Longtime Elvis Presley drummer DJ Fontana dies
Memphis, June 15: DJ Fontana, a rock ‘ n’ roll pioneer who rose from strip joints in his native Shreveport, Louisiana, to the heights of musical history as Elvis Presley’s first and longtime drummer, has died at 87, his wife said.
Karen Fontana told The Associated Press yesterday that her husband died in his sleep in Nashville on Wednesday night. She said he’d been suffering complications from breaking his hip in 2016.
“He was loved by everybody all over the world. He treated everybody like everybody was his friend,” she said. Presley’s former wife, Priscilla Presley, issued a statement calling Fontana “a tremendously talented musician and a wonderful man.”
Fontana, a member of the Rock Hall of Fame, was the last surviving member of Elvis’ original core of musicians. He met Presley on the Louisiana Hayride, a popular and influential radio and TV country music programme based in Shreveport. Staff drummer Fontana asked to join his group for a session broadcast in October 1954. A regional act at the time, the 19year- old Presley had been recording and touring since the summer with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, the musicians Sun Records founder Sam Phillips brought in after Elvis turned up at the Memphis, Tennesseebased label’s studio.
“The Blue Moon Boys,” as they called themselves, had been playing a blend of blues, pop and country that was unique at the time, but it was missing something crucial.