On This Day: Elvis Makes a Surprisingly Unsuccessful Grand Ole Opry Debut

It’s hard to imagine someone called the King of Rock and Roll ever bombing on stage, but on October 2, 1954, that’s exactly what Elvis Presley did during his surprisingly unsuccessful Grand Ole Opry debut. The lackluster performance—or, perhaps more accurately, the lackluster response from the Grand Ole Opry staff and audience—came just three months after Presley cut his first commercial records at Memphis’ famous Sun Studios.

Presley’s spot on the Nashville institution’s stage was one of the first big breaks of his career. It was also one of his first flops.

Elvis’ Surprisingly Unsuccessful Grand Ole Opry Debut

Three months after Elvis Presley recorded several cuts at Sun Studios, including “That’s All Right Mama” and Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” the Memphis studio’s owner, Sam Phillips, landed the up-and-coming musician a spot on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Presley and his band made their Opry debut on October 2, 1954, performing the latter track and bluegrass anthem to an icy crowd.

“The Opry itself was not especially welcoming,” wrote Bobbie Ann Mason in Elvis Presley: A Life. “Afterwards, the Opry manager decided Elvis wasn’t right for the Opry. According to some reports, he told Elvis he didn’t want any more of that “n***** music” on his program and advised him to go back to driving a truck.”

Mason said that Presley was allegedly so upset that he cried in the car on the way home. He was also so emotional from the lousy gig that he accidentally left his suitcase behind at a gas station en route to Memphis. The future King of Rock and Roll was only 19 years old at the time.

Conversations Before and After The Fateful Performance

One poor reception at the Grand Ole Opry clearly wasn’t enough to disaffect Elvis Presley’s career, but one would have been hard-pressed to convince the teenager musician otherwise. According to Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, bassist and Tree Music song plugger Buddy Killen introduced himself to a visibly nervous Presley backstage at the Ryman.

“[Elvis] said, ‘They’re going to hate me,’” Killen recalled. “I said, ‘They’re not going to hate you. You’re going to be fine.’ He said, ‘If they’d just let me leave, I’d go right now.’” At the time, Presley’s fears were not entirely unfounded. Many listeners found Presley’s version of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” to be sacrilege, and rumors were even flying that Monroe wanted to fight Presley over it.

An interaction between Monroe and Presley backstage put those rumors to the test, which turned out to be false. The bluegrass icon complimented the young musician’s rendition, saying he had recently cut a new version that followed Presley’s version more closely. After Presley failed to win over the Grand Ole Opry crowd with his cover of “Blue Moon,” he found himself face-to-face with another bluegrass idol of his: Ernest Tubb.

Presley reportedly told Tubb that he wanted to pursue a career in country music. “He said, ‘They tell me if I’m going to make any money, though, I’ve got to sing [this other kind of music]. What should I do?’” Tubb recounted in Guralnick’s book. “I said, ‘Elvis, you ever have any money?’ He said, ‘No, sir.’ I said ‘Well, you just go ahead and do what they tell you to do. Make your money. Then you can do what you want to do.’”

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images