Talk about a great 18th birthday present! It was 1970, and Sherry was not at all what we would consider an Elvis fan. Of all the Elvis movies, she had only seen BLUE HAWAII, and it was her mother who actually was a fan of Presley's music. "He was a generation removed me from me," Sherry laughs, "I was more involved in what the Beatles were doing than what Elvis Presley was doing, sorry to say." But when a friend of Sherry's who knew Elvis talked her into heading to Phoenix for a concert as her 18th birthday present, Sherry found herself face to face with the man. And that was just the beginning. Those of us who never got to know Elvis up close and personal count on girls like Sherry to let us know what he was really like. Sherry was kind enough to share some fun stories via this February 2004 interview with Girlsguidetoelvis.com. GG2E: So, tell us what happened at that Phoenix concert. How did you end up going up to Elvis's suite? SHERRY: My friend got a hold of Joe [Esposito], who gave us tickets to the show, and at the hotel afterward, we just went up to the suite. GG2E: How much time did you get to spend there? SHERRY: Only about a half-hour because they were on tour and leaving the next morning. It wasn't a real late night. GG2E: What was the difference between Elvis in concert and seeing him at the hotel afterwards? SHERRY: On that particular day? He was just more relaxed. He was still very up from the show, but at that particular time he wasn't singing afterward. He did that more in Vegas, when he'd have people up, and they'd sing gospel songs and things. GG2E: What happened next? SHERRY: About a month or so later, Charlie Hodge called and asked my friend if she would bring to Palm Springs the same person that was with her in Phoenix. Which was me! When I saw Elvis up in the suite in Phoenix, I was kind of taken with him, because he was absolutely beautiful -- a gorgeous man. And even though he was almost twice my age, he was the best looking man I'd ever seen in my life. Incredibly gorgeous. He didn't seem to be that much older. He had a youthful appearance, but he also was just young at heart. GG2E: What was it like in Palm Springs? Did he live like a normal person? SHERRY: It was a lot of fun. Just a lot of fun! Both in Palm Springs and in Graceland (even more so in Graceland), he seemed much more relaxed. He was never like a normal person I don't think, because if he was a normal person he could go out and do things normal people did, and he didn't do that very often. In Palm Springs, we went to Thrifty's to go get picture frames. We'd go do those things, but it was because there wasn't a horrendous amount of people out and about. GG2E: What was it like going shopping with Elvis? SHERRY: He'd buy everything that he saw that he'd wanted. And not just one - he'd buy everything!! Like when we went to buy picture frames for the pictures he'd gotten back from when he went to the White House. He happened to get them when he was in Palm Springs. He wanted to go get a frame right then and there. It was about nine o'clock at night, and we went to Thrifty's to get one of those 99 cent frames. But he to buy all of them that they had, even though he only had that one picture! He bought them all. Then he went over to get a flashlight. Just one of those everyday flashlights. But he had to buy them all. He went to go buy some candy (it was sold by the pound at that time) -- bought all the candy in all the bins. He'd say, "Just give it all to me." And sunglasses -- he decided to buy everybody their sunglasses. He bought the whole round thing full of sunglasses. "You can try them on and see which ones you like when you get home" kind of thing. When he went shopping, whatever he decided he wanted, he just took all of it. GG2E: Shopping binges like that are amazingly fun, aren't they? SHERRY: Yeah, it was. And we left, he would just walk out the door, and one of the guys who was in charge of funds at the time stayed and took care of paying for it, bagging it, and taking it back to the house. GG2E: What else did you get to do in Palm Springs? SHERRY: Going out to the shooting range was always fun. He took me along with four or five other people. We went first to the gun store (there was a guy named Tiny who had a shop there). He bought me a gun, took me out to the shooting range, and taught me how to shoot it. GG2E: That's kind of great, that Elvis taught you how to shoot. SHERRY: I wasn't really so interested in learning how to shoot the gun -- I just liked the fact that he had to put both of his arms around me and got really close to my face. I pretended I couldn't hear what he was saying so he'd have to get closer to me and whisper in my ear. GG2E: But was he good at teaching you how to shoot? SHERRY: Oh, yeah, he was very focused on what he was doing. He had no clue that I was kind of funning with him as far as behaving as if he wasn't close enough -- that just went right over his head! He was focused on getting me to shoot the target -- I could care less about the target! GG2E: Any other fun Palm Springs adventures? SHERRY: One time, at three in the morning, he decided to go up to Idylwild to show me where he had filmed Kid Galahad. Which I think was an hour and a half from the house. At three in the morning! Whenever he decided to go some place, we just jumped in the cars and went. He also liked to get in the dune buggies and ride over the sand. GG2E: Did Elvis ever give you anything? SHERRY: I have a TLC. He put that on my neck. GG2E: Were you expecting that? SHERRY: No. That was in February of 1971. He gave me that in Las Vegas. He gave me a diamond and sapphire ring in 1971. GG2E: And when he gave you these things, what was the moment like? SHERRY: As far as my necklace, he didn't tell me what he was giving me. He just asked Joe if there was "one of those things left." I didn't know what he was talking about because I hadn't paid that much attention to who was wearing what. We had gone into the bedroom, and Joe comes in and says, "This is the last one, Boss." He made me close my eyes, and then he put it around my neck. I was like this little eighteen-year-old kid, squealing, I was so excited. And then he gave me a ring -- I had to guess which hand it was in. He had me go shopping in Las Vegas the first time I went up there. GG2E: Let's talk about that! SHERRY: For clothes. From Suzy Creamcheese. GG2E: Did Elvis go with you to choose the clothes? SHERRY: She came to the hotel with a rack of clothes. I had gotten up there [to Vegas] and didn't know how long I was going to be staying. My clothes weren't like the gowns they used to wear in Las Vegas. Elvis never said anything to offend anyone -- it was more like, did I have enough clothes to be able to say? It wasn't really a question, it was more like "Joe, get somebody up here to get some things for Sherry." And the next day she was there. I never wanted to take advantage of things, or of him -- that wasn't why I was there. It wasn't about that at all. He didn't have to give me anything or buy me anything for me to want to be around him. He made you want to be around him. That's just the type of person that he was. But he was just so gracious with everything he had. He'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. GG2E: Do you still have the clothes you got from Suzy Creamcheese? SHERRY: I do have one dress left, and I have an outfit he bought me in Memphis. I have the ring. I still, of course, have my TLC. I have a copy of The Impersonal Life that he signed to me. I have a copy of the Ten Outstanding Young Man booklet. One thing that I wish I still had that I did have was a pair of silk pajamas that I wore. GG2E: Did he ever critique your clothes? Because many girls who knew Elvis back then that I've spoken to have said Elvis had definite opinions about their clothes. SHERRY: He liked anything I wore in white a lot. On me anyway, he liked the way white looked on me. You absolutely could never wear jeans around him, and I never did. I had a hard time in the very beginning because I didn't have the kind of clothes that he was used to women wearing. He always wanted women to be dressed in very high fashion, and I didn't have those kinds of clothes. And I think that's one of the reasons he wanted to basically dress me. And my make-up, too! I remember once morning I came to breakfast in Las Vegas, and I hadn't put make-up on because we were up really late, and he really laid into me for it. He really yelled at me and told me to go back into the bedroom until I could come back and present myself properly. He was really angry with me, and it hurt my feelings. GG2E: Yes, other girls have stressed that it mattered to him that they took care with their appearance. SHERRY: In front of anybody. If it had been just he himself, I don't think it would have been a big deal. But as soon as you were in front of any of the guys or anybody, you better be looking your best. GG2E: One thing that all the girls who never got to meet Elvis in person want to know is, what did Elvis smell like in real life? Did he smell good? SHERRY: Elvis had a very unique smell to him. He had a very male, musky odor. I thought it was wonderful. It was not offensive in any way. But one odor that I remember was he used A&D ointment on his lips every single day to keep his lips soft. That's what he'd use. He smelled like A&D ointment to me when you got really close to him. He had a very sensual smell to him. GG2E: Are there other things that girls would be interested in knowing about Elvis in private? SHERRY: I've heard people say how much he looked in the mirrors -- I didn't get that at all. I never caught him being narcissistic. GG2E: And what would you talk to Elvis about? Other girls have said they'd have very serious conversations with him. SHERRY: Very philosophical, very spiritual conversations. But those conversations were more late at night, behind closed doors. But I think he got more into the more heavy spiritual conversations the older he got. Because he had such a great sense of humor (he was just a funny, charismatic guy), I knew whenever I was going to be around Elvis, I was just going to be laughing the whole time. That's the Elvis that I knew. Note: Sherry was involved with Elvis until mid 1972, spent a week at Graceland in 1974, and remained friends with him until he died. home | new | the man | lisa marie | priscilla & others | fun | clothes | photos | records | movies | concerts | gifts | web | guide | e-cards | today | facts Click here for more info on the book The Girls' Guide to Elvis Click here to check out sister book The Girls' Guide to Country Click here to check out the latest sister book The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks