“New England’s PremierEpic Elvis Experience”
He’s been an award winning Elvis Tribute Artist since 2002 and internationally recognized we should add.
His name is Rick Anthony and his show is called “Rick Anthony and the King’s Court” which has been hailed by critics as “New England’s Premier Epic Elvis Experience”.
Now that’s some high praise!
Rick Anthony spoke with us about his life as an Elvis Tribute Artist.
Q – Rick, you are referred to as “New England’s Premier Elvis Experience”. Who gave you that title?
A – It started off as “ New England’s Number One Elvis Tribute Artist: and then one of the guys that booked me to do shows that I had known for quite some time and was a former d.j. when I was in grammar school used to play music for our school dances.
At the school dances I would go up and do some karaoke. A little bit later after I graduated and years had past in between I had evolved my Elvis Tribute and I got to talking with him.
He had put on these different theme shows especially down in Salisbury Park in Massachusetts. For years and years they had an entertainment venue called the Frolics where they used to have acts like Frank Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Herb Reed and the Platters and Paul Anka perform. That venue is no longer around.
But, this particular d.j. he runs on Friday nights like an “oldies” kind of show where he gets some different artists and different singers.
He came up with that. That was his way of marketing me.
And then the “New England Experience” came about honestly from my own perspective because there are different Elvis Tribute Artists in New England but they don’t offer the full range of Elvis.
What we do,myself and my band is we encompass the 50’s. So, we’ll dress up in 50’s era and then we’ll transition into the 1968 Comeback Special era where the costume changes and then the second half usually encompasses the return to Las Vegas, the early 70’s when he was just really getting going and finding himself again. We really go as far as to replicate the look of what you’re seeing onstage as far as the costumes, even down to little minute details of say my microphone stand. It’s the exact same model and brand that Elvis used.
Q – Did you ever get to see Elvis in concert?
A – No I didn’t unfortunately. I was born 10 years after he passed.
Q – You told one interviewer, “To understand Elvis one of the things you have to do is study the interviews”. Elvis didn’t give many interviews.
A – There are quite a few early radio interviews that he did with d.j.’s . There’s different press conferences he’d done in Houston at the Astrodome. There are some if you really, really look down deep you can find. You can definitely find some. I knew he had done one for the ‘Aloha From Hawaii’ television special in 1973.
There’s one in particular where he looks tired. He wasn’t on his game .His speech was very slow. It looks like he was slurring his words. But after that I don’t know of any press conferences or interviews at my recollection at this moment.
Q – You won a lip sync contest in the 8th grade singing “That’s Alright Mama”.
A – Yes Sir, I did.
Q – Your mother asked you what you wanted to do for Summer vacation and you said, “Go to Graceland”. Did you in fact go to Graceland?
A – Yes, we did. So this really interesting. It was my Mom, my Dad and my brother. That was our family. Everybody kind of got to do what they wanted to do for the Summer vacation. I’ll never forget it, 4th of July. It was on a Thursday that particular year and on the Friday we had talked about it and that’s when she asked what I would like to do for a vacation. I said obviously I would like to go to Graceland. That was a Friday. We left on that Sunday after. We drove down and were there for about a week. It was just amazing. It was a great experience.
Q – How much time did you actually spend in Graceland?
A – We were there, I think it took a day and a half or two to get down ‘cause we drove down from Massachusetts. We had done Graceland, the car museum that was across the street and basically the whole Elvis experience that you could do at the time. Now, this was 2002. So, it’s before they had this big complex that they have now across the street.
We all had done the Sun Records tour as well and that was really amazing. We stayed at Heartbreak Hotel, went down in the evening to Beale Street and walked down there and just took in what Memphis and the music scene was.
Q – You’re lucky you had parents that indulged you.
A – I really am. My Mom and Dad were just very supportive. They’re always there to help. My Mom is part of the team and my Dad. My Mom will help with costumes making sure little details are in place. My Dad will also help out being on the team where at the end of the night he’s helping break down equipment.
Our band has costumes as well, appropriate to how Elvis’s band looked. So my Mom will make sure things are ironed. They’re steamed press looking good. So, she takes part in that as well as heading up the merchandising table during an event where we can sell merchandise, t-shirts, pins magazines etc.
They’re very supportive with what we do.
Q – So, your interest in Elvis began in the 8th grade.
A – I was 14 years old. I was in 8th grade, not even in high school yet. I was involved with theatre, the theatre in school. We had school plays. I got bit by the theatre bug when I was in 5th grade. I thought it was so great to put on a show and entertain. So, that was my life, the theatre formatively.
In 2001 or 2002 when I had done that lip synching contest it must have been my 8th grade year. That same year there was a Special Edition of Elvis’s ‘That’s The Way It Is’ concert and it was broadcast on Turner Classic movies.
I was kind of researching the Elvis thing for my Elvis lip sync. So, I saw that on tv and I was like – Wow ! This is what Elvis was. My Mom and dad listened to Elvis but they weren’t die hard fans or obsessive. It wasn’t like we had Elvis pictures hanging up on our walls.
So, I had heard the name of Elvis and the legend of Elvis, the capes and the rhinestones and the King of Rock’n’Roll but Elvis wasn’t cool at this time growing up for me.
I was the odd ball in school because I got involved in theatre for one, but really taking a liking to Elvis. (laughs).
I had seen that special and it was the same year we went to Graceland.
We have an amusement park over in New Hampshire called Canobie Lake Park. They would bring in different entertainment acts for the summer time, different shows for families and kids. It was advertised that there was a show called ‘The King Lives’ and it was my very first viewing of an Elvis Tribute Artist direct from Las Vegas. His name was Matt Lewis.
I’m not going to lie at all to you Gary, when I was sitting there in a beautiful renovated dancehall, a beautiful red velvet curtain was closed and a group of singers had come out into the stage and were singing ‘Love Me Tender’acapella and in between the interlude where there were no lyrics being sung there was the audio of Elvis’s voice doing that speech that he had given when he won the Jaycees Award for being one of the most outstanding men in the country.
A little clip of that was being told and then once it was finished the drums started coming in and the momentum was building up and the lights were starting to flash and the fog was coming on and the curtain opens and you see Elvis in these red letters in red lights and here comes Matt Lewis onto the stage. I had goose bumps thinking Oh, My God! I literally feel like I’m watching Elvis. I mean it was that fascinating. I get goose bumps thinking about it. That is what sparked me to do it because I’m an actor. I had done dinner theatre and had been very involved in dinner theatre and it was like I can sing and it’s like you’re portraying a character.
It wasn’t a terrible impersonation for someone who thinks that they are Elvis. This is an entertainer who is embodying the persona, the mannerisms and the voice of the charisma of The King of Rock’n’Roll. That’s what got me.
Q – Did you ever go to college?
A – I did. My high school was a vocational school so I learned a trade. I always felt like you have to fall back on something because an entertainment career is great but there’s no guarantees that you’re ever going to get work at anything. So, I learned a trade and when I graduated from high school I was still involved in dinner theatre.
I went to a community college. I worked for a year doing an internship at Disney World in Florida. But all the while I would pick up little gigs on the side doing little things as Elvis in nursing homes and different festivals kind of like for fun. It wasn’t like I was taking it extremely seriously at the time. I was but only to what I was physically able to give everything else that was going on in my life at the time. Then afterwards it really started coming full force when I really got into it. The band started forming and I dabbled in different contests. Then it really just kind of went from there.
Q – How long would you say it took you to develop the full stage production you have today?
A – Well, I started out with just a 5 piece band that I had acquired. On Tuesday nights there’s a bar a couple of towns away that would have an open Blues jam. You’d sign up on a sheet and then you could just sing with random people or play guitar. You would just be called up with all the random people who you had no idea who they were other than the fact that they were musicians.
‘What do you know? Well, what do you know? I don’t know. How about Blue Suede Shoes? Let’s do that’.
After awhile you get all these different guys that say, ‘Oh, yeah, I love Elvis. He’s great.’ Then we kind of got to talking and then the other guy I knew had put together sort of a band be it an Elvis type band. But, it wasn’t like we were playing the Elvis arrangements. It was more like just a garage bar band kind of a thing. That was probably in 2011, 2012.
I’d say around 2013, 2014 is when I got my first real expensive professional jumpsuit and it’s evolved to the point now after Covid; I went through some hard times during Covid, after Covid I was kind of rejuvenated in life to a point where I said if I want to do this I’m going to do it the right way in the way I’ve always envisioned it, to have a theatrical experience the same way I had seen Matt Lewis in that amusement park. So, it was to the point where I could have my 5 piece band but I would love to have singers. I would love to have the horn arrangement. I would love to do the Elvis arrangement. So, that’s when I would say in 2021, 2022 is when the birth of what is now ‘The Kings Court had come about.
Q – Where have you taken your act?
A – So, I have performed solo with tracks too because a lot of places, a lot of clubs, a lot of venues I don’t know if it’s the times are really tough now but it’s like they don’t want to pay for a band.
It’s like would you like quality entertainment? I know times are tough on everybody. Believe me I know that but, it’s also the fact that we have musicians that love to play just to be able to play but also they’re being taken away from family time as well. So, I want to be good to my people as I would like them to get paid adequately. I did solo type things for places that would book me singing along with high quality backing tracks.
I have been to the Azores in Portugal, to Connecticut, Walt Disney World in Florida, West Virginia, all over New England, and Canada. I’ve been to Montreal.
Now, with the full 15 piece band that I have we’ll do festivals.
Last night it was a first for us. We performed for a wedding shower. A couple was getting married and the whole themed event was Las Vegas Casino Night. So, it was real cool. It was Las Vegas casino like tables there. People were gambling on the tables. Whatever the proceeds that had come about from the tables would go towards the newlyweds to be. So, they wanted the whole Elvis band there and we were there to provide that Las Vegas experience.
Gary James
Official Website: rickanthony.org
