( Elvis Tribute Artist)
James Burrell has been a lifelong fan of Elvis Presley who’s now an Elvis Tribute Artist.
Based out off Devon in the U.K. he’s actually had the honor of working with two of Elvis’s original Musicians in the studio – Walt Johnson and Glen D. Hardin.
James Burrell talked to us about his Elvis tribute show.
Q – James, what were you doing on August 16th 2025? Were you working?
A – Well, I was supposed to be. Unfortunately the venue I was supposed to be working at , they have an Elvis Week every year and I’m sort of their resident Elvis tribute artist. They’ve been going through some renovations and the renovations weren’t completed in time. In fact they hadn’t even started. They were having some problems with the builders or something. So, they had to cancel the whole week. It would have been me doing a memorial show on the 16th and a few days later some other Elvis tributes would have done a series of hour long shows throughout a couple of days. But, they had to cancel it. In the end on August 16th I went and watched my brother play cricket. So, I was on a cricket field watching the game.
Q – You live in Devon, England.
A – Yeah, that’s right.
Q – Are there other guys doing what you’re doing there?
A – Down in the West Country?
Q – Yes.
A – That’s what we call Devon. Devon is the West Country in England. It’s actually southwest but it’s the West Country. Yeah, there a few doing it around. There are a few in Somerset. There’s someone in like Dorset Hampshire. Those kinds of places. So there a few dotted around. But then Elvis is one of the most tribute artists there’s ever been.
Q – You’re right. I was told there are 200,000 Elvis tribute artists worldwide.
A – Yeah and it’s growing all the time. Some people are retiring. You’ve got youngsters coming up doing sort of the younger Elvis, but not just like teenagers. They’re coming through at like 10, 11, and 12 which I think is great ‘cause it sort of keeps that legacy going. So many hundreds of thousands of Elvis tributes per square foot.
Q – Those kids aren’t doing it professionally.
A – No, they’re not. Some go into competitions. There’s one that’s actually gone over to Graceland and done a couple of performances. But, you’re right. They’re just kids. I would think as they get older they will probably continue to do it and maybe start going out and getting shows. There’s one particular lad who entered competitions from about the age of 13 and he’s been doing Elvis for a long, long time. Now he’s like one of the Ultimate Elvis’s as they call ’em ‘cause of all these competitions. I don’t enter them myself but he’s been doing it since he was eleven and now he’s out doing theatre shows and festivals. But, I haven’t gone down that route. I practiced my singing and got the look right. Then I started getting shows all over the country off my own back. I would write to places. I would call up people. I set up a website. I put videos on Facebook and Youtube. Of course you start doing a few shows and then it’s word of mouth. Then people get to know you. Like now ( August 18th 2025) I’ve got nearly 40 odd shows to go before the end of the year ( 2025).
Q – How often do you perform?
A – On average about 3 times a week.
Q – That’s impressive!
A – Yeah. (laughs)
Q – Do you primarily perform in England?
A – Primarily, yeah. I have done a cruise. I’ve performed in Spain and I’ve also performed 3 or 4 times in France. Although predominantly it is in the U.K. I haven’t gone as far as Scotland yet. I do Wales, Cornwall in the southwest and obviously England. I haven’t gone over to Ireland yet but going over to Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland is quite difficult because you’ve got to over the water. More often than not they expect you to bring your own gear and that’s difficult whereas if you go abroad on a plane they usually provide all the gear. They’re not expecting you to schlep the speakers internationally. But I perform predominantly in England and the U.K.
Q – Are you traveling with a band?
A – Funny you should say ( that) because at the moment – No. But, I’ve been contacted by a promoter who does Big shows and he prefers his tributes to have a band. Obviously bands can be very expensive. Elvis had what a full orchestra, a six piece band and about 13 backing singers. That’s completely cost prohibitive unless you’re like a multi-millionaire like Elvis. So, what we’re looking at at the moment is a three piece band and then the rest of like the orchestration, the piano and whatever will be done on backing tracks. So, the band will be playing ‘live’ and then they would have click tracks to make sure that they were in time with the backing tracks playing over the top. So, that’s the kind of cheaper way around it and also you’re not paying 15 people. You’re only paying 4 plus a couple of female backing singers as well which is more appealing to venues because you don’t have to charge as much for tickets. Mainly it’s me on my own.
Q – Would you have a Musical Director running those backing tracks?
A – No. What happens is I go out with a couple of people who are basically like assistants. They help me set up. They help me strike the set. They’ll also help me get dressed. They will run them ( the tracks) off an i-Pad onstage and that’s next to me on the stage. As soon as the first song has been pressed the intro. 2001 or whatever it happens to be , or C.C. Rider then it’s up to me afterwards to press the tracks until the end of the show. That’s just the way I prefer to do it. If I’m doing a big Elvis show, an Elvis festival in Porth Coal in Wales there’s someone up in a booth who will be pressing your tracks for you . But, you have to have that eye contact and communications. So as soon as one song is finished and you’ve introduced the next one they’re ready to press it. I like to do it myself but you can’t always do it yourself. But, mainly 99% of the time I do it myself.
Q – How long have you been doing this Elvis tribute?
A – Since 2017.not that long. Bear in mind we had almost 2 years of Covid during that time when shows were very few and far between. I think in 2020 when it all actually broke , in March 2020 well between March 2020 and the beginning of 2021 I probably only did about 3 shows because no venues were open. Then obviously in 2021 it started to open up again and I was doing a lot more shows. So, if you think about 2017, 2018, 2019 and skip over 2020 really 2021 it’s probably 7 years. If you didn’t include Covid it’d be about 8 years.
Q – When you were starting out did you take your act into clubs and did you have those elaborate costumes?
A – Well, when very first thought this is what I’m going to do I hedged my bet a little bit because we didn’t know how popular it was gonna be or not. So, what I did was I went to this cheapish costume co. They made Elvis costumes but they weren’t particularly authentic looking. It looked good but the whole lot, the jumpsuit, the cape and the belt was only about 8oo pounds which when you think of a suit now from one of the professional makers and I’ve got about seven of these professional ones, they’re looking about two and a half thousand each. So, there’s a big, big difference. When I first started I thought I’ll get myself a cheaper costume just to see how well it would go. I just asked the local pub and the local pub is just down the road from me, ‘Look I’m doing this Elvis tribute. Would you book me to do the show?’ They said ‘Yeah. No problem at all.’ So, my first show was started at this pub. I had a couple of cheap speakers and a cheap mixing disc and I just did that and that’s how it started. I updated my equipment. My speakers now are like 5,000 pounds. So, I’ve updated everything. Better backing tracks. I’m wearing Florsheim boots which is what Elvis used to wear. So, as you progress you just build up.
Q – Elvis once asked someone “ How big are we over in England?”. No one ever told him. So, just how popular is Elvis in England today?
A – Hugely popular. Elvis is an artist. He’s always been popular in England. If you think about how he’s competing with The Beatles and they’re a band and Cliff Richard… Cliff Richard has just only overtaken Elvis and he’s still alive ! So, Elvis even though he died in ’77 was still outselling and had more Number 1 records than Cliff Richard. Porth Coal in Wales is the biggest Elvis tribute Festival in the world outside of Memphis. The love Elvis in Wales. They really do. And the fact that there are so many competitions in this country really shows that Elvis really is very popular in England. I think what’s really given him a resurgence is the film that came out with Tom Hanks and Austin Butler. I think that film gave it more of a shot in the arm. So now when I’m going out to gigs I’m not just getting older people I’m getting teenagers coming to gigs and singing along to the songs ‘cause they know all the songs. It’s a cross generational thing. I’ve been virtually fully booked since January of this year ( 2025) which I think is a real testimony to how popular Elvis is and how many people want to go and see a tribute and listen to his songs.
Q – James there continues to be this controversy is Elvis Alive or Dead? Do people come up to you and raise that question?
A – He’s dead for me. I’ve spoken to people myself that believe Elvis is alive. My answer to them is – Why if he didn’t die and he wants to be left alone why has he come to you of all people , just some random stranger to say Yes , actually I’m alive’ Why would he do that? People have shown me 5 or 6 different pictures of Elvis from exactly the same concert and said ‘ This ones Elvis. This ones Jesse. This one is someone else.’ There are some people who believe there are 5 or 6 brothers. I’m like wait a minute here. This is all taken from the same show where Elvis never left the stage for one moment. So how did all these brothers suddenly manage to switch places with one another? Did they morph? Can they beam in and out? These people have got no answer. All they do is come back and say ‘Do the research’. If they’re sincere in their belief who am I to pooh- pooh them? All I’m saying is I will offer an objective argument.
It’s been like the Loch Ness Monster. People think there is one. People think there isn’t one. But, at some point the Loch Ness Monster theory has got to die because the damn thing will be too old to survive anyway. If Elvis is 90 ( in 2025), even if he is still alive which I believe he isn’t it’s only going to be a few more years before you can actually say ‘How long can he survive? What’s he going to do? Live to be 150? It’s gonna come to an end at some point. What someone will do is say ‘Yeah, Elvis is dead but he actually died in September 2026’. Really? C’mon. Let’s say he did fake his own death. Let’s say he didn’t die in August 1977. Let’s say he died 20 years later or whatever. Over time such layers of mis-information , plain crazy daft conspiracy theories , utter nonsense has been plastered over it that there’s such a lot to wade through before you get to what could be the truth according to these people. To me the issue is just too fudged. I just think that people want to cling onto the fact that he’s still alive. They can’t handle the fact that he’s dead. I mean when Frank Sinatra died did anybody say – ‘No. He’s still alive.’ They’ve said Michael Jackson is still alive. Paul McCartney is alive but they say he’s dead. (laughs)
Q – And then some people would have you believe that Elvis died of a drug overdose.
A – A lot of reasonably minded Elvis fans, people who realized the man was human and not some sort of god, people who put him on a pedestal will know and accept the fact that he probably died of a drug overdose. I accept that. It’s poly-pharmacy. It’s drugs working in the system against one another creating new drugs. Apparently he nearly overdosed on several occasions in sort of the mid to late 70’s. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if the truth was that he did die of a drug overdose. I strongly suspect that is the case. Maybe a heart attack was put out there because at the time it would have been quite un-palatable for this huge icon to have died in such a messy Rock’nRoll way, a bit like some of the other Rock’n’Roll stars who have died of drug overdoses. Maybe they put that heart attack in there to make it just a bit gentler on the fans.
Q – And people will still say they don’t believe it.
A – Of course they will. You could have Priscilla herself say something and Lisa Marie is no longer around to say anything. She was only 9 when Elvis died. Who would do that to their 9 year old daughter? Who would put a 9 year old through that pain and misery? And just hide away for so long! Why would he just suddenly abandon his daughter? And who at 9 years old if your Dad did fake his own death would be able to keep that secret for so long? It’s just not going to happen. At 9 years old you’re going to school you’re going to be telling your friends. Don’t tell anybody but actually my father didn’t die. There’s too much against the fact that he’s alive than there is that he is alive for me to believe anything other than he died. It’s as simple as that. I can’t believe Joe Esposito, Charlie Hodge and all of these people he would have suddenly abandoned. I just don’t get it. It just doesn’t sit right. I can’t believe they all got together in a big room and were told ‘This is what’s going to happen and you’ve all got to stay silent.’ Ginger Alden, his last girlfriend. Is she gonna keep quiet? Why? There’s a Big Story there. Why not blow it open? It’s just too much. The poor man died. I’m sure wherever he is now he’d be looking down saying ‘For God’s sake just pack it in will you? I’m dead.’
Q – I’ve often thought the person who could prove Elvis was alive would become more famous than Elvis.
A – Absolutely. Especially if you could wheel him out and do a DNA test, unless he came on television and said ‘ This is actually me and did a live DNA test. All these people hit a brick wall as soon as you start demanding actual proof and asking logical questions. They just sit back and go to the default answer of ‘Do the research’ which my response to that is ‘I’m doing the research. You’re telling me you know all this information. Well, I’m asking you for it. This is part of my research. You’re telling me you know all this information. Well, I’m asking you for it. This part of my research. You’re now telling me you can’t give me that information and I’ve got to go and do the research elsewhere. If you know the information and you’re asking me to research it why don’t you tell me the answers? Why do I have to go to someone else to ask? Why? If you know the answers. And they can’t answer you. My personal belief is that Elvis died in August of 1977 on the 16th and was pronounced dead at the Baptist Memorial Hospital. And that’s it. Let him rest in peace as far as I’m concerned.
©Gary James
Official Website: elvispresleytributeartist.co.uk
