenomenon in the ’50s, with his revolutionary rock n’ roll taking the world by storm. But in the ’60s he mostly plied his trade in movies — in fact, he made 27 films in that decade alone! Most of the movies were critically derided, but still managed to make money.

Elvis recorded soundtrack albums/extended plays for 20 of the 27 films in that decade, and the sheer amount of work meant the quality of his music suffered. Between ’64 and ’68, he managed only one Top-Ten song, and it was reported that he actively disliked much of the material he was given to record. In ’65, three movies saw release — Girl Happy, Tickle Me, and Harum Scarum. 

The two superstars first crossed paths at Paramount Studios in L.A. In April 2021 Jones told People magazine, “He started walking toward me singing my song ’With These Hands.’ I thought, ’My God — if the boys back home could see me now.’” It was genuinely a case of Jones meeting his idol — a man whose songs he covered while forging his young career.

“People back home would say, ’Wow, Tom, you sing as good as Elvis Presley,’” revealed the iconic singer. “I used to say, ’Well, I’ll tell him that when I see him.’ I had this vision of meeting him. So, I was thrilled he loved the way I sang. That was a big deal for me.”

Jones went into this meeting in greater detail during an interview with the Elvis Australia fan club. He revealed, “Someone told me that Elvis was filming on the neighbouring sound stage and wanted to say hello. I thought to myself, ’Oh, my God! Surely Elvis Presley doesn’t know who I am?’”

“But I walked on the set, where he was sitting in a helicopter, and he sort of waved in my direction,” continued Jones. “I couldn’t believe he was waving at me, but I waved back, just in case. Then he came over and said he knew every track on my album and he sang one of my songs, ‘With These Hands’, all the way through.”

The King was incredibly impressed with Jones’ commanding baritone voice. Jones revealed he exclaimed, “How the Hell do you sing like you do?” Brilliantly, Jones cheekily replied, “Well, you are to blame, because I listened to all your records in the 1950s.” It was a poignant moment of a fan meeting his hero, yet being treated like a peer. 

The two superstars would soon bond over gospel music, a style which wouldn’t normally be associated with a British act. Jones explained, “He was born in the southern States and was influenced by black gospel singers there. He couldn’t understand how I had so much gospel in me, because that’s what he related to.”

“You see, Elvis Presley was really a gospel singer,” continued Jones. “And he heard that in me, and in Vegas, we would be up at night singing gospel songs. I would mostly listen because he knew more gospel songs than I did. We definitely had a closeness.” It all eventually led to Jones releasing a gospel album — Praise & Blame — four decades later in 2010.

Indeed, Jones and Elvis would become extremely close friends over the years. This was something which Jerry Schilling, Elvis’ lifelong pal, said was unusual for the King. After all, he didn’t often truly bond with other people in the entertainment business. Jones, though, was welcomed into his inner circle with open arms.

Schilling told the BBC in 2019, “Elvis was always cautious about letting people get close and what their intentions were. The people he had working for him were not there for the job, it was because he knew they could travel with him, and he trusted them. But he was inspired by Tom, and they became very good friends.”

To drive his point home, Schilling then said, “If there was one artist that Elvis truly called a friend and hung out with the most, it was Sir Tom Jones.” Indeed, as the ultimate sign of respect to his pal, Elvis would regularly cover Jones’ hit song “Delilah” at his concerts. That must have felt incredible for the young singer.

Fascinatingly, Jones was actually the person who convinced Elvis to go back to the stage in 1969! After nearly a decade of mostly focusing on acting and releasing soundtracks, Elvis was champing at the bit to get back to performing live. Then he went to Las Vegas’ Flamingo Hotel to watch Jones perform, and it left him knowing what he needed to do.

Jones told Rock Cellar Magazine, “When we were talking afterwards, he said, ’The reason I’ve come to see you is because I’m thinking of performing live again.’ He tried to crack Vegas in the ’50s and they weren’t ready for rock and roll then. So, he always wanted to go back to Vegas and become a success there.”

“He felt I was the closest thing to him and had a similar stage presence,” continued Jones. “If I could make it there, he felt that he could too. So, he wanted to see me work and see what I did on-stage. He told me, ‘You’ve given me the confidence to make a comeback in Vegas,’ which he did in ’69.”

“It was tremendous to see him,” remembered Jones. “That was Elvis at his peak, as far as I was concerned. He was as hot then as he ever was before. His voice was still as strong, he looked great, he performed great, and he was Elvis Presley once again. He was fantastic, he couldn’t have been better.”

Overall, it meant a lot to Jones that he could inspire the man who had done the same for him as a young singer in Wales. It felt as though things had come full circle. He revealed, “He’s the main reason why I started singing. So, it was great that I could contribute something to him after what he had given to me.”

Indeed, over the years Jones has never been short of an amusing Elvis anecdote or two. One of our favorites was told to Uncut magazine in 2008. Jones revealed, “I was great friends with him. But we never worked out together. As time went on and he started putting on weight, instead of regarding it as the problem it was, he started having fun with it.”

“I saw him do it a few times, sitting on his exercise bike eating a pizza,” laughed the Welsh legend. “We were in his suite at the Hilton in Vegas. He used to sit on it and put his feet on it but not touch the handlebars and say, ’Are you still working out, Tom? Me too, Look,’ as he sat with his belly poking out and popped another devilled egg into his mouth.”

For another example of just how comfortable Jones and Elvis were around each other, look no further than a story the crooner told People magazine in 2021. Jones revealed that, when both singers were staying in Las Vegas, they got very up close and personal. In fact, the encounter was so amusingly bizarre that Elvis’ bodyguard said no one would believe it even happened!

“I was staying in Caesar’s Palace, and he was at the Hilton, and somebody had sent him a song he thought would be good for me, so he came over,” said Jones. “When I came off the stage, he was there in my hotel room. He said, ‘Tom, I got this song, man.’”

Unfortunately, Elvis had caught Jones at an inopportune moment. Jones laughed, “Well, Elvis, I got to get in the shower,” as he was all sweaty. So, he jumped in the shower, perhaps assuming he and Elvis would chat when he was finished. But the King of Rock n’ Roll had other ideas.

“I thought, ’My God, I’m going nuts. I can hear Elvis singing,’” chuckled Jones. “So, I open my eyes, and he’s leaning over the door singing this song to me. I said, ‘Jesus Christ!’ And he said, ‘The song, man, the song.’” It seems The King was someone who was used to getting what he wanted when he wanted!

“I still don’t know what the song was because it was a big shower, and there was a lot of echo in there,” admitted Jones. “But we became that close.” Thankfully, Jones took no offence at Elvis invading his privacy, but he did think the King’s behavior was strange enough to mention it to his wife Priscilla. 

“She said, ‘I can’t believe that Elvis would be in the bathroom with you at the same time — he never was with me!’” claimed Jones. “I said, ‘Well, he was with me, Priscilla. He was. I was naked, and he was half-naked,’ — because he had gone to the toilet and had to get his leather pants up. They were North Beach leather, which were hard to get up.”

This is where the tale gets even weirder. By this point, Elvis was genuinely struggling to get his leather pants back on, so his bodyguard Red had to step in to help him. While pulling up the King’s britches, Jones claimed Red looked up at him and joked, “If you told somebody this, they wouldn’t believe you.” 

The whole thing amused Jones so much, though, that he immediately replied, “Well, I’m going to tell them.” In truth, Jones finally told the story simply as a way to illustrate how unique Elvis was, both as a person and as a friend. He said, “Elvis Presley was a one-off, believe me. He was fantastic.”

Jones stayed friendly with Elvis right up until his untimely death in 1977, but that wouldn’t be his last contact with the family. In fact, he is still close with his widow to this day, with the pair being photographed going for dinner together in Hollywood in 2017. It even led to rumors that their relationship had turned romantic. 

According to Jones himself, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Even though he lost his beloved wife Linda to lung cancer in 2016, and hasn’t officially dated anyone since, he confirmed to People magazine that he and Priscilla’s relationship was purely platonic. He said, “We’re not dating, but we do go out to dinner.”

“A friend of mine, Jeff Franklin, is a TV producer, and he’s got a big house up in L.A.,” explained Jones in 2021. “We’ll go up there and have sing-a-longs and things like that. She’s up there a lot, and so, we talk, and she’s a very dear friend of mine, Priscilla.”

“I mean, I met her in the ’60s, and she’s been a friend of mine ever since,” continued Jones. “But there is nothing romantic, no.” In truth, this was the same thing Jones told British tabloid newspaper The Sun in 2017, when the rumors first started swirling. But back then Jones also revealed he wasn’t sure how his old friend would have reacted to him taking his ex-wife out on the town.

“I really don’t know how Elvis would feel about us having dinner together — he probably wouldn’t be too sure,” admitted Jones. “But Elvis was a great man. It’s nice to know that Priscilla and I are still in touch after all this time.” He added, “We’ve been in each other’s lives for years and she is one of a bunch of people that I know in Los Angeles, and we do hang out.”

Indeed, for Jones, the idea of getting married again after Linda’s passing was inconceivable. He told People that he couldn’t do it, because “there’s no history with anybody else.” He recorded a cover version of “I Won’t Crumble With You If You Fall” by Bernice Johnson for his album Surrounded By Time and explained its significance. 

“When we found out she was sick, I canceled the tour I was on and went to visit her in the hospital in L.A.,” revealed an emotional Jones. “I told her I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sing any more. But she told me, ’You’ve got to. There’s no way out for me, I know where I’m going. But don’t die with me.’”

“That song right there is saying, ‘I’ll do anything for you, but I won’t crumble with you if you fall,’” explained the singer. “And she told me not crumble, to carry on. So, that song is very important to me.” In a way, then, by releasing his 41st album at the age of 80, in a poignant way Jones really was honoring his late wife’s wishes.