Many performers, this writer included, would agree that discussing a set with strangers after the fact is almost more nerve-wracking than getting through the set in the first place. Performing to an audience from a distance is one thing. Hearing what they have to say about it afterward, good or bad, is another. Now, imagine that the stranger in question was also the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll, and you would have a situation similar to what Steve Martin experienced.<\/p>\n
As a comedian and bluegrass musician<\/a>, Martin certainly knows his way around the stage. But even the most seasoned pro can succumb to shoddy performance conditions, which was the case while the comedian was opening for Ann-Margret at the Hilton in Las Vegas in 1971. Describing the room as having \u201c80-foot ceilings,\u201d Martin remarked on how the poor acoustics impeded his connection to the audience and made it the \u201cworst comedy room.\u201d<\/p>\n In attendance at one of these shows was none other than Elvis Presley, who had an oft-speculated relationship with Ann-Margret after working together on Viva Las Vegas<\/a> in 1964. The King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll caught Martin\u2019s set and, upon seeing the comedian sitting in his dressing room with the door open, came in to tell Martin what he thought about his performance.<\/p>\n Steve Martin and Elvis Presley Go From Humor to Guns in Minutes<\/p>\n During a 2023 appearance on the Conan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend podcast,<\/a> Steve Martin recalled Elvis Presley walking into his dressing room and saying, \u201cSon, you have an oblique sense of humor.\u201d This was, Martin explained, the early 1970s, which meant his comedy had \u201ca little weirdness\u201d to it. Nevertheless, it was enough to grab Presley\u2019s attention, who talked to Martin for a while longer. Martin added that at one point in their conversation, a man came up to tell Elvis they had to go. This, Martin explained, was standard procedure\u2014it was Elvis\u2019 get-out-of-this-conversation-free card.<\/p>\n But Elvis replied to his convo scapegoat, \u201cIt\u2019s okay.\u201d Martin let out a gasp. \u201cI thought, \u2018Oh! I\u2019ve been blessed.\u2019\u201d The performers\u2019 conversation veered to Presley\u2019s gun collection, which Martin described as \u201cartful.\u201d The \u201cHound Dog\u201d singer presented his various guns to Martin, making sure to empty the bullets out of each one before handing it to Martin. \u201cI\u2019m holding three guns, and he\u2019s holding 16 bullets. And I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Where is Elvis\u2019 guy?\u2019\u201d Martin joked.<\/p>\n Maybe Elvis Learned His Lesson From Alice Cooper<\/p>\n The fact that Elvis Presley emptied each gun before handing it to Steve Martin is interesting when one considers that Presley was far less cautious a year earlier. In 1970, Presley invited rising rock \u2018n\u2019 roller Alice Cooper<\/a> to his hotel room and, in true Elvis fashion, offered to show off his various weaponry. On this particular night, Presley told Cooper he would teach him how to disarm someone and asked Cooper to hold up a loaded snub-nose .38 pistol in his direction. Cooper, understandably, had a lot of things running through his head.<\/p>\n \u201cThe little devil here on my shoulder says, \u2018Shoot him,\u2019\u201d Cooper recalled to the BBC<\/a> in 2011. \u201cLittle angel over here says, \u2018Don\u2019t kill him. Just wound him.\u2019\u201d Before Cooper could make his mind up about the power he wielded over the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll at that precise moment, Presley performed his disarming trick, throwing Cooper to the ground and putting his boot on the shock rocker\u2019s neck. \u201cNow I know how to take a gun out of someone\u2019s hand,\u201d Cooper later added in a 2016 interview with The Tallahassee Democrat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Who knows\u2014maybe something twinkling in Cooper\u2019s eye convinced Presley that maybe, just maybe, he ought to take out the bullets before he hands people his guns.<\/p>\n Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many performers, this writer included, would agree that discussing a set with strangers after the fact is almost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[15762,88,216,2156,24510],"class_list":{"0":"post-409657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-elvis-presley","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-steve-martin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}