Before the screaming fans, the hit records and the legend, Elvis Presley showed up to his first rehearsal looking unlike anybody Scotty Moore had ever seen.
It was summer 1954 when Sun Records boss Sam Phillips asked guitarist Scotty Moore to meet a young singer he had been hearing about. Elvis soon arrived at Moore’s house carrying his guitar and dressed in a way that instantly stood out. Scotty later recalled that Elvis wore a pink shirt, pink pants with white stripes down the legs, and white shoes. In conservative Memphis, it was such a flashy look that Moore joked his wife probably wanted to head for the back door.
This was not the confident superstar people later came to know. This was a teenager still trying to figure out if he even belonged there. Elvis was shy, nervous and still very unknown, but he also carried something that made people stop and look twice.
Elvis Presley Rocks the PINK & BLACK
The man who would become one of the biggest stars in the world first walked into Scotty Moore’s house like an awkward kid dressed louder than everybody else, carrying a guitar and hoping he was about to get a chance. No fame. No guarantee. No idea what was coming next.
But even before the records and television appearances, Elvis already looked like someone who did not want to blend in.
Long before he became the King, Elvis Presley showed up in pink pants, long hair and a guitar — and that strange little entrance became the first step toward history.