January 8 marks what would have been Elvis Presley’s 91st birthday, and Memphis is celebrating with the annual Graceland Birthday Proclamation, panels, and advance U.S. screenings of Baz Luhrmann’s new concert documentary, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. The film stitches together rarely seen footage from his 1970 Las Vegas residency and 1972 tour, with Elvis’s own voice guiding parts of the story. It’s built to remind you how electric he was on stage.
And for the long-asked question: Is Elvis still alive? No, he died on August 16, 1977, in Memphis at 42. What endures is the myth, sustained by the work: the recordings, the TV specials, the films, and the community that keeps showing up every January 8. Even Graceland’s tradition of leaving the Christmas decorations up until his birthday adds to the sense that his presence lingers.
Elvis had a knack for turning big ideas into plain talk. Two lines feel tailor‑made for a birthday reflection:
- “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”
- “Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.”
Both come from the Graceland archive of quotes and interviews, and they still sound like good advice for a new year, cut through the noise, then put some horsepower behind your plans.
If you’re raising a toast at home, queue up the 1968 TV Special and Aloha from Hawaii, and read a few more lines straight from the King: “A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage.” That feeling is exactly what fans chase at the birthday celebration, and what EPiC promises to bring back to the big screen.
So, no, Elvis isn’t alive. But on his 91st, the spark he struck still is, and if you listen closely, you can hear it humming like a V8.
