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I told you the story about the Asheville, North Carolina incident. Elvis gave everyone jewelry. That night in Asheville, I was sitting right by the end of the stage with Felton Jarvis. Felton controlled the sound system, and he was the liaison between Elvis and RCA, also one of Elvis' dearest and one of my dearest friends. Elvis came over to me on the stage and he bent and said, "Where's your case?" I said, "It's right here." He replied, "Well set it up here." I set it up on the stage and while he was singing, he reached down in the case, got out a ring, and walked over to this girl that was standing there with a rose in her hand. He took the rose and handed her the ring. And the crowd saw what he did and they just went wild. So he came back and he gave away about ten or fifteen pieces of jewelry standing on the stage that night in Asheville, North Carolina.

I was really embarrassed, and I thought, "I don't know what's going on with him." He left us standing on the runway. He had gotten mad at everybody, then he made up with everybody. There was a lot of money involved and I felt really bad about it. I wished that for once in my life I wasn't there. If I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have been able to throw away all that money.

After the show, I usually rode in the limo that followed his limo when we'd leave the coliseum on our way back to the hotel. This particular time I jumped in the car with him, and I said, " Elvis, I'm really embarrassed that you did that. I wish I hadn't been here. I don't follow you around to sell you jewelry, but I come along because I have such a wonderful time and I enjoy being here. I am a jeweler and I have jewelry with me for special needs, but not to give it away on stage. You gave away a lot of money tonight on stage." Elvis looked at me and patted me on the knee and laughed and said, "Lowell, do you know what I'm going to have to do?" I said, "What's that?" He said, "I'm going to have to sing five minutes longer tomorrow night to pay for that jewelry." Then he just laughed and I thought about it, he was right.

Elvis made so much money and he had so much money and he loved his fans and he loved the people he sang for so much that he tried to give everything he made back to his fans.