Elvis Presley’s drummer D.J. Fontana dies
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — D.J. 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 Thursday.
Karen Fontana told The Associated Press that her husband died in his sleep in Nashville Wednesday night. She said he had 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.
Fontana was a special guest at the annual Penticton Elvis Festival on several occasions.
Presley’s former wife, Priscilla Presley, issued a statement calling him “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 and the others on the Louisiana Hayride, a popular and influential radio and TV country music program based in Shreveport. Fontana, the staff drummer, asked to join his group for a session broadcast in October 1954.
A regional act at the time, the 19-year-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, Tennessee-based 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.
“Elvis and Scotty and Bill were making good music, but it wasn’t rock n’ roll until D.J. put the backbeat into it,” the Band’s Levon Helm told The Associated Press in 2004.
Elvis returned often to the Hayride, and in 1955 Fontana became a permanent member of the group, working with Presley through much of the 1960s.
Influenced by such big band drummers as Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, Fontana was admired by Helm, Ringo Starr, Max Weinberg and many others for his power, speed and steadiness, which he honed during his time with the Hayride.
“I heard Scotty and Bill and Elvis one night and knew that I couldn’t mess up that sound,” Fontana later said. “I think the simple approach comes from my hearing so much big band music. I mixed it with rockabilly.”
Fontana was there for Presley’s extraordinary first wave of success, from such hit singles as “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” to his increasingly frenzied live shows and hip-shaking appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other TV programs.
Fontana was a special guest at the annual Penticton Elvis Festival on several occasions.