Above the Fold

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★  Mar 29, 2024  ★

Dwight Yoakam Has the Scoop on the Next Elvis Record

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There's been a lot of David Bowie news since his recent passing, but perhaps the most interesting nugget comes to us by way of Dwight Yoakam.

Yoakam recently told The Orange County Register that Bowie once said that, just before he died, Elvis had tapped Bowie to produce his next record.

The Orange County Register writes:

Having been a fan for years, Yoakam met Bowie after a show at the Hollywood Athletic Club during the British star’s “Earthling” tour in 1997. As the two kicked back and talked about Bowie working with Marc Bolan of T.Rex, Yoakam asked Bowie about Elvis, because Presley is one of Yoakam’s influences and Bowie and the King shared the same birthday.

Bowie told him about the first time he saw Elvis perform in 1971 and mentioned that just six months before Elvis’ death in 1977, the King had called him out of the blue to discuss Bowie possibly producing his next album.

“That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie’s ‘Golden Years,’ and I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s a tragedy that he was never able to make that,’” Yoakam said. “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.”

A Berlin-era bowie producing an Elvis record just might have resulted in the greatest Elvis album of all time. What a shame.