“The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about.”

—  Elvis Presley

Interview (March/April 1972), as quoted in The Leading Men of MGM (2006) by Jane Ellen Wayne, p. 406
Context: The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about. I didn't realize that my body was moving. It's a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, "What'd I do? What'd I do?" And he said, "Whatever it is, go back and do it again."

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update March 26, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about." by Elvis Presley?
Elvis Presley photo
Elvis Presley42
American singer and actor 1935–1977

Related quotes

“When I first heard the word existential, I didn't know what it meant. But then I found out that no one knows what it means, so now I use it all the time.”

Francine Pascal Fearless

Source: Fearless

Van Morrison photo

“Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here'… the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

As quoted in Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography (2003) by Clinton Heylin<!-- Chicago Review Press -->

Janet Evanovich photo

“Next time I fall in love it's going to be with someone who isn't an expert in fibbing."
"You're in love with me?"
"You didn't know that?"
"I did, but it's nice to hear."
"Scares the hell out of me.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Source: Smokin' Seventeen

Wendy Doniger photo

“But when I do think about religious problems, I think in Hindu categories. When my father died, it was the first time something really terrible happened to me-and Christianity and Judaism were of absolutely no use to me. My Jewish and Christian friends would take me to synagogues and churches, and it didn't help at all. And then I started thinking about the myths I was translating at the time, which were about death-why there is death, how death came into the world, what happens when we die, speculations about karma and rebirth. The Hindu version of it made more sense to me than anything. It just seemed like Shiva as a god was more likely to be responsible for the world the way I knew it than the gods of Judaism and Christianity. Capricious, beautiful, violent, it just made more sense.”

Wendy Doniger (1940) American Indologist

About her intent to practice Hinduism.
Q&A with Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor and author of The Hindus

Sarah Brightman photo

“(on her marriage to Andrew Lloyd Webber) It was such a creative time. Everything was happening very fast. He was writing, I was singing. He was inspired, and I was inspired. I didn't really have time to think about it. I didn't really have time to read things about it, either. I got a sense of things, which made me quite nervous at times. But, no, we were running all the time then, doing things. It was fun, but also a lot of pressure.”

Sarah Brightman (1960) British soprano, musical theatre actress, and dancer

The Irish Times (1999)

“I thought it was sad, you know, that they had that pop concert to commemorate Diana. I mean, she didn't have much to do with pop music, did she? They should've done something that celebrated what was really great about her life: By staging a gangbang in a minefield.”

Frankie Boyle (1972) Scottish comedian

Mock the Week

W. S. Gilbert photo

“I know what love is. There was a happy time when I didn't, but bitter experience has taught me.”

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo

Patience (1881)

Margaret Cho photo

“I didn't know if I was going to mention my period on stage, but then I figured, if Richard Pryor had a period, he would talk about it.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Tours and CDs, The Notorious C.H.O. Tour

Alvin C. York photo

“All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.”

Alvin C. York (1887–1964) United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

Account of 8 October 1918.
Diary of Alvin York
Context: There were over thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharpshooting. I don't think I missed a shot. It was no time to miss.
In order to sight me or to swing their machine guns on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off. All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.
Suddenly a German officer and five men jumped out of the trench and charged me with fixed bayonets. I changed to the old automatic and just touched them off too. I touched off the sixth man first, then the fifth, then the fourth, then the third and so on. I wanted them to keep coming.
I didn't want the rear ones to see me touching off the front ones. I was afraid they would drop down and pump a volley into me. — and I got hold of the German major, and he told me if I wouldn't kill any more of them he would make them quit firing. So I told him all right, if he would do it now. So he blew a little whistle, and they quit shooting and come down and gave up.

Joe Hill photo

“I didn't know the inner me was hungry," I said to Art.
"That's because it already starved to death.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: 20th Century Ghosts

Related topics