Soul and rhythm and blues stars and a crowd of 3,000 reassembled on Friday at the the empty lot where Stax's famed recording studio to celebrate the groundbreaking for a museum and music conservatory honoring the former label. The planned $20 million Stax Museum of American Music and adjoining Stax Academy and Performing Arts Center to be erected on East McLemore Avenue in South Memphis will serve tourists and budding musicians. The Stax Museum is part of a revival effort that includes new housing.
Elvis recorded several albums (partial) at the STAX Studio: Raised on Rock, Good Times and Promised Land. Jerry Schilling, a former member of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia'' who now runs the Shelby County Music Commission, said it was nice to see a sign that Memphis would no longer shun its musicians, which he said it once did.