Elvis Presley would turn 80 on Thursday. Wonder what he'd be like if he were still alive and performing?
Preposterous, you say. But not all music icons retire. Tony Bennett is still going strong at 88. Willie Nelson is on the road once again — at 81. Loretta Lynn, 82, still tours. So do Frankie Valli, 80, and B.B. King, 89. And Jerry Lee Lewis, 79, one of Elvis' contemporaries, released a pretty rockin' record last year, "Rock & Roll Time," with the help of Keith Richards, Neil Young and others.
So what would the King be like at age 80?
Rest assured, his hair would still be jet black. He'd still have those royal sideburns. And maybe a turned-up collar.
He'd probably be on the heavy side, sitting on a chair in concert like B.B. King does. When I saw him in a June 1977 concert in St. Paul, two months before he died, he was disappointingly paunchy. Even at 42, he didn't look healthy — and that white jumpsuit probably made him look even bigger.
Who knows, though: Maybe he would have ditched the peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches and gotten himself in shape so he could stand at a microphone stand, like Willie still does. After all, Elvis would have to be agile enough to bend over to hand his scarves to his female fans — one of his signature moves in concert.
The lip curl is a given — he could manage that move forever — and he'd have to give at least one hip shake and a playful karate pose.
His humor and personality would carry the show, of course. They always did in the later years.