Living the Life: The World of Elvis Tribute Artists

This book is an in-depth exploration of the worldwide phenomenon of Elvis impersonators. There are believed to be between 10,000 and 30,000 people who say they are Elvis impersonators from among the over 10,000,000 fans in every city in America, and every country in the world. For more than ten years, Chicago based photographer Patty Carroll has traveled across the globe to photograph over 300 impersonators. The fruit of the singular obsession of this self-described “normal person” is a fabulously funny, totally engrossing portrayal of a slice of life of consuming interest to millions of people throughout the world. The book will be a vivid, exciting, richly colorful series of portraits of Elvis impersonators in full costume- ready in every way to have their fifteen minutes of fame- fully believing that they have been recreated as “The King.” The portraits are presented together with commentaries and written responses about themselves and their relation to Elvis drawn from interviews by the photographer. A brief personal history of each of the impersonators will describe their lives; including their day job, how long they have been impersonating Elvis and their hopes and ambitions for the future. The book represents the ultimate realization of years of research, photography, interviewing, talking, listening, hanging out, observing, and being totally immersed in the world of Elvis impersonators for more than ten years. There is no end in sight for this amazing culture - it continues to expand too fast to ever really document them all. The impersonators are a diverse, unregulated, self-obsessed and self-promoting group of people who all have the same fantasy of being Elvis. These men, women, and children range in age, size, girth, nationality, race, religion and profession, and include every type of person imaginable! Impersonators are at the core of a worldwide phenomenon in which Elvis Presley continues to be adored, admired, and imitated since his death in 1977.