Well, on the thirtieth anniversary of his death, it seems like an appropriate time to reveal something that might surprise you: I once had the opportunity to play backup for Elvis.

Not, strictly speaking, the original Elvis. This was an Inuit guy named Jimmy Ekho, also known as “Sealskin Elvis”. Very nice guy, and a good singer - but somehow he developed a passion for Elvis that amounted to an obsession. As far as I know, he was the first and only Inuit Elvis impersonator, and the first to translate and perform the Presley Canon in Inuktitut.

I had the honour of backing up Sealskin Elvis at his debut gig at the Qaggiq Music Festival in what was then Frobisher Bay, NWT, in March, 1984. We had rehearsed three numbers, and Jimmy had it down…the moves, the voice, the sneer. But when we went onstage that night he shocked even me. His mom Naqi, an elder, had sewn a sealskin version of Elvis’ famous Vegas Lounge suit, perfect right down to the wide lapels and the TCB belt buckle. When Jimmy came on stage the audience gasped and surged to the front…and screamed. They screamed for the duration of his performance. They screamed when he threw his pick into the crowd. They screamed for an encore, which we couldn’t do because we only knew three songs. It was the closest thing to rock stardom I will ever experience.

Jimmy went on to perform across the North as Elvis, but eventually began writing his own songs, and recorded an album of originals called “Guti” (God). That was pretty ambitious, I thought…even the original Elvis settled for “the King”.