Eddie Miles has been doing his Elvis Presley thing for a long time, but he’d prefer not to be called an Elvis impersonator. Instead, he refers to himself as an Elvis tribute artist. He’s one of the best in the country and has earned that right.
“Elvis impersonators are not looked on in high regard … There are a few good ones and some really bad ones,” Miles said.
In 2016, after 25 years in the business, Miles was faced with some health issues that led to his walking away from a gig he enjoyed. “I didn’t realize how much I would miss it,” he said. “And I didn’t realize how much my fans missed me.”
Those fans have been acquired over a lifetime of music for Miles. At 10, he began performing with his two brothers and a sister as the Miles Kids at the Lincoln Jamboree in Hodgenville.
“I got my first guitar when I was 8, and from the beginning, I was singing Hank Williams and Johnny Cash songs about drinking, cheating, divorce, heartache and prison. We lived near a beer joint, and here I was a kid who would go over there and play songs. Those guys would tip me, and I’d go home with $12 or $13—a lot of money for a little boy.”
Miles, a 1973 graduate of Marion County High, wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. He knew he could get a construction job, so that’s the route he took. “I wanted to sing, but making a living at it was tough,” he said. “It was 1973, and my wife-to-be and I went to see Elvis at Freedom Hall [in Louisville]. Tickets, I remember, were $10, $7 and $5.
“It was about the same time I heard a radio ad that an Elvis guy was going to be performing at the Lincoln Jamboree, and I wanted to see him. He came out with blond hair, a Beatle haircut, and wiggled around a lot. He looked nothing like Elvis. The crowd went crazy.”
It was then that Miles had an idea. “I knew I could do better than what I saw, so the next show in Hodgenville, I did an Elvis routine. I think I did ‘All Shook Up,’ ” he recalled.
Lincoln Jamboree owner Joel Ray Sprowles was so impressed with the young Miles that he had a white fringe-adorned costume made for his new star. Photos were taken to sell to the sold-out crowds, and the Elvis gig was launched. “I actually made more money from selling the pictures than Joel Ray was paying me,” Miles said with a laugh.
Sprowles had another costume made for Miles, and because he was selling out his 1,000-seat theater consistently with the Elvis act, he wanted to become Miles’ manager. It wasn’t to be, and by 1978, Miles was back in construction work.
It was then that Miles realized he had to do something to earn a full-time living. “I had a family to support, so I joined the Air Force for four years,” he said. “I still wanted to pursue a music career. People called me Elvis … I had that look, so I decided to put on my own Elvis show in January 1983.”
Miles rented the Nelson County High School auditorium in Bardstown for $75, printed up tickets, and advertised the show. His wife put together his outfit. “My two brothers played with me. We had a drummer, bass guitar, piano and a three-piece horn section, and two female backup singers,” he said. “We sold tickets at $5 and sold out. I scheduled another show two months later.”
Miles was working for a petroleum company in Bardstown for $4 per hour. But he suffered a financial setback when he was fired from that job. “What am I going to do?” he remembered asking himself. “It cost me my job when I had to go to Louisville to find a spotlight for my next performance at the Nelson County High School. My absence from work was not good.”
Struggling to support his family and with no health insurance, things looked bleak for Miles, but help was just around the corner.
The year before, he had sent a video of his Elvis routine to Triangle Talent, an entertainment agency in Louisville that booked shows for several state fairs throughout the country. “I couldn’t believe it when they called me,” Miles said. “They had it for a year before they played it. Now, they were telling me they could book me at the Missouri State Fair for $11,000. Are you kidding me? All I heard was $11,000—halfway read the contract. It was 12 days, two shows a day. I had to pay my band and motel rooms. It was hot with those heavy outfits, and besides that, we were next to a hog barn.”
Miles always had had success selling his pictures and cassettes at his shows, but by this time, he also was selling autographed scarves that had become part of his Elvis persona. “We sold out of scarves and went to Walmart, bought a bunch of material, cut [it] into scarves, and sold out again at a dollar each,” he said. “Every show was a sellout to a standing ovation.”
In spite of what looked good in the beginning, Miles made a profit of only $700 after expenses. It was a lesson learned. “I was really disheartened,” he said. “Thought about going back in the Air Force, but I got a call from the Coors Beer Company. They wanted to hire me to do a series of shows. They were going to put me on the road. They were all excited, and so was I, but they never really followed through.”
In 1985, Miles was able to land a job with the post office in Nelson County, and during his two-week vacations, he would perform at state fairs. “I went back to the Missouri State Fair, but this time I got $22,000,” he said. “I also did the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. They even started a fan club for me and wanted me to do some of their county fairs.
“When I got back to Kentucky, they were sending me all kinds of gifts—lots of cookies. Believe it or not, people from Iowa would come by the post office and take pictures of me there behind the counter.”
Over the years in Iowa, Miles went from doing his Elvis routine in front of 2,000 to performing for an audience of 22,000. He also appeared at the Kentucky State Fair.
Throughout his career, he has owned and operated theaters in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was making money, but the wear and tear of 250 shows a year took its toll. In 1999, he underwent back surgery, and the following year he had coronary bypass surgery.
Miles loved what he was doing. He also knew he had to slow down.
He had secured the soundtrack from one of his live concerts and set out to take Elvis to small venues where he didn’t have the major expense of a band. “It was like karaoke,” he described. “I was doing OK.”
Over the years, Miles had managed to avoid all of the Elvis impersonator competitions, which were practically everywhere. He let his talent speak for itself. He had performed in some 25 states, many of the Caribbean Islands, and Thailand. But in 2006, one of the competitions caught his attention. “It was in Cherokee, North Carolina, at a casino,” Miles recalled. “There were some real weird kooks there. Some were in character 24/7—the big sunglasses and all. Top prize was $7,500. I took third and $2,500 that year. Went back the next year and placed second and won $5,000. I said, ‘What the heck?’ and the next year I won first and $7,500.”
Throughout his career, Miles has rubbed elbows with the likes of J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet, Charlie Hodge and Scotty Moore, all of whom were part of Elvis Presley’s crew.
“I’ve traveled far and wide, and Eddie is the closest to the look and sound of Elvis,” said Hodge, who lived at Elvis’ home Graceland, sang backup, and gave Elvis his scarves and water on stage.
“Eddie Miles is the best,” Sumner said.
“I’m now only doing small venues close to home,” Miles said. “I’m doing a series of shows in Lebanon that works for me. It’s 250 seats, and it sells out.”
The show is billed as the “Eddie Miles Salute to Music Legends.”
“I do a little Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Marty Robbins, George Jones, Roy Orbison and a few others,” he said. “I finish up with Elvis in the second part of the show.”
For a man who at one time possessed around 20 Elvis costumes, knows hundreds of Elvis songs, and was an annual fixture at the Derby Dinner Playhouse across the river from Louisville in Clarksville, Indiana, he seems to be comfortable living on the outskirts of Bardstown, where his backyard is taken up by a small lake stocked with catfish and colorful koi. The only sign that an entertainer might live here is a large guitar that has become part of his mailbox.
Robin Humphries is the executive director of Centre Square, where Miles performs in Lebanon. “He keeps getting better,” she said. “He seems very relaxed, really enjoying where he is at this time in his life.”