Shane Hewitt and The NightshiftShane Hewitt and The Nightshift

What Was Sitting in a Kansas Salt Mine Might Change Your Mind About Elvis

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Elvis Presley concert film EPIC starts with a question you've never thought to ask: what happened to 68 boxes of footage locked in a Kansas salt mine? You already know the Vegas Elvis, the jumpsuits, the karate kicks, the cape with the eagle on the back. What you haven't seen is what the camera caught when the audience was screaming and nobody was thinking about the archive.

After 1965, Elvis had almost nothing on the Billboard charts, except In the Ghetto. Then he stepped into a Las Vegas residency and did 1,100 shows, sometimes two or three a day. Baz Luhrmann's production team found this footage while researching the biopic, synced surviving concert audio to film that had no original sound, and what they got was an artist so locked into his craft that the technical seam is invisible.

The cocktail menu for this one comes from Elvis's actual tastes: peanut butter whiskey, banana liqueur, Irish cream, garnished with a banana or a bacon strip. He avoided alcohol almost entirely, so the drinks named in his honor are built around the sandwich. Watching it on IMAX is probably the right call. The sound alone is worth the upgrade.

Topics: Elvis Presley concert film, EPIC Elvis movie, Las Vegas residency, peanut butter whiskey cocktail, Baz Luhrmann biopic

GUEST: Richard Crouse | http://richardcrouse.ca

Originally aired on 2026-02-19

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Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

Shane Hewitt is known for his engaging and relatable on-air personality, which captivates listeners. 
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