It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason

Elvis Presley - Memphis Mansion, his home in Denmark, built by a fan to keep the music alive

• Phil Blizzard + Russell Mason • Season 1 • Episode 8

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We tour Memphis Mansion with Hendrik Knudsen and Stan Urban, tracing the stories behind Elvis’s TCB chain, the Johnny Cash exhibits, and the spirit that keeps rock and roll alive. We balance myth and memory, dig into Colonel Parker, and plan a return when July’s residency hits.

 From the sparkle of the first TCB chain to the quiet authority of gold records and stage clothes, we follow the artefacts that carry stories—why they exist, what they meant to the artists, and how they still teach us what great performance looks like.

We don’t dodge the complicated parts. Colonel Tom Parker’s shadow looms large, and we unpack his savvy early moves, his infamous contracts, and the instinct to turn grief into blame after Elvis’s death at 42. That nuance opens a wider conversation about how mid-century music was sold, the cost of fame, and the difference between myth and the machinery that keeps a career on the road. Hendrik shares candid memories of working with members of Elvis’s band—the Jordanaires, the Imperials, the TCB band—threading living voices into the archive.

The path then turns to Johnny Cash and the second museum built during COVID, where the American recordings help reintroduce a legend with stripped-back power. Add a replica of Elvis’s Tupelo house, a small cinema screening documentaries, and a lively diner where the Stan burger is a staple, and you’ve got a full-day experience that invites you to linger rather than rush. Stan’s July residency seals the deal: this isn’t a mausoleum, it’s a stage where rock and roll still breathes.

If you’re planning a visit, expect anywhere from an hour to a full day, with local hotels and clear info at MemphisMansion.com. We also tease our next on-location stop at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, the birthplace of classics like Bohemian Rhapsody. Subscribe, share with a fellow music lover, and leave a review—then tell us: which artefact would you most want to see up close? Rockfield Studios scheduled for Season 2 - early 2026

It's Only Rock and Roll is a Phil Blizzard Radio Production - for your production email philblizzardmedia@gmail.com

SPEAKER_05:

But the devil made the boogie and he's rocking tonight.

SPEAKER_01:

Great stuff, Stan. Um, thank you for that. The legendary Stan Urban. Uh, just just go on Spotify. He gets maybe half half a krona or half a euro for every million play. So um he's making a fortune there. No, for the rock and roll, go on to Spotify and um and you'll find Sturban there and lots of his music. And you know, the thing is he he he does all the classics, but he's written some brilliant songs himself. And uh uh please do yourself a favor. Um so Hendrik, maybe you could just tell us a bit more about the exhibits and we'll just have a little look around the exhibits, I think. So maybe you could just take us around and uh explain piece by piece the ones that stand out. You can't do the 6,000 or however many you've got, but the ones that stand out the favourites, you know, give people a taste of of the place. That would be great.

SPEAKER_02:

The thing is that we uh, you know, when I started collecting, for me it was more the music, and it's still the music, it's still the music that uh made me the Elvis fan. But I like the story, and I like the story too to a lot of the pieces. And I have uh, for example, I have Elvis' TCB chain. And uh, if you don't know what what TCB is, it was Elvis had been on tour for 30 days, and one of his musicians said to him, Elvis, I I I think we are a little bit bored by by playing Love Me Tender every night. And Elvis said, What are you talking about? Love me tender is one of the classics, that's one of the songs that the audience would like to hear. And the musician kept going, and and he said to Elvis, we played it for 30 days, it's really boring. And Elvis said, What about the audience that comes in tonight? Have they been with us on two over thirty days? And of course they hadn't. And Elvis said, Don't you think we should just TCP take care of business? When Elvis was flying home that night, he was a little bit uh he was a little bit uh annoyed, uh bored. He was yeah, annoyed that he had a fellow musicians who didn't understand the concept. And uh he was flying at that time with American Airlines on and on the backside on of an envelope he he found in the in the seat in front of him, uh, on that pocket in the seat in front of him, he he took a pin and he wrote his first and and and only uh uh uh business uh slogan. He's he wrote TCB, he said take care of business, he wrote take care of business, and he he he draw a little uh uh flash and uh the idea was to put that flash under the TCB. So that meant take care of business in a flash. When he landed in uh in Memphis, uh he uh contacted his uh his jeweller uh Lol Hayes and he made him make uh a couple of these. Uh I have the first one that he made uh for Elvis. It's uh it's full of diamonds, uh and it's it's a super cool uh simple because it should not only remind Elvis and his musicians, it should it should remind all of us that every day we have to do our very best. That's that's the we don't know how long long the life is, how long life we have together. So let's freaking rock and roll. So so I love that. It means a lot to me. I have I also have a couple of rings, I have some uh um yeah, I have uh as I said earlier, I have a few of his guitars, I have some clothing, I have a lot of his um his gold records. Um I have a little bit on Colonel Parker, and uh a lot of people really don't like the Colonel, and I'm not uh saying that I do, but I don't dislike him as much as other people do as well. I think he was very clever, at least in in the early days. Uh he became the name the current he his name was uh actually uh Andreas Cornelius van Key, and he was a legal immigrant from Holland. And when he came to America, he easily figured out that uh Andreas Cornelius van Keyck was not an easy task, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

So he took a he took a uh uh uh name change to Thomas uh Andrew Parker and later became Parker or the Colonel, and the Colonel came for helping a uh a governor becoming a governor because he was very clever with marketing, and when the governor Hendrik, Hendrik, just just for our uh listeners and viewers, and we do have some younger ones as well, just to reiterate, Colonel Parker was Elvis's manager, he he discovered Elvis, uh you know, just because no nobody, not everybody's as knowledgeable as you. Uh, and it's really interesting to hear you, but just to but anyway.

SPEAKER_02:

So uh the Colonel, I I got a few of his stuff, uh uh funny contracts. Uh he always had in his contracts uh, by the way, we want all the money up front, and the rest in the end. And and he was very uh he was a comedian about a lot, a lot of things, you know, and he did dealings on Elvis' behalf that was very clever and very different from anything anybody has seen.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he did get a lot of bad press, didn't he? To be fair. Um, you know, that's what you hear about Colonel Parker, this sort of um monstrous figure that maybe wasn't.

SPEAKER_02:

I think what's we have to what we really have to think about is that none of us really forgave Elvis to die at the age of 42 years.

SPEAKER_01:

I remember where I was, I remember what what I was doing when I was told.

SPEAKER_02:

A lot of people were, right? So everybody forgave him, and when it happened, we had to put the guild on somebody. And the first one that came to our mind was the current and I I don't think it's it's hundred percent fair. Was he a crook? Well, he was probably a crook, but uh anyway, that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00:

And what about um Johnny Cass? I believe he comes into the museum with uh you got some exhibits connected to uh Johnny I have always been a big Johnny Cass fan.

SPEAKER_02:

I never met Elvis, but I met Johnny Cass a few times. I had a visit in 2016 by Tommy Cass, Johnny's uh younger brother, and he came and visited and saw the museum, and he pulled me aside uh after walking through, and he said, I wish somebody would do what you have done for Elvis. I wish somebody would do for my brother. I was not the first one doing that, but somebody uh Bill in Nashville did the first Johnny Cass museum ever, but we have the second, and it it uh we we got the idea and we built it uh during COVID. We had nothing else to do, so why not build the next museum?

SPEAKER_01:

What an amazing artist. I um I I love I mean when you think of I mean I personally love his last album. I love it. Um and it was like uh it was sort of I don't know in a spooky way, a goodbye, you know? I I don't know, have you felt that? Um great some great songs, some great covers, some some interesting covers, but the way the way he presented the album was amazing, um, which is just cool cash, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I I I totally agree. Uh all the um all the American uh albums I think was great. Uh it was uh uh Johnny got invented again uh in a new uh fresh style and it it fit him very well and at least it gave him uh the rise again uh before his uh his passing.

SPEAKER_01:

And he deserved.

SPEAKER_02:

Definitely deserved.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I I I I I I do have um obviously we're reminiscing here a little bit. I just want to bring us back a little bit on track because um are there other people who have visited you who you would say it was like were there people who visited you who are in Elvis's band who are able to give you more stories? Um is there any standout? And we just lost Sonny as well, didn't we?

SPEAKER_02:

Sure, yeah, you know what? I work I I I'm proud to say I worked with most of them uh over the years. Uh I worked with the Jordan Airs, I worked with the Imperials, uh, one of his gospel choirs, uh JD Summer and the Stam, Scottie Moore and DJ Fontana, his first uh uh guitarist and uh and drummer. Uh TCB band, James Burden, Ronnie Todd, uh John Wilkinson, uh uh Glenn D. Harding, um uh yeah, uh Jerry Chef on bass. I've I I worked with all of them and and and they've all been here. Not uh uh not Scotty um he passed uh before he had the chance to come over, so I'm very sad about that.

SPEAKER_01:

I've known him for a long time, but he was a very good and of and of course all these names that you're naming of legends of rock and roll. Uh you have one sitting next to you. I mean, I don't want to embarrass Stan, but he's still going 81? You're gonna be 82 soon, though, Stan? He's still foot on the piano. He's uh you can't stop the guy, and uh he's plays, I believe, every July. He does a residency, you know, uh weather permitting at your place. Uh how's that how's that working out?

SPEAKER_02:

That's working out greatly. It's it's a tradition now. It uh it's something that had to be because again, we known each other for a long time, and Stan uh followed the project while we were building the house, and uh again we've been friends for for a long, long time. So um and to be honest with you, we have a lot of great musicians in Denmark. We surely don't have any rock and rollers like uh Mr. Stan Urban here.

SPEAKER_01:

So you recorded, didn't you record a live album? Yeah I was listening to it the other day, yeah. Uh some some good musicians playing with you there, Stan.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, there's one English guy, uh the bass player, Michael Wedgewood, of the Wedgwood uh porcelain family. Oh really? Most of the musicians are Danish musicians, but there are some fine musicians here in a little country like Denmark. I mean there's more people in Glasgow than what there is in but you're not fussy, Stan.

SPEAKER_01:

You play with anybody. I I I I'm always amazed Stan was just like, come on, let's play, you know. And uh in the spirit of rock and roll, you uh bless you, Stan. It's brilliant when he when he when you just invite everyone to play with you, and and you you know, if if no one wants to play, you'll play on your own. If if there's for one person or ten people. I I said in a previous podcast, you know, when he came to Manila in the in in the shopping mall, he just got up and started playing, and no sooner there's a crowd, you know. Uh so we love that. And I think, yeah, what you're saying, Hendrik, that is the spirit of of the old rock and rollers, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

So Stan playing in July, that's definitely a date for my diary, and uh, we're gonna give out uh the website in a moment for people to want more information, and Stan will have some more music from you. But um Henrik, how much time is required to see the museum? How how long would a guest spend visiting the mansion?

SPEAKER_02:

As long as we have added over the years, uh people uh spent from an hour to a whole day, depending on your interest. If you want to read every little note and and understand everything, and we have a when you go to the museum, it's it's as I said, it's not only the Elvis, we have the Johnny Cass, we made a replica of the Tupelo house. We have a small uh movie theater where we show a documentary on Elvis. And uh hey, if you also want to wine and dine in our diner, you know it takes uh an hour or two, maybe more, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

But uh hey, uh Stan Citroel Burger is very good. Stands at your burger is amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So what about if if people want to stay over? I mean, if it's gonna spend the whole day there, it'll need somewhere to sleep.

SPEAKER_02:

Is there hotels nearby or hotels in Randall's, yeah. That's a very nice hotel uh in in all price ranges, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And what's what's your website for those who want more information? It's easy, it's uh MemphisMansion.com. Okay, great. So we'll put that at the bottom of our uh writing on on the uh the podcast uh section. So um Stan plays there in July, which is great good stuff. And Stan, talking about the website, what's yours what's your main website? Stanalban.dk or stanalban.uk. So one for Denmark, one for the rest of the world, yeah? Okay, good stuff, yeah, yeah. So uh Russell has been amazing, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

What a fabulous experience, amazing, and and uh all the look around the thank you so much, uh Hendrik, for showing us around all the all the pictures you've shown us and uh all the videos you've shown us and the walkthrough of all the exhibits. That's been so interesting and amazing that you've uh you've captured uh so many of Elvis's uh relics, memorabilia that people can enjoy. And uh, you know, I uh uh this podcast that we're doing, we're talking to so many people who have their place in rock and roll history. You know, you guys are what it's all about. Your passion and enthusiasm for what you do is is just incredible, and uh that is an incredible place. And and we urge anybody, I will be visiting, I'll be visiting Stan, and I'll be definitely coming to see you as well, Hendrik. So I'm look I really look forward to that.

SPEAKER_00:

Um we're gonna look at doing it in July next year. We're gonna pop over the same time, Stan is there, and and perhaps do a live podcast from the venue. That'd be great fun, wouldn't it? That would be really great. And talking of our podcast series, I want to give a bit of a plug, a mention too. We got a similar sort of one coming along. We're gonna go to the legendary studio in the UK where so many big bands are recorded, major, major hits. It's a place where Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded, what, 50 years ago? We're talking about Rockfield Studio in Monmouth. So we're looking forward to uh being on location down.

SPEAKER_01:

And we're speaking to uh the owner who's equally as passionate, ex-dairy farmer, uh Kingsley Ward. Um and his brother set up Rockfield in 1962. Um, he'll be speaking to us. So uh, you know, all these people are what are they the foundation of what brought us to the music that we all love, whatever genre. But um, Hendrik, what you're doing and what you've done and what you continue to do really does uh uh keep it all going, keep it all alive for those people who never, you know, they didn't experience what Stan uh you and I, Hendrik and Phil, we didn't really experience what Stan experienced when it was all going on in the late 50s, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean before we have some more music from Stan, I think from me a final one to Henry because it's been a fascinating insight. Um give you a little bit of moment a few seconds to think about this. What's bringing perhaps the most standout moment? What's been the most exciting part for you, your biggest achievement, you think?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, there's so many. Um I thought you might say that but to be honest with you, there's so many things. I would say that I'm most proud of succeeding with something that uh most people didn't believe in. Right. So I'm I'm proud of that. To have that kind of uh uh business today. I'm I'm I'm really I'm really happy. Uh but I would say that there's a few things. Actually, uh the Danish uh uh the royal family invited us on two trips uh to follow them uh when they were in Brazil, and also 10 years ago, I have to say it's 10 years ago in Russia. It would probably not have happened today. Something like that. Uh Brian Wilson uh visiting us, uh Elvis Costello. Um Stan, of course, all the great memories I have with um yeah and as we as we're talking, you've got visitors coming by in the background.

SPEAKER_00:

Fantastic, it's really good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You're part of the occasion now, guys.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so track track that lady down and tell her she's gonna be on the podcast, you know. Tell her the word around. So I think thanks very much indeed. It's been absolutely brilliant, and uh, I think we'll leave it to Russell now to do the closing part and bring back Stanley.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean we uh we can't leave without Stan doing another one of his numbers on the piano. And uh I think it's fitting, don't you, Hendrick, that we let let the old fella have another go at uh entertaining us with one of his songs. What are you gonna sing for us, Stan?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh god. It caught me off balance there.

SPEAKER_00:

You've got a whole repertoire. It looks like you got a couch load just arrived. There's good galore coming through at the moment.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you have to. Baby I don't care. Yeah, we'll we'll have a go at that one. No black notes. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01:

Baby I don't care.

SPEAKER_03:

Tell us more about Baby I Don't Care. Well, it's one of my favourites. Uh that was in the film Jail House Rock. Um he looks very well, he looks like a college student actually when he did it. He's got this pullover on, and uh I just think it's a great it just sums everything up in his rock and roll, period, is Baby I don't care.

SPEAKER_01:

Just before you do that, Stan, thanks so much for organizing this podcast. You always talk very highly of Hendrik sitting around the pool in my place here in the Philippines. We had a good we had a good laugh, and I couldn't believe what you were telling me about this crazy guy who built this mansion of Elvis in Denmark. So bless you both, and all power to you with your rock and roll. And take it away, Stan.

SPEAKER_00:

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