Back in the ‘80s, police officer Ron Adams was working undercover busting drug dealers in Birmingham, Alabama.
His disguise involved growing sideburns and dying his brown hair black, which inadvertently made him look a lot like Elvis Presley in his jumpsuit and Vegas days.
“I was in a club one night and there was an Elvis impersonator performing. He wasn’t very good and he got laughed off stage.
“Well, his band saw me in the audience and saw I looked like Elvis and asked if I knew any of his songs. I said I knew a couple of songs,” he says.
He went on stage, performed with the band, and six months later left the police force to become a full-time Elvis impersonator.
Since then, he has travelled the world, regaling audiences with Heartbreak Hotel, Blue Suede Shoes and all of Elvis’s greatest hits, clad in sequined jumpsuits made by the same people who made the King’s.
This month, Adams comes to Cayman for the second time, to play at the upcoming Cayman Heart Fund’s Red Dress Gala.
Adams explains that his connection with Cayman came when he performed a few years ago with Cayman’s own Barefoot Man, who in turn put him in touch with Suzy Soto of the Cayman Heart Fund.
Adams was just 13 when Elvis died on 16 August 1977.
“I heard about his death along with everyone else. It was front page news. His death was my first real recollection of Elvis. It was a really big deal. I remember me and my friends riding our bikes, shouting ‘Elvis is dead!’”, he recalls.
Even when he was in high school, he could mimic Elvis. “I’d say ‘thank you, thank you very much’, and people would laugh,” he says.
Since he and Elvis already have fans in Cayman, he’s unlikely to meet a similar reception here to one he got in his early days of performing in a city called McComb, Mississippi, where he found he and his band needed the protection of a stage cage.
They had been booked to perform by the previous owner of a club, but the new owner had renovated the venue and turned it into a hard rock club.
“We didn’t know that at the time. We just showed up and it was very, very unusual. There weren’t very many people there, but the people who were there all had pink and purple spiked hair and were wearing rings through their noses. They were looking at me and my band like we were from another planet and I was looking at them the same way,” Adams says.
So what did he do? “I played that gig like I was performing in front of 5,000 of my biggest fans,” he says, admitting he was grateful for the cage in front of the band. “Otherwise, the tomatoes would have hit us,” he says.
Adams is now 49 years old, seven years older than Elvis was when he died, but he’s got no immediate plans to hang up his jumpsuit.
“I don’t look 49 and a half. I know I’m in a lot better shape than Elvis was when he passed away… I look like he did when he was 35, when Elvis was at his peak,” he says.
He admits that when he was 27 years old, he didn’t know how long his Elvis days would last. “I thought I’m getting paid more and I’m having fun. I’ll keep doing this till I get a real job. It turned into more than just a job, it became my career and my life.
“I thought then that no matter how big this got, that by the time I was 42 years old, the age Elvis was when he died, I would certainly quit because it would be wrong to do it any longer.
“When I got to 42, I had several big bookings that year and I felt good and looked good, so I did them. I figured I’d quit when those were done and now I’m still doing them at 49 and a half,” he says, adding that he’ll quit before people stop wanting to see him perform.
He is an Elvis fan, but not a fanatical one, he says. He has some Elvis memorabilia, but isn’t an avid collector. And while he listens to Elvis music, it’s usually when he’s preparing for a show.
Adams has been to Elvis Presley’s home of Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, five or six times, but in a weird reversal of fate, finds himself trying to be in disguise so Elvis fans won’t inundate him.
“At Graceland, there are lots of people trying to look like Elvis and I’m trying not to,” but with his sideburns and hair, it’s hard to miss him, he says.
The theme of this year’s red dress gala theme, which will be held at the Marriott Hotel’s ballroom on Friday, 10 February, is 1950s/60s. The best dressed couple will win three nights’ stay in Miami, courtesy of the Marriott and Cayman Airways.
Tickets for the Red Dress Gala are on sale, costing $150 per person or $1,350 per table of 10. Contact [email protected] or 916-6324 for tickets and more information.
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