The King and I

His distinctive guitar style helped create the sound of rock and roll. Elvis’s first musical partner talks to Jonathan Wingate

Pinning down the exact moment when rock and roll was born is an impossible task. But many would say that it took place at around 7.30pm on 5th July 1954 in Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

That was the moment when Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black were asked to play along with a young local who had been pestering Phillips for an audition. The first fruits of that audition – That’s All Right (Mama) - backed by Blue Moon Of Kentucky (recorded the following day), were released two weeks later on Phillips’ own Sun label, thus beginning Moore’s 14 year relationship with Presley as his guitarist, creative foil and friend.

Elvis Presley was 19-years-old, Moore was 22. Presley had never appeared anywhere professionally, and had actually only met Moore and Black for the first time the day before his audition.

Do you remember your first guitar?

The first one I really remember was a Gibson Jumbo. I started playing when I was 8 or 10 years old. I stayed out of school one year when I was about 14 because I was just tired of it. My dad gave me an acre of cotton, so I sold the acre of cotton to buy the guitar. I had to work that acre of cotton all year.

During that year, I started working harder on the guitar, …

by Jonathan Wingate
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