they came together to make music and
they ended up making history yes indeed
this is the story of way back in the mid
1950s when Elvis Johnny Cash Carl
Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis of course
with a man that discovered them all Sam
Sam Phillips got together at Sun Studios
for a little jam session called the
Million Dollar Quartet it's playing at
the Public Theater
[Music]
well it isn't sorry the Million Dollar
Quartet for the most famous musicians
really the never lived so I gotta ask
y'all what's it like playing these
characters it's rare that you get a
chance to play someone who's so
important to American music history and
a lot of us have played these characters
for a long time and just gotten to go
real deep into these characters you know
I met people who met Johnny Cash or
related to him and it's just really
special to to work on a character like
that but is it a lot tougher though when
people know all the characters to then
kind of live up to their standards oh
it's it's it's an impossible to live up
to the standard of returning Elvis
Presley but I'm a lifelong Elvis fan and
I really for me personally want to like
help dispel some of the like
unflattering misconceptions about Elvis
and and things like that so I just try
and do an authentic job and show people
how cool this was the story just in
general if people don't know the whole
story about the Million Dollar Quartet
it's about an informal jam session that
these four guys Jerry Lee Lewis Johnny
Cash I was pressing Carl Perkins had
back in 1956 and it was really Elvis was
becoming a big star at the time but
Johnny Cash wasn't even like huge yet
Carl Perkins was of course Carper and
Jerry Lee had I think maybe just a
little bit before released his first
album so he was he was here as a session
pianist for Carl Perkins
he wasn't Jerry Lee Lewis yet really
yeah and and it was in Sun Studios where
and basically it all began
yeah mmm Fitz and Sun so what's it like
you're having to act sing dance play
music you guys are having to do it all
is that a lot tougher
singing performance oh I love it
personally it's all the things that I
wished I could be doing all the time at
once
I'm a musician primarily so it's great
to get to act and play at the same time
the local guy in the group here well
it's a you know who wouldn't be tickled
pink playing the father of rock and roll
you know here we are in the famous Sun
Studios and these four iconic guys
likely wouldn't have gotten their start
and then uh the people that they were
with without the influence of Sam
Phillips and and what he was able to
teach and instill in these guys so I'm
just I'm happy to be a little bit part
of the story so what's the best one
sentence sales pitch to come see this if
you know even even for people that
aren't that familiar with all this
fantastic music kind of a show for
people who don't like musical theater
it's it's it's totally atypical there is
a true story to it and then you just get
to hear all of these hits written by all
of these guys and then at the end we
just totally break the fourth wall and
do a 20-minute concert where we're just
singing the hits of each one of these
legends crowd is just on their feet
usually for the entire time if you come
see the show you're gonna have a lot of
fun but you'll also there's a couple
moments of where you will feel like
you're watching history as it happened
and yet you're a part of it and there's
always a couple moments where the
audience just gasps and you hear people
say individually like wow you know it's
it's really there's some cool moments in
this show you feel like you learned
something about American music history
are there ever gonna be guys like this
again
ma'am probably not
[Music]
thing else because the band actually
started playing it I was going this is
the most unsure you can you can go see
you screaming about it it goes through
the 14th there yeah the Public Theater's
you have a favorite probably Elvis yeah
yeah yeah my wife is Johnny Cash but
though I but almost Sam Phillips and
Carl Perkins because I one time did a
live shot in Memphis Sam Phillips Carl
Perkins and yeah and Johnny rivers and
standing there so anyway so great so go
see all right yes go see it I'm glad you
had fun Mike