Elvis Sidekick Returns to Tupelo after 50 Years

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — Fans from all over the world have descended on Tupelo this weekend for the annual Tupelo Elvis Festival.

The Bancorp South Arena was packed out Saturday afternoon for the opening round of annual Ultimate Elvis Tribute Competition.

Entertainment executive Tom Brown, who originally hails from Tupelo returned to emcee the event.

“I love doing this,” he says. “I love being home because I’m from Tupelo. I love being home to emcee this event and I’ve been doing it for a number of years.

And it’s just so much fun to hangout with all the guys and to also be able to see people in the audience experiencing what it must of been like to see Elvis in concert.

And for a lot of people to have the sense of what it must have been like to see Elvis that haven’t had the opportunity,” Brown proclaims.

And the Elvis contestants come from all over the world to compete.

Mel Bouvey hails from the south of France and is making his first appearance in Tupelo.

He has been singing for twenty years and is trying to make Elvis more popular in his country.

“He’s popular but not like in England or Denmark Holland. I think it’s the problem with the language, ” Bouvey surmises. “French people don’t speak English. The old people like Elvis. The young it’s different you know It’s another generation,” the Frenchman explains.

And fans jammed into the Bancorp South Conference Center to hear Brown sit down with Elvis sidekick Jerry Schilling.

Schilling says it’s his first trip back to Tupelo in a half century.

“I was here with Elvis fifty years ago the only other time I was in Tupelo,” he recounts. “And he and I took a ride down here one day. And going into the home it just reminded me so much of both of our humble beginnings back in the fifties.

The great American Dream story is Elvis. I’m so glad he took me on the ride with him.”

And Schilling says he remembers how Elvis handled all the fame.

“I’ve seen over the years how stars handle things, some better than others,” he explains. “But nobody did it as well as Elvis, and that’s one of the reasons I think he’s still loved around the world,” Schilling notes.

And Schilling proved to be quite popular himself as fans formed a long line to get his autograph.

Fara Marino and her friends came from New Orleans.

“We’d wait forever to meet in line to see Jerry Schilling and get a photograph and an autograph. Who wouldn’t?,” she exclaims. “He had a very close relationship with Elvis Presley and that’s why we’re here. We all love all of his people that were with him,” says Marino.