Arts & Entertainment

Elvis Enanmter

The Bunker Boys meet "The King."

DON COHEN

Special to the Jewish News

L

ast year, Richard "Rico"
Steinhardt met Elvis Presley at
a Meijer in Kalamazoo. Why
haven't others seen him lately? "He
just wants to stay low-key," says
Steinhardt.
So, while others will be remember-
ing Aug. 16, 2005, as the 28th
anniversary of Elvis' death, Steinhardt
will be remembering the night Elvis
and his band, the Bunker Boys, got
together to play a few songs that
•
appear on the recently released album

Elvis Has Left the Building .
Steinhardt, 55, of West Bloomfield,
aka "Rico," started jamming with
musicians while at the University of
Michigan in 1968. He played with a
number of different blues bands, pat-
terning himself on the acoustic music
of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee,
while taking in the Beatles, Bob Dylan
and the Grateful Dead. Elvis wasn't
even on his radar.

It wasn't until spring 2003, during
the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit's Lenore Marwil
Jewish Film Festival, that Steinhardt
began thinking about Elvis. He saw
the film Schmelvis: Searching for the
King's Jewish Roots, a fanciful look at
Elvis and Judaism by three Canadian
filmmakers featuring an Orthodox
rabbi/Elvis impersonator.
"I was intrigued," says Steinhardt,
who immediately identified with Elvis.
"We're both spiritual seekers," he
explains.
Even the title "The King" is a con-
nection. "I'm descended from King
Solomon and King David. That's
where I got some of my spark," claims
Steinhardt. "On my mother's side, I'm
descended from Kohanim (priests)."

Meeting At Meijer

Steinhardt's desire to learn more about
"The King" led him to the music, the
books and, in 2004, to Collingwood,
Ontario, for the annual Elvis Festival.
"When I saw all the impersonators,

I really appreciated what a great voice
Elvis had," says Steinhardt
"All those other guys couldn't hit any
of the notes." (He has posted video of
the festival on his Web site at
www.elvishaslefthebuilding.biz.
It all set the stage for that cold
January night when an approaching
snowstorm brought both Rico and
Elvis together in a muzak-filled Meijer
in Kalamazoo.
The encounter, detailed on
www.elvishasleftthebuilding.biz, led to
the Bunker Boys backing up Elvis on
"If I Could Be Here," and the band
members writing and performing the
title song of their album.
Steinhardt confirms that Elvis lives
in Kalamazoo and looks great. In
keeping with his generous nature, he
even paid for Steinhardt's groceries at
Meijer. Asked where Elvis went after
they met, Steinhardt says, "He went
home. He said D.B. Cooper, Amelia
Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa were stop-
ping by."
According to Steinhardt,

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—

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