In 1970, Elvis was booked to play a huge run of shows at the Houston Astrodome. Backing him, as they had for a while, were the Sweet Inspirations, the gifted Black vocal group whose harmonies were a big part of his live sound.
Then, according to the group’s Myrna Smith, a message came down from the organizers. The Sweet Inspirations, they suggested, could just stay home for this one. Leave the Black singers behind.
Smith says Elvis was furious. And his answer, as she tells it, was short and left no room for debate.
Myrna Smith on what Elvis said
Six words. If they don’t come, I don’t come. There was no speech and no lecture, just a flat refusal to take that stage without the women who sang beside him.
There’s a small, satisfying twist to how it all played out, and again this comes from Myrna Smith. The person who had sent that message happened to have a daughter. And that daughter, Smith says, ended up being the one who drove the Sweet Inspirations around town all week long.
Myrna Smith on Elvis and race
Elvis didn’t make a speech about any of it. He just made it plain, in six simple words, that the people who stood on that stage with him were coming too, or he wasn’t coming at all.