NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In 2017, Nashville lost a building with a major connection to rock and roll royalty. Today, comes a very unexpected new chapter in that story.
When artist Wayne Brezinka finishes a new work, he takes it to Chromatics for a photo scan.
"If I really stop to think about it, not only is it a piece of art, but there's history embedded in the art piece itself," he said after his latest piece scanned.
This piece has connections to one of the most recognizable faces in music history.
Let's go back. It was 2017. A house in Madison was scheduled for demolition that was once the office of Col. Tom Parker, the manager of Elvis Presley. Elvis had a room there, and the building was also once the Elvis fan club.
"The town was upset," said Brian Oxley.
Brian once ran a huge service company and gained an interest in the Col. Tom Parker house.
"One of the most iconic buildings, the headquarters of Elvis Presley Enterprise, was gonna be torn down," he remembered.
Brian bought the materials that made up the Col. Tom Parker House ahead of demolition. He had a team take it apart piece by piece. The house is now long gone from Madison, but there's always been this question of what Brian was going to do with all items collected from in there.
Some of them, Brian gave to Wayne for a new art piece. It's a portrait of Elvis made up of materials from the Col. Tom Parker House.
"He has a collection of carpet on the floor to tiles in the bathroom," Wayne explained. "The wood panels from the bedroom Elvis slept in, along with photographs, rare images, reel to reel tapes, all these things were sitting around. He asked if I'd be interested in bringing Elvis to life through those objects."
"There's a light switch that was at the fan club in Madison," Wayne continued, showing part of the piece.
"This comes from the panel for the phone system of Col. Parker's home," Brian said, holding up some wires. "On one of these phone wires, he would have called Ed Sullivan."
"There are wires from the original phone system at the fanclub," Wayne said, showing wires in Elvis's hair in the portrait.
Brian is producing the upcoming documentary called In The Shadow of The King, covering Elvis's gospel recordings and his devotion to his faith. The film will feature the piece Wayne created from a concept by Brian.
"He said to me, 'I want you to do Elvis, known as the king of rock and roll, throwing a crown to the ground," Wayne described. "'I'm not the king. There's only one king', talking about God in heaven."
The piece will now head to Brian's home after a careful transport.
"It's almost reverent to hold these pieces that were part of history-making, and I have them to build something new," Wayne said.
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In this time of NIL deals and transfer portals, this is a refreshing story about the best of college athletics. A must watch for all young athletes with big dreams. I already showed my boys, and I can tell you Jack has some new fans!
-Carrie Sharp
