Elvis Online Issue 1 | Page 12

JK: So you have seen a lot of arguments in others bands?

Stump: Yeah you always have a problem with this person, or that person doesn’t like how much this person is making. But we never went through that with the Elvis show. You just go and do your job and that was it. I could talk to Elvis. I would go up and talk and he even took a ring off his finger. It was a black sapphire with four diamonds. I will never forget it. He took it off and he put it on my hand. I said, “You don’t have to do that Elvis.” He said, “No I want you to have it.” He gave me that and he gave me a cross with eleven diamonds. I was sick one time on the road and I got on the show bus and they put me back in my room. I was really sick; it was something with my colon. He sent me a gold cross with eleven diamonds in it. That was the kind of person he was. He told his doctor to go upstairs and see about me. That’s how he was.

JK: Stump do you have a TCB?

Stump: I had a TCB but I sold it.

JK: Do you still have the ring?

Stump: No, I bought a house with the ring. You know you run into different things in life. I always believed that all the things that Elvis gave us, you keep them. But he gave them to us because he knew we were not millionaires.

JK: Right and if you need it, you need it.

Stump: Right, that’s the way I look at it.

JK: You know what I thought was interesting about Elvis was he shared the stage with everybody. He made sure all the fans knew your names. He shared the stage.

Stump: He wasn’t like performers nowadays. Now I’m not knocking anybody, but they do not share the stage like Elvis did. He would talk about Ronnie Tutt and Jerry Scheff and James Burton like they were the show. You see what I’m saying? He would say my name and say, “Son, you can play!” He would give me publicity from it.

JK: Stump, do you have any funny stories you can tell the listeners about any of the shows with Elvis? Do you have any stories you like to tell people?

Stump: One show I was backstage at the Hilton with the bodyguards. So I was standing back there and I stepped on Elvis’ microphone cord. I’m not lying when I stepped on it. It did something to the cord and he looked. Everybody back there scattered. He had a look that I never seen. I’ve been around the world. That man had a look. I still have his picture that I am looking at right now. I can see him just as plain. I always keep his picture up on my wall. Sometimes when I get down, I will look at him and he brings me back up.

JK: So how did Vegas differ from Tahoe and from being on tour? I mean a lot of the people that interviewed, Stump, said that they preferred Tahoe over Vegas because it was more laid back; that Elvis enjoyed it better because it was a smaller venue. So I was wondering if you felt the same?

Stump: Well I think I was Tahoe that Elvis got sick or something and we had to play without him. I think that was Tahoe. He seemed like he enjoyed it but he seemed like he enjoyed Vegas too. We had a good time. We had a whole lot of people on the show. I didn’t see one argument in that group. I’m looking at a picture right now with everybody in it. The band and all the singers, they really got along. That was the only show that I was with that there was not trouble with anybody. I’ve played behind a whole lot of different people.