I moved to Kingsport in 1976. My father transferred from Nashville working with Mason Dixon Trucklines. He had worked there since he left school at Carson Newman and we were real proud of him as we moved to Kingsport and the “home office.”
I remember that summer because right before we moved, Elvis Presley died and the other day while browsing through some of the clips on You Tube, I ran across this great video someone took of “The Big E” (not Earnhardt), performing CC Rider at Freedom Hall in Johnson City.
Elvis is dressed in a sapphire blue jumpsuit and you can see a line of white-dressed backup singers next to him as he goes deep in the verses of this great song. You can hear the screaming girls too as the music softens, but wow – what a trip back in time!
There are several stories about Elvis and his trips to Kingsport. He played the Kingsport auditorium and evidently hung out with someone in downtown for a while, but this moment in time was a special one. This was Elvis’s last performance in the Tri-Cities and for those that were there that night, I can only imagine what the experience would have been like.
Thank you You Tubers for posting this video…