(upbeat funk music) (soft chiming music) (bouncy blues music) - You never forget the first time you meet the King.

- You know the movements, the hair, always in character.

Doesn't matter what's going on, he's always in character.

- If somebody told me, "Oh, nobody's interested in Elvis anymore."

(scoffs) Wrong.

(chuckling) - I mean, it felt like we were with the real Elvis there.

- Rich's not just another Elvis impersonator.

He gets into his life, he gets into his mind, he gets what he thinks.

When he's on stage, to be honest with you, he's very special.

(electric guitar music) - He is dedicated to making it right.

(electric guitar music) - This has the capability to run guitars.

It has the capability to run guitars.

It's got two separate mics.

Check, one, two.

Makes a concert.

(funk music playing) ("Wear My Ring Around Your Neck") ♪ Won't you wear my ring ♪ ♪ around your neck ♪ ♪ To tell the world I'm yours, by heck ♪ ♪ Let them know I love you so ♪ ♪ And let them know by the ring ♪ ♪ around your neck ♪ ♪ They say that goin' steady ♪ ♪ is not the proper thing ♪ ♪ They say that we're too young ♪ ♪ to know the meaning of a ring ♪ ♪ But I love you and I (indistinct) ♪ ♪ I know you love me too ♪ ♪ So, darling, this is what I ask of you ♪ I've been an Elvis tribute artist for 20 years now and done a lot of things, a lot of great adventures.

Got to meet a lot of great people.

I've been in a couple of movies.

I'm actually on a site called Gig Masters, which is the national database for entertainment, for the USA and Canada.

I'm actually the highest ranked entertainer in the history of their website on all categories.

And this was the 500 award that they gave me for reaching 500 before anybody else.

But right now I'm at about 800 gigs.

Where I've reached now at my point, sometimes people are having a party, I'm not available, they'll actually change the date of their party to the date I am available.

It's kind of a very nice compliment.

(funk music playing) (car engine roaring) Well, I'm the baby of six and I was born in San Francisco.

So I grew up in the projects in San Francisco back on what used to be Army Street which is now Cesar Chavez.

My father left when I was five years old.

So I really never knew my father.

I remember him slightly.

He was dying of tuberculosis or emphysema when I was about 25.

He came back to kind of say goodbye I guess.

I really didn't know what to say to him because I never grew up with him.

And I just said, you know, "I really don't know anything to forgive you."

It wasn't an easy thing for my mother to raise us in San Francisco in the projects at the time.

I was probably not even five when we lived in Santa Clara.

We ended up moving from Santa Clara.

We moved to East San Jose where I spent most of my adolescent years growing up.

- [Jose Torres] Growing up in San Jose, whenever you went to a carnival or something, there was always a riot that broke out.

There was riots breaking out at school all the time.

And it was mostly cultural Mexican Americans against the African Americans, against the Americans.

There was just always some kind of battle going on.

- I had a hard time with, with identity.

"Cause I had a Spanish surname 'cause my family's from Spain.

But I was around a lot of people who were Latin.

They looked and said, "Well, why do you have a Mexican last name?"

Well, Spanish.

I'm Spaniard.

You know.

It was a very confusing time.

So I didn't really have a lot of friends and stuff like that.

- [Jose Torres] There was violence going on all around and stuff.

And I think Rick and I kind of just tended to stay home more and kind of get into our own little worlds, get our own little friends, you know, stay away from everything that was going on outside of us.

- [Rick] This is where I grew up.

It was, it was interesting.

It was different.

I wouldn't change anything about it 'cause it made me who I am.

Rachel was my first girlfriend.

We got married in 23.

She got pregnant and I decided, you know, "Let's get married."

I didn't grow up with a father and I wanted to be a good father to my son.

You know, we didn't last.

We only lasted eight years.

Ryan was eight years old when we divorced.

But I continuously stayed every other weekend driving from here to Sonora.

He was my boy.

I got my first exposure with acting in my senior year and singing.

But I wasn't a strong singer.

I grew up the baby of six teenage kids that sang all the time, and danced.

So I could sing with my family and my sisters taught me to dance.

So I was the goofiest, nerdiest, junior high school kid that could dance.

This is where I got my exposure.

Singing karaoke contests or just singing with the band at the Saddle Rack.

I did the occasional Elvis song but not very often.

But I was always intrigued by Elvis.

I had been singing with variable bands.

One of these bands that I sang with a lot was the Lukin Dock Band, which used to sing at the South 40 Club in Fremont, which is no longer there.

You could sit at the Safeway that's there now but they throw you out.

(chuckling) So, anyway, it was a friend's birthday and it was Halloween.

Elvis costumes are readily available at the Halloween store.

So as a joke, I get the costume.

I talked to the band.

The bands agrees for me to do four or five songs.

Here I come out of the worst costume with looks like a dead squirrel on my head, with these God awful sideburns.

And black cowboy boots with a white jumpsuit, most hysterical thing ever.

But I got up and I wailed on six songs.

Five years after that I decided I'm gonna get a costume made.

Yeah.

So my first costume was my blue owl and then I started buying costumes from Elvis's Distributors B&K, and more and more and more costumes.

Ryan knew about my past.

He knew about all the acting I did.

I put it all away to raise Ryan.

There was a responsible thing to do.

To me, I had to be a father.

I had to get a job and be responsible and be a father.

But as he grew up, he realized all of these things that daddy did.

And when he started being an actor... 'Cause my dad was the best actor, he just threw it all away one day.

And it used to... You know, it cut me like a knife.

Cause I really...

I said, "No, Ryan.

You're the star, daddy loves to come and watch you."

He used to tell me, "Dad, you need to do it.

You're wasting your talent.

You need to do it."

I just feel like he's always been with me.

I find it really hard to believe that the good fortune that I've had is just coincidental.

I feel like he's been my guardian angel helping me.

- [Rick] What are we gonna tune on?

- [Crew member] Can we do Mr. Tiger Man?

- Yeah.

(funk music playing) ("Tiger Man") (truck engine roaring) - Morning's in San Francisco.

Can't get any more pretty.

Every morning I get to take off in my rig, which I've been doing now for over 20 years, driving tractor trailers, which is something that I love very much.

Yes.

I love singing and doing that too.

It's another part of my life.

I would say that, it's like I'm two different people.

I love being an entertainer.

Don't get me wrong.

If I could probably do one or the other, I would probably be an entertainer.

I love singing.

I love being in that entertainment field.

To me it's the best.

I perform for my son.

That's what I do.

Most of the time, of course I perform for people who love Elvis.

I love Elvis.

Rusty loves Elvis.

But I do... What I do is a lot for, as a memory of my son, Ryan.

(sad music playing) On June 2nd, 2003, I get the call my son was killed in a car crash.

It was devastating.

I just wanted...

I mean, I was driving a rig, I just wanted to walk into the freeway.

It was terrible.

And I went home and I thought to myself, "How am I gonna get through this?"

All of a sudden something came over me.

It's like he left me something.

I mean, other than feeling sad that he's gone, I never felt like he's ever been gone.

When I went to, went to Hawaii with my son, Ryan, we were staying in Maui.

So this is, this is... Outcropped there is Molokai, right there.

And this picture was the sunset.

People sitting and watching the sunset.

It was a beautiful, beautiful evening.

So I had this picture blown up.

So this is essentially like a memorial to my son.

I feel that the best thing that we can do for anybody that we lose is honor them by doing the best we can with our own lives.

- Many students, they had interests in either working backstage or being actors.

There were some few were happy to do both.

He wasn't really interested in doing set work as such.

But now I understand that...

I've seen what he's done and I'm really impressed.

And when I asked him, "Who did this for you?"

He said, "I did."

And I was really surprised because he has come a long way.

He's really taken an interest now in doing the set work and the lighting as well as the performing.

And that's really commendable because it's a tremendous amount of work.

- We're testing out some new stuff that I built.

In Santa Clara you can throw anything you want, once a year.

Throw it out in the street.

It's called Dump Day.

So I happen to be driving along, and here's five house interior doors somebody is throwing in the garbage.

Brand new interior doors.

So these are interior doors from a... (chuckling) from a house.

So I cut them out.

I in-laid them with LED, created the channel, screwed them all together.

So there's two.

One, blue, the other one red.

Rusty is gonna help me out.

And Rusty's my main setup manager whenever I come on and do shows.

It's funny, when I met Russ, he had no idea about this stuff.

And I just... Now he's always the man.

So let's show them how it's done now, Rusty.

(cheerful music playing) Pop this through here.

Plug in this here.

Sound, lighting.

This program is made by Shalve.

What I was trying to do is create a show, but he was telling me, "No.

This only works this certain way with a certain amount of sequences."

So I started explaining to him, he goes, "Well, it's never been used that way."

It's literally not been designed to work that way.

So you're building a new mouse trap.

And it's actually worked really good.

Here's my start button.

And the builder program is where you actually make the lighting sequence, but I'm using it to run the automation.

Again, something that it wasn't designed to do.

And I'm making it run that way.

So here we go.

See, these lights are flying.

Now the Elvis lighters just came on.

(funk music playing) So now this thing is running completely automated.

(electric guitar playing) (crowd cheering) - [Crew member] Is this still okay?

(crowd cheering) (funk music playing) I was always intrigued by Elvis.

Always as a kid, watched all of his movies, you know.

So he was a very confident man, which I wasn't.

He was, never let anybody mess around with him, which I did.

I was always getting bullied because I was small.

Nobody messed with him, you know.

The girls all loved him, which they did love me.

(chuckling) Basically everything he was, I wanted to be.

I just thought he was the coolest guy.

And I still do to this day.

(electric guitar playing) - [Rick] Ladies and gentleman thank you very much for coming out to Pezzella's 2018.

(crowd cheering) Thank you very much.

I wanna thank you.

This is actually my ninth, fifth, well, 15th year.

I dunno man.

- [Vince] Rick has been here at least 10 years.

He's real personal.

What I like about him, not only he does the show, after the show he gets out and he starts talking to people.

If it's somebody's birthday, man, he'll stop the show and sing happy birthday to him.

Matter of fact, there's one girl that's here tonight.

It's her birthday.

She's been coming here for the last three years.

She can't wait for Elvis to sing happy birthday to her.

From the first time it was a hit he's like, he's like part of our family now.

- Tribute artists are, are very special because they are the ones that are going to continue the music after the artist has, let's say maybe, you know, died or passed away.

- So I'm gonna step.

- Right.

- You're gonna step in.

Step in like this, right?

So I'm gonna talk too much, in general.

- Some feedback.

- I say poke.

(electric guitar playing) Salad.

(electric guitar playing) - [Marty] I've seen lots of tribute artists, but I think he is the best one out of all of them.

And that's why I enjoy playing with him.

We saw this other artist in Sacramento.

This was... Me and Rick were like 20, 21 years old.

And we went... Holiday Inn is where that Elvis was playing.

And he was so corny.

And Rick would just go, "I can do a better job than that.

I can do better job than that guy.

Listen to him.

Look at his movement.

He should be kicking right there.

Look at his hands.

There's no hand gestures."

And if you've ever watched Rick in person, yeah, he's got all the moves down.

(electric guitar playing) (car engine roaring) - Here's Pinky.

This is a 1963 62 series Cadillac.

Pretty much everything is the original.

The motor and everything.

(car engine revving) Mike check.

One, two.

(indistinct) It's got a dead battery.

This is a portable PA and then we integrated it in with an amp.

Plugged everything in to the battery.

And, like I said, it enables me to run around and sing Elvis songs in the car.

We went from 80 something shows.

I started driving it around.

The first year I jumped 150.

Then 250.

The mashup done is like 310 in a year, 310 shows in a year.

I've actually performed weddings from the backseat.

I picked up a couple over off of Davis Darrow and got them on the bridge and performed their wedding.

When they got to the other side, they were married.

They got picked up in Tiburon and then they went on their way from there.

- [Ruth] I said, "Well, you know, he's not as tall as Elvis."

So you notice that right away.

But then when he started singing and moving and everything I felt the essence of Elvis there.

- [Chris] Oh, yes.

- [Ruth] I felt him.

So my birthday is in October.

So my family, son and all of them got the bright idea to hire him.

We've never hired anyone before.

This should be his story.

- You know, mom's birthday is coming up.

He hires out.

He comes... A person, you know, comes to people's homes.

(indistinct) Then he says, "To run this much money."

I said, "Holy shit."

(Ruth laughs) I mean, I'm a dad.

Okay.

I said, "Well, dude...

If that's what you wanna do, sure we can do that."

You know.

So of course we hired him and paid our pocket (indistinct).

But I'll tell you what if I had to do it all over again, I would do it again.

It was great.

If you heard her, I swear to God, you'll think real Elvis was out there.

- Yeah.

- I swear to God.

- Yeah.

- It was great.

- I mean, to see them up close and in the room with you.

And I was so nervous that I said something very silly.

I said, "Oh- - Well, my husband's is here."

I said, "Oh, my husband's here."

(Chris laughs) Why the heck would you say that?

(Ruth laughs) My husband's here.

- I had to go look what's this boy doing?

- Oh, my God I just...

I was just overwhelmed, you know.

But that was exciting.

- Yeah, it was.

It's ever since then (indistinct) And we've grown closer and closer ever since all of them came down.

I'm going to call my kids (indistinct) because he is now like a second, like another son.

In fact, we call him son number two and he accepts it.

He likes it.

Okay.

- Yeah.

He likes it.

- And I tell you what, this guy's got the kindness heart.

We really love the person.

He's a special guy.

(soft music playing) - I met Elvis in 1956 and knew him '56, '57, right before he went into service.

I'm more of a celebrity for knowing Elvis than anything else because I continued to do and just recently Elvis Festival.

So that's how I ended up meeting Rick and how I ended up having a friendship with him.

Was because, I've seen all these others, which I have some pictures of.

They were all nowhere close to how good Rick is.

And because I knew the man himself, I see the personality, the heart, and all that in Rick.

For his latest show, the last time he did Aloha Hawaii.

Yeah.

That's...

I mean, he does all this himself.

And there is what he did for me, Rick did, showing my original Elvis picture with me.

He's just all into it.

As I mentioned, even jumping off the stage, which I worry about that.

You know, a lot of, like you said, the kicks.

And I've known him now just maybe six or so.

And he's still doing them.

(chuckling) - I'm getting older.

I'm not looking at life like, "Well, maybe I should quit."

No.

My imagination is always going, "Oh, all these limitations.

I am not looking at getting older as a limitation."

My only limitation is gonna be when I stop breathing.

There's crazy guys out there that are rolling stones, are in their 70s.

Out there jamming away.

You know, all these, these old cockers are out there doing their thing.

There's no reason to stop living.

Just because you've been here a little bit longer than anybody else that should give you more of an advantage.

I'm gonna be on the USS Potomac.

I'll be performing on the 22nd of September, the date that Elvis sailed to Germany.

They want to do something with the boat, the organization that runs the Potomac.

And they said, "Would you come in and do a performance show?"

so I'm gonna come in there and perform on the Potomac.

That's an amazing thing for me.

- My name is Nancy Elbeck and I'm on the USS Potomac today.

And we're having Rick as our Elvis impersonator.

Elvis purchased the Potomac and donated it to the St. Jude Foundation, Danny Thomas, and they auctioned it off.

And so that's part of the heritage of the ship So that's why having an Elvis impersonator on the ship is really important to her history.

Keep her going.

- You guys ready to rock and roll?

("C'mon Everybody") ♪ Hey, hey, hey and my baby loves me ♪ ♪ Well there ain't nothing wrong with ♪ ♪ the long haired music ♪ ♪ Like Brahms, Beethoven and Bach ♪ ♪ Well I was born with a guitar in my hand ♪ ♪ And I was born to rock ♪ ♪ Well, come on everybody ♪ ♪ And turn your head to the left ♪ ♪ Come on everybody ♪ ♪ and turn your head to the right ♪ ♪ Come on everybody ♪ ♪ take a real deep breath ♪ ♪ And repeat after me ♪ ♪ I love my baby ♪ ♪ I love my baby ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey and my baby loves me ♪ This is a ship with a lot of history.

To be able to perform or to be picked to perform on this ship is great.

And for me to be able to perform around Elvis's fans, I just wanna thank everybody for enjoying the ship and enjoying my story.

(Rick claps) Thank you very much.

But a hell of a journey.

Thank you.

(truck engine roaring) (rock music playing) ("Tiger Man") ♪ I am the king of the jungle they call me ♪ ♪ Tiger Man.

♪ ♪ I am the king of the jungle they call me ♪ ♪ Tiger Man.

♪ ♪ And if you cross my path ♪ ♪ You take your own ♪ ♪ life in your hands.

♪ ♪ Yeah, I get up on a mountain ♪ ♪ And I call ♪ ♪ my black cat back ♪ ♪ Yeah, I get up on a mountain ♪ ♪ And I call ♪ ♪ my black cat back ♪ ♪ My black cat comes runnin' ♪ ♪ And the hound dogs ♪ ♪ get way back ♪ ♪ Way back ♪ ♪ way back ♪ ♪ way back ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪