Elvis’ record producer, Felton Jarvis, called the end of August 1977 and asked me to do a portrait of Elvis for him. Felton said he had seen a lot of Elvis artwork and everything that Elvis had and wanted me to do the portrait. He had a particular time and situation that he wanted painted and that was when Elvis did the Aloha special. Felton loved the part where the sweat was rolling down Elvis’ face, said it looked like a tear drop. He also said, “that was a happy time for Elvis,” that he was so excited about the show and was really in top form.
We met in the office of Jerry Bradley at RCA on Music Row in October, I had just finished the painting and it was still very wet but he wanted it as soon as possible. Looking at the photo you can see how Felton is holding his left hand to make sure it did not touch the canvas.
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