Conversations on Elvis: Lee Majors, Linda Thompson, more share memories of the King

Elvis Week hit its stride Tuesday morning, as fans packed the Graceland Soundstage for a Conversations on Elvis event. The three-hour-plus talk show-styled program was hosted by longtime Elvis Week personality Tom Brown.

As part of the program, Brown chatted with various friends and celebrities who knew Elvis over the years, including Osmond Brothers member Jay Osmond, "The Big Valley"/"The Six Million Dollar Man" star Lee Majors, and Presley’s longtime girlfriend, and now successful songwriter, Linda Thompson, who made her first-ever Elvis Week appearance.

The program also touched on several key anniversaries being celebrated in 2023. These included the 55th anniversary of Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special and 50th anniversary of his Aloha from Hawaii satellite concert, with Brown welcoming guests and band members involved in each of those productions.

The Osmond Brothers’ Jay Osmond regaled the audience with stories of his close encounters with the King. Osmond noted his thrill at getting to come to Memphis and spend time at Graceland. “One of my most fun moments, has been going around and seeing all the exhibits, the ripple effects [Elvis] has had on everyone’s lives.”

Osmond then detailed how Presley had affected his and his siblings' lives, mentoring them while they all performed in Las Vegas in the 1970s. Osmond recalled Presley welcoming the young star-struck family band into his home and inner circle. “He said, ‘Brothers, come on in,’” Osmond recalled. “I was 15 years old and the impact that it had on my life is… well, we all changed that night.”

Osmond noted how the family band soon ditched their clean-cut image, matching dress shirts and tap shoes, after Presley connected them with his costume designer Bill Belew, who soon outfitted them in Elvis-like bedazzled jumpsuits.

“'Brothers, you need some karate in your act,'” Osmond recalled Presley telling them, sending them to martial arts expert Chuck Norris for personal karate lessons.

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Mostly, Osmond recalled Presley as an entertainer deeply grateful for his fame and following. “Not only did he bring a unique talent to this world… but his humility, his love for the lord, this country and especially his fans. He’d say, ‘Brothers if I could do it again, I would shake hands with everyone of my fans.’”

Actor and Presley pal Lee Majors also offered amusing anecdotes about the singer. Majors arrived on stage wearing what host Brown described as “blue suede shoes.” “I got the memo,” quipped Majors.

Majors told how he and Presley had first met in 1967 during production of one his movie musicals. “He was filming ‘Clambake,’ filming it at the Four Star lot [in Hollywood] and that’s where I was filming ‘The Big Valley,’” Majors recalled.

Their friendship on set would result in Majors appearing in a comedic bit part in “Clambake,” playing an outrageously outfitted waiter in the background of one of Elvis’ scenes. “They call it photobombing now,” joked Majors.

Majors also talked of seeing Elvis’ live comeback in Las Vegas in 1969 and visiting him regularly in the city. “Every year, I would go and drive over and see [Elvis’ shows]. A mutual respect was really born there,” said Majors, who delighted fans by exiting the Graceland stage miming the bionic running motion from “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

The show’s final guest, Linda Thompson, talked for the first time in Memphis about her 1972-76 relationship with Presley, and the feeling of returning to Graceland. “You can still feel his energy there and his essence there,” Thompson said. “That was truly home for him.”

After splitting with Elvis, Thompson would go on to marry Olympic champion Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) and had two children with him. She would later marry songwriter David Foster and become a hit songsmith in her own right, penning tunes for everyone from Barbra Streisand to The Backstreet Boys.

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Thompson offered thoughtful, sometimes intimate details of life with Presley — how he instructed her on preparing his famed peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and what he smelled like.

“He smelled of Neutrogena soap,” recalled Thompson. “He always had this little essence of the clean fresh smell of Neutrogena. Their sales are going to go up, aren’t they?”

Thompson noted “how lucky I was to have loved Elvis and been loved by him.” She remembered Presley as someone “who lived for the day… this is the present we should grasp and rejoice in. Elvis was such an incredible teacher of life, the kind of person you should aspire to be.”

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elvis Week: Lee Majors, Linda Thompson, Jay Osmond on the King