The Man Who Would be King

If you think for a second that Rick Lenzi isn't serious when it comes to channeling the ghost of Elvis, consider this:

He knows that he wears the same shoe size as Elvis.

He was born with the same blood type as Elvis.

He knows that when you add together the date of his daughter's birthday and his wedding day, it adds up to Elvis' birthday.

He has had plastic surgery on his eyelids and nose, capped six of his teeth, dyed his hair, tanned his skin and bought specially designed contact lenses to look more like Elvis.

A corner of his living room serves as a shrine where Elvis dolls (still in their original boxes) and a Franklin Mint plate compete for space with an Elvis clock he bought at Graceland and framed .45s of songs such as "Jailhouse Rock" and "Viva Las Vegas."

His wife even heard from Elvis on her wedding day when Lenzi serenaded her with "Suspicious Minds."

In fact, the legend of the King pervades nearly every aspect of his life to the point where the mouse arrow on his home computer is not an arrow at all but a singing Elvis figure.

Call it obsession or just plain devotion, but Lenzi wants to make one thing very clear: "It's not a joke -- period. Because what I'm just trying to do here is re-create as much as I can and as close as I can the image of what he is.

"People say, ‘You're this or you're that, or you think you're him.' People laugh, but they just don't realize what we're here for. Elvis impersonators are here to portray the King as best as they possibly can and keep the legend and the memory alive."

Shaking his pelvis on local stages from the Forestville Club to First Night, Lenzi may have landed a few seconds of screen time in the movie "3,000 Miles to Graceland," opening Friday nationwide, starring Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell and Christian Slater.

Responding to a casting call of 250 Elvis impersonators last April, Lenzi spent a week in Las Vegas hamming it up with several dozen extras who play impersonators at an Elvis convention sabotaged when Costner and his gang of ex-cons don jumpsuits and shades to rob the casino. To catch a glimpse of the 26-year-old Elvis buff, look for the only other Elvis in a red jumpsuit aside from Christian Slater.

Lenzi says he even landed two speaking parts during the filming, although he has no idea if they made the final cut. In one take, he bumps into Christian Slater and says in a deep Southern drawl, "Hey man, why don't you watch where you're going!"

But mugging for screen time as a film extra is more of a lark than a career launcher when you consider Lenzi's real goal: to join the wax museum cast of Marilyn Monroe and Buddy Holly impersonators at Legends In Concert, a world famous imitation showcase that started at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas and has since spread from Bilouxi to Singapore.

By day, he sells mattresses at Sleep Train in Santa Rosa. By night, he rehearses with his five-piece band the Memphis Kings in an office space at the Sonoma Indian Health Project. He studies Elvis videos, memorizing every mannerism, expression and one-liner. And he combs the Internet to stay abreast of top impersonators around the world, guys like Ryan Pelton, Irv Cass and the 17-year-old phenom Quentin Flagg.

Starting out at the age of 19, Lenzi first mimicked Elvis on stage at the Sonoma County Fair in 1993. In 1995, the Piner High School graduate walked away with first place at an Elvis contest in South Bend, Ind. He has placed in the top 10 at the annual Images of Elvis contest in Memphis. And in 1999, he appeared on the TV show "Your Big Break." Not blessed with a face that fuels rumors of Elvis sightings in grocery stores and malls, Lenzi was actually born with blond hair. But he compensates by doing his homework and mastering the deep vocals, the pouty lip and all the acrobatics of the King. "It's one of those things that really transcends whether or not you really look like him or not," said John Duran, who booked Lenzi at this year's First Night celebration. "It's more about whether you can pick the characteristics up or not, or whether the personality is translated. Rick has been able to do a good job of picking up the youthful mannerisms, and I think that's what people are attracted to." At a benefit for the Sonoma County Indian Health Project last Sunday, Lenzi started out teasing the crowd with 1950s tunes like "Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender" and "Hound Dog," later donning a ruby-red rhinestone jumpsuit to invoke the Elvis of the 1970s with a slow sultry "Fever," and songs like "Mystery Train" and "Suspicious Minds."

Pumped by the cries of screaming women, he didn't take long to get into character, adopting the Elvis stance, his fists shadow-boxing the air to drive home every closing drum beat.

Yet, attracting a local following is only the first step toward his goal when you consider there are hundreds of Elvis impersonators of every variety, some black or Japanese or Mexican, like El Vez, along with a few female Kings, around the world from Bangkok to Tangier and Memphis in between. To be more competitive, Lenzi took the next step in January, having plastic surgery on his eyelids and nose, and capping six of his upper front teeth in porcelain to make him look more like Elvis.

"What happens is you either sound like Elvis Presley and you look like Humphrey Bogart," he said. "Or you look like Elvis Presley and you sound like Humphrey Bogart. There are not many who have the whole thing.

"No one was blessed with what they call the Greek god-like look that Elvis had. If you look at the statue of David you can tell that the face of David and the face of Elvis Presley can actually intertwine with each other." Lenzi had been toying with the idea for years, but when he first approached Santa Rosa plastic surgeon Dr. Barry Silberg in 1994 he couldn't come up with the money.

This time around, he didn't have to pay a dime. Over the past two years, Lenzi has attracted a tight-knit loyal following of fans willing to invest not only time and labor, but also hard-earned money to help him achieve his dream. Followers Elvida Gomes, Carol Kelley and Cathy Lopez teamed up with another fan to pool together $11,000 to pay for Lenzi's plastic surgery.

"He can't afford a whole lot by himself," said Kelley, 55, a dental assistant at the Sonoma County Indian Health Project. "It's been a dream of his since he was a kid. If it changes his life to the point where he becomes famous or something then I'm all for that ... otherwise he may go on selling mattresses forever."

After having a deviated septum fixed, Lenzi had the skin around his outer nostrils reduced and a bridge inserted to increase the profile of his nose to resemble Elvis. Also, the corners of his eyes were slanted downward.

"I studied some pictures of people who had surgery to make them look like Elvis and some of them looked, frankly, kind of deformed," said Silberg, chief of plastic surgery at Memorial Hospital and creator of the Web site www.nosejob.com.

"My intention in making him look more like Elvis was to make his face balanced more toward Elvis' features but so that he would still be himself."

In his 21 years of practice, Silberg had never encountered a patient who wanted to look like someone else. They met on several occasions to discuss not only physical but psychological issues as well.

"People don't come in and say, ‘Make me look better.' People come in and say, ‘I have a problem – I look in the mirror and all I see is my nose or I see my mother or something.' So the idea is not to convince somebody that they need to have something done. But rather to make them sort of feel whole again. "In his case, his problem was that he didn't look enough like Elvis, so it presented a whole different viewpoint."

Lenzi's fans, Gomes and Kelley, also met with Silberg to give him Elvis magazines, books and videos, along with video footage of Lenzi, to achieve the best possible resemblance. Kelley, who saw Elvis perform in Lake Tahoe in 1970, has also referred Lenzi for free dental work from a local cosmetic dentist. She has sewn two jumpsuits for Lenzi, including a replica of Elvis' white pony-bead suit that took a month to make.

"We sort of feel like we're his adoptive aunts," said Gomes, 68. It's also a way for them to adore Elvis vicariously through Lenzi. While Elvis was building his career as the king of rock ‘n' roll, Gomes was busy working in the fields with her husband, picking hops and grapes while raising seven children. "I always thought I would get a chance to see Elvis, but I still feel like I'm getting to see him and listen to his music through Rick," said Gomes, who first saw Lenzi perform at the Sonoma County Fair in 1995. In many ways, his toughest battle is not to achieve a perfect likeness of his hero (something he admits is impossible) or hit all the right notes, but simply to maintain a healthy separation between Rick Lenzi and Elvis Presley.

"When I'm on stage I'm in a certain mode to where I turn into that person, Elvis Presley," he said. "When I'm off stage I may dress like him, I may do whatever ... but I'm myself. I have a wife and I have a daughter. And I know who's Elvis and who's Rick."

But later in the same interview, he confides, "My wife keeps me in check," describing how she doesn't put up with impersonations at home and constantly reminds him to divorce identities.

"My daughter sees Elvis on TV and she says, ‘Look it's Daddy!'" he says.

Inspired by his icon, at this point Lenzi is still stuck in the town where he grew up. He's working with the Memphis Kings to master a repertoire of dozens of classics. He's considering more plastic surgery, maybe on his upper lip this time, along with a "crease" created on the left side of his smile where the upper and lower lips meet. And he also wants to file down his new porcelain caps to match Elvis' teeth.

Dying to take his show on the road, he never forgets Elvis' motto "Taking Care of Business."

"I see a lot of these guys out there doing Elvis and they're basically working in Legends or they're doing shows where they're performing all the time. I'm not an arrogant person and I'm not saying I'm the best. But I think I'm as good or better than any of those people that are out there.

"Let somebody at least give me a chance. That's all I want is a shot. One shot. Elvis got a shot and look what happened."

Watching Elvis videos at home in his Santa Rosa apartment on a recent afternoon, Lenzi admits, "If I was not married, I probably would get a major, huge-ass loan and become Elvis Presley." As he says it, a devilish grin lights up his face. "Because, you know what -- I wouldn't have anything. I wouldn't be married. I wouldn't have any kids." His wife, Tiffany, quickly interjects, "But you also wouldn't be Rick Lenzi."

"You're not Elvis, you're Rick," she reminds him as matter of factly as if she's said it a dozen times before.

"Elvis passed away. You're just helping keep his legacy alive."

Shaking his head, he can only grin and turn to watch his idol glow eternal on the TV screen.

John Beck has covered music and film for the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., for four years, writing about Wine Country characters like a heavy metal singer who vomits on his fans, a rookie drag queen named Candy Swallows and a man who placed a classified ad selling the skull of Jesus ("carbon dated to 0 A.D."). A Florida native and masters graduate of the University of New Mexico writing program, he also writes a bi-monthly entertainment column and lives in Santa Rosa with his wife and collection of sea monkeys.