Photo courtesy of Helen Broyles



   Excerpts from Interviews with Eddie Miles

   Excerpts from Alternatives News Magazine

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   Excerpts from Kentucky Living Magazine

   Excerpts from KET Kentucky Life

Long Live the King
Elvis tribute artist Eddie Miles

 Growing up in Holy Cross,
a small town in Marion County between Bardstown and Loretto,
Eddie Miles exhibited a talent for singing and guitar early on.
While developing his own repertoire, he idolized Elvis Presley.
And since the late 1980s, he has combined the two into a career as
one of the world’s top impersonators of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

But even though he looks a lot like the genuine article—
even making parts of his costumes by hand, from exacting specifications—
Eddie says that “Elvis impersonator” is not the best term for what he does.
In interviews, he has said that the tens of thousands of jump-suited, pompadoured imitation Elvises
out to exploit the Presley mystique have cheapened that term.
Instead, he prefers “Elvis tribute artist” (or ETA, as true aficionados refer to Eddie and his colleagues).
His concerts are meant to pay homage to a personal musical hero,
 and usually include non-Elvis sections as well as a wide range of Presley tunes.

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Excerpts from High Point Enterprise

     Born and raised in central Kentucky,
Eddie Miles has been doing Elvis impersonations nationwide for 20 years. 
But he maintains that he is a class above your typical Elvis impersonator. 
 Miles’ current show, “A Salute to Elvis and Country Legends,”
features Elvis and covers the trivia about Elvis’ life,
but the other half of his show is dedicated to classic country stars such as
 Johnny Cash and George Jones.  And, most importantly, those sideburns are real.

How did you become an Elvis impersonator? 

Like a lot of guys, I got a guitar when I was 10. 
 I would learn Hank Williams songs and Johnny Cash, and when Elvis came along,
 I would try a few Elvis songs as a teenager,
 and people would ask me to do those songs the most.
  It grew out of people liking Elvis and the way I did his songs.

By the time I was in eighth grade, I looked like Elvis and people called me Elvis.
When I grew up, I tried entertaining on the side
while I served in the Air Force and the postal service. 
 My entertaining on the weekends grew bigger and bigger,
and I was drawing crowds of thousands,
so I decided to quit my job at the post office to pursue entertaining. 
It’s great music to present, and if you can do it in a way
with style and class and close to the original, most people will enjoy it and appreciate it. 

What types of reactions do you get in public?

Elvis’ likeness is the most recognizable on the planet second to Jesus Christ;
like Abraham Lincoln, people recognize that figure. 
I get it quite often in public with the dark hair and sideburns,
 and I have the features where people see me they think of Elvis.

Does this ever annoy you?

No, I kind of expect it because it’s what I do, and I can’t change that. 
 I’m a big country-western fan, and I try to wear a cowboy hat to disguise it,
 but people still see the sideburns under the hat and think of Elvis
because it’s one of the most recognizable faces on the planet. 
Most people are pretty cool about it, but there have been a few instances
where people make a fool out of themselves and say “He’s back!” 
If they’re going to make sly comments, I try to brush them off
 and try to be cool about it because this is my profession.

 Why do you think a lot of impersonators dress like Elvis did in the 70’s
 as opposed to earlier in his career?

That was the Vegas years when he was known for the jumpsuits and the high collar. 
Though some call them gaudy, most people expect that and want to see that more than the blue jeans. 
That’s really the only way you can do his music, to wear the costumes of the ‘70’s.
  His greater years were the later years in the ‘70’s when he was his strongest,
 and that’s the period that I touch on. 
 Though a lot of people say he as a parody of himself
when his health was failing in the ‘70’s before he died.

How do you feel about the word impersonator as a title?

I don’t personally use the word impersonator
because a lot of people have a stigma about it. 
The media always has a negative note about Elvis impersonators, and rightfully so. 
There are a lot of guys out there that give the profession a bad name. 
They stick on sideburns and think they have an Elvis show. 
 A lot of them walk around on stage talking like they’re Elvis in person
and to me that seems a little hokey.  I’d like to think mine is a class above that.
                                                               
                                                                         
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Excerpts from Richmond.com

The late Belgian painter Rene Magritte could have easily superimposed
 the likeness of Eddie Miles in his masterpiece, “The Treachery of Images.” 
Eddie Miles is not an Elvis impersonator.  He just looks like one.
            In fact, Miles might just be the best non-Elvis impersonator out there. 
He bears an uncanny physical and vocal resemblance to the King. 
 Like Elvis, Miles wears his sideburns long,
looks good in black leather and sequins and lives to entertain. 
Yet the Kentucky native is still reluctant to align himself with the tens of thousands
 of hip-shaking, lip-curling singers drawling
“Thank you, thankyouverymuch” in nightclubs around the world.
          “I don’t like using the word ‘Elvis Impersonator.’ 
It’s a hard thing for me to explain,” Miles says. 
“I do the Elvis show, wear the costumes.  I have the hair. 
 But I don’t talk like him.  I use his stage image to present the music. 
Nowhere in there do I pretend I am Elvis.  Offstage, I don’t wear the clothes. 
In fact, I’m wearing sandals and shorts right now.  I just got back from Wal-Mart.”
           Point taken.  Although Elvis-sightings do still exist,
 no one has yet claimed to see the King cruising the aisles of Wal-Mart,
looking for rollback prices.
           Miles, who says he doesn’t believe Elvis is still alive somewhere,
has been a fan of Presley since his youth. 
 “I was like everyone else; I grew up listening to him. 
|His music appealed to me as much as or more so than any other. 
I grew up listening to country too.  Then I decided I wanted to be an entertainer for a living. 
The Elvis thing always got the biggest reaction.  My looks were naturally like his. 
 Before I knew it, it had become my career.”
            In 1990 Miles moved to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to open the Memories Theater. 
There he honed his show, performing Elvis’ hits as well as country western chestnuts. 
 Eventually the buzz about Miles’ “Salute to Elvis” show began to attract more audiences. 
 Members of the Elvis’ camp, including the late J.D. Sumner of the Stamps Quartet,
 a group that regularly provided back-up vocals for Presley,
 and his longtime guitarist, Scotty Moore, were struck by Miles’ homage to their late leader. 
 Charlie Hodge, lifelong friend and bandmate of Elvis’,
 is quoted as saying, “I have traveled far and wide,
and Eddie is the closest to the sound and looks of Elvis you will find.”
             Miles admits to getting double takes in every nation he’s visited. 
“Oh yeah.  The Elvis image is one of the most recognizable images in history. 
 He made black hair and sideburns famous.”
            “It still amazes me,” says Miles. 
 “You walk through a crowd of people and hear every language spoken.
  Elvis was just an entertainer and he had that impact on the world.”
            Miles can still remember where he was the day he found out Elvis had died. 
“For the people that were old enough, it was just like JFK. 
 It was the same with Elvis; he was such an important figure. 
I remember I had just gotten in from working construction
 and I heard it on the news.  I couldn’t finish supper I was so upset.”
            Equally upsetting are the scores of impersonators who Miles sees as making a mockery of Elvis. 
 “Most of them are clowns.  A lot of them just hurt the memory of Elvis. 
 The bottom line is, a lot of them are not singers. 
 They don’t have the talent for it.  What is the quote” ‘Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.’
  No other entertainer in history has more people out there dressing like him as Elvis.  It’s almost like a circus.”
            For his “Salute to Elvis’ show, Miles peppers his set with songs by Hank Williams,
Conway Twitty, and Merle Haggard.  But the biggest response comes from the Elvis canon. 
“Your first-timers want to hear the standards, ‘Love Me Tender’ and ‘Suspicious Minds’,” he says.
  “People who come over and over want to hear the more obscure sounds. 
 This time in our country’s history, with us at war, people want to hear ‘American Trilogy’.” 
Miles, who has more than 300 songs in his repertoire,
 plans his set according to what gets the best reaction from the audience. 
 “It’s like providing a service to a customer.
  I want to give people the best show, so they feel they got their money’s worth. 
And hope they’ll be a return customer.”
                                                           
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Excerpts from the Fayetteville Observer  

 Miles has been helping fill Elvis’ vacant shoes since 1990.
         These days on the road, he begins his performance by paying tribute
 to the country music legends to which he grew up listening.
         Joseph Edward Miles, who grew up in the little farming community of Holy Cross, Ky.,
is one of countless Elvis impersonators. 
Friends and fans say his stage tribute is heartfelt. 
 Eddie sees it as his lot in life to give concert goers what they want—
the look, the sound, getting Elvis down.
         In the beginning, the notion had Miles scratching his head.
       “I asked myself that 15 years ago.  Why would you buy me doing “Don’t Be Cruel”
 when you can buy Elvis singing “Don’t Be Cruel?”
        Yet, doing Elvis in public has given him the freedom to do what he loves.
  He left a job at the Postal Service to put his own stamp on the King.
       “I know I ain’t Elvis.  Aren’t ever gonna be Elvis. And don’t want to be Elvis,” he said.
        He remembered a concert that they worked together with J. D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet,
 who were Elvis’ back up singers in the 1970’s:
I walked off the stage with him, and Mr. J. D. was crying.  I said, “Mr. J. D., are you OK?” 
 He said, “Son, that’s just like I stepped back to the 70’s.  That’s the closest I’ve seen to Elvis.”
        Black hat. Black vest. Black jeans. Big black sideburns: 
There was a real presence to Miles, even hours before curtain time. 
 He has a swagger, and he often sings as he’s doing other things,
 such as helping to unload concert gear from the van.
       “I don’t ever slow down for nothing,” he said before having some lunch and taking a nap backstage.
         Later in the day, the old Eddy Arnold standard “Make the World Go Away”
 began blaring over the sound system.  Miles shot up from his chair.
 Eddie climbed up the steps, strapped on his white Epiphone and started playing the melody note by note. 
The man may be an Elvis copy, but he’s a better guitarist than Elvis ever was.
           ****
During the intermission Eddie Miles morphed into Elvis
 before returning to the stage for the second half of his show.
 This was the larger-than-life, show-biz extravaganza Elvis, circa the 1970’s.
         He emerged from the dressing room in one of those white,
big-collared jump suits with the colossal matching belt and wearing three rings per hand. 
 “If that was a real stone,” he said as he peered at the costume jewelry.  “I wouldn’t be working here.”
        The show had the over-orchestrated arrangements and
the over-the-top background singing that Elvis seemed to love. 
 Miles showed signs of the playful Elvis during monologues.
 He did the caricature martial-arts moves and the sexy come-ons.
        And when the Elvis thing has run its course, Miles will be forced to rethink his livelihood. 
 “I haven’t put a lot of thought in it, I need to,” he said.  “I might be a Wal-Mart greeter.”
                             
             
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Excerpts from Glasgow Daily Times.com

Eddie Miles began his career as an Elvis tribute artist in 1990
 in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., when he was about 20 years old.
         Miles, who is originally from Bardstown, still performs a tribute to the “King of rock’n’roll
as he travels across the country doing shows that are half country and half Elvis tribute.
         I open the show with just a variety of music, because I like all kinds of music,” he said. 
 “I like doing the show that way because then I get to come out as myself and
get a rapport with the audience and show them I can do something else. 
 If they are seeing the show for the first time, then you do have to warm them up.” 
The second half of his act is when he does his tribute to Elvis. 
 “Most people come for that reason,” he said.
      “People still love to see Elvis music done live and that’s what I do,” he said. 
 “I enjoy the music.  I’m an entertainer first,
so what better way to entertain folks with the best music ever done.”
       If he had to pick a favorite Elvis song, Miles said he couldn’t. 
 There’s not one that stands out above the rest.  “I’ve got a favorite dozen probably,” he said.
       He enjoys Elvis’ music because the King performed such a variety.
       He did all kinds of styles,” he said.  “It’s just good music, upbeat. 
 What’s not to like? I enjoyed most of the movie songs he did.”
       Miles was fortunate to see Elvis in concert.
  He was 18 when he saw him perform at Freedom Hall in Louisville.
      “It was one of those things you never forget,” he said.
  “It was sold out. It was pretty electric. 
The whole room was electric and when he came on stage it was just…well, it was something.”