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Inside Megan Murphy And Roustabout

By ElvisNews.com, March 20, 2007 | People
We go "Inside Megan Murphy" and "Inside Roustabout" through this Email interview with one of the authors of the new book "Inside Roustabout".

ElvisNews: Can you tell us something about Megan Murphy, the person?

Megan Murphy: I am 33, single and I'm a Jersey girl! Born and raised in beautiful Bayonne, NJ. I am very proud of my home town. It's cool because every block I walk down, I know someone and they know me and we stop to chat about our families. And some people we have nick names for like, Delta Dawn or Wagon Lady. Bayonne is rich in history and a hot spot for films such as War Of The Worlds and TV shows such as Sopranos. It's a peninsula with an awesome view. We are the hometown of Chuck Wepner, the Bayonne Bleeder. He inspired the films Rocky. Anytime you think Bayonne, think John Cougar's song Small Town or Springsteen's Jersey Girl.

I am a huge Howard Stern fan. My day is not complete without the show! Artie Lange is a fellow Jersey guy and part of the Stern show. I can not wait to hear the show each day, what they will say about current events and they just make me laugh.

I love music especially live concerts. The most recent and greatest concerts I have seen are Ronnie Spector, George Strait and Ronnie Milsap in Hershey,PA. and Jerry Lee Lewis in NYC. On my wish list to see is The Eagles, Kid Rock, and BJ Thomas in August at the GPAC.

I am the luckiest girl in the world because I have THE most handsome and sweetest dog, Presley Cash. He is a four year old Boxer. And he is THE love of my life.

I have the most incredible mother ever. She raised me and my two brothers. My brother Michael is deaf. And my Mom sat on her hands and knees and taught him to read lips and to speak. She then went on to fight the local board of education so he could get an education. She convinced the Catholic church to teach him religion. And recently, she battled breast cancer. She taught us pride and lessons of life I will never forget. If only someday, I could be half the woman my mother is, she is pure class and my hero.

ElvisNews: O.k. to get an idea of you as an “Elvis person”, what, in general, is your favorite Elvis stuff? Can you tell us your favorite, song, album and movie?

Megan Murphy: I love finding new photos of Elvis, learning new things about him and hearing new recordings. Favorite songs? That goes by my mood...and that changes often...I'm a girl! But discovering new favorite songs is a lot of fun. Elvis is always new to me. The different ways he sang one song....I just love discovering Elvis in so many ways.

But I will say my favorite FTD is Jungle Room Sessions. Geez... I thought I was having a heart attack when I first heard that! And my favorite album is C'mon Everybody. That is because I got it for my third Christmas. My Mom.. .a Tom Jones fan, although she goes Exorcist when you say that now (and only because she saw him in concert and thought he was short and the dream ended for her) would not buy me an Elvis album. So I went to my Nana. And that Christmas, I got C'Mon Everybody on Camden and a personal record player. I still have that album on which I misspelled my name on the sleeve. It's my favorite Elvis treasure. I love the balloons on the back with the names of the Elvis songs... makes me smile and think of younger years. I can remember laying on my Mom's bed staring at that album cover as it played on her stereo.

ElvisNews: Can you tell us in short about your "Elvis history"?

Megan Murphy: I was born with Elvis in my blood. And when my friends were listening to Bon Jovi, I was listening to the silver box set and rediscovering Elvis. I got picked on big time. But for some reason, I did not care. I wore my Elvis In Concert jacket to school every day. And now I love to see some of the girls I went to school with pushing baby strollers and dragging a few brats behind them being miserable. Now they say they envy me for having a passion.

When I was approaching teen years, I would have to go to every mall Jimmy Velvet had his traveling Museum. And I walked around and around and around... I had to read everything. Finally in 1988, my Mom took me to Elvis Week, then known as Elvis International Tribute Week. My Mom grew to appreciate Elvis big time.

Anyway, from there I started writing for Darwin Lamm's magazine and in the early 90's, I ended a Carl Perkins concert with a speech I wrote about Elvis. Carl was right there with me. I was involved in fan clubs... editing the newsletters and helping with events. But I could not take the petty behavior of some of the grown women. Yet I was the one in high school at the time. One day, Patsy Andersen called asking me to start a fan club for young fans... which I did... and I was kicked out of the fan club I was assistant editor with because of it. At the time, I was the youngest fan club president in the US ever. I tried to get it going but it seems in the states, you have to back an ETA. I was not for it. And it is still this way. The best thing I ever did was become friends with Henrik and start writing for him.

ElvisNews: Can you tell us something about your work and how you became an Elvis author?

Megan Murphy: I have been writing since I was a kid. My great grandmother was a song writer. Nothing big but she wrote a theme song about Jersey Tomatoes and a few other songs. And she was the organ player here in Bayonne at the Opera House where Al Jolson and Frank Sinatra played. Strange thing is that same property is now a supermarket where my Mom is currently working over 30 years, I worked there 16 years and my brother currently works there 20 years.

Anyway, once I found my comfort zone with Elvis Unlimited, I started to write regularly for them. And I felt we all had the same feelings and attitudes which was really cool.

When I write about Elvis, I try to keep my personal opinions and views out of it. I think it's about Elvis and painting a clear picture of him. I do not want to taint that. When I do an interview, I try to ask fans what they would like to know, and I try to get the most out of the person I am interviewing, who they are and their thoughts about Elvis. It's a lot of fun. And I learn something new everyday. From doing the interviews and research, I came across many of the G I photos, and from there, Henrik, Lars and I decided to do a G I book. And if you are going to do a book like that, you NEED the contributions of Ger Rijff.

ElvisNews: Your upcoming (new) book "Inside “Roustabout" is done together with an European fan club (Elvis Unlimited, Denmark). We enjoy that fans from all over the world work together. Can you tell us something about the background of this co-operation?

Megan Murphy: I think I just rambled on about that above.

ElvisNews: Where did the idea for this book come from?

Megan Murphy: Henrik, Lars and I came up with the idea to do these books as a team.

ElvisNews: Can you tell us something about the book?

Megan Murphy: It's so cool! And I think everyone will love it! Just to give you an idea...last year when I was at Al Wertheimer's house doing interviews with him for Elvis Unlimited, I told him about the books. And he thought it was such a cool idea. He said these books would go down in history to legitimize Elvis films. I thought it was a great compliment to Elvis Unlimited.

ElvisNews: Can you give us a little insight into how the book is laid out?

Megan Murphy: It's much like "Inside G.I. Blues".

ElvisNews: Is the book going to contain a lot of new material and photos that fans will not have seen before?

Megan Murphy: Yes!

ElvisNews: What did you discover what we didn’t already know?

Megan Murphy: You know what, Now that I have done "Inside G.I. Blues" and "Inside Roustabout", I watch these movies in a whole new light and appreciation. It is so cool. And I hope others will really read it and experience the excitement and intrigue I did.

ElvisNews: Did you have to le

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