If you’ve spent a reasonable amount of time walking around D.C. at night, you’ve probably encounted the enigmatic Blelvis, the self-styled Black Elvis who can free-associate from any word you might choose to an appropriate Elvis song. He’s got a pretty good voice, actually, and seems to be able to back up his claim to know every song Elvis ever recorded by heart.

You may have met Blelvis, or perhaps you only know of his legend… but do you know how Blelvis came to be? Well, a little while back, I ran into the man himself outside the Raven, and lacking a single with which to show my appreciation of his craft, I invited him in for a quick beer. I posed the question to him, and learned the tale.

The date was August 17, 1977, and Elvis Presley had died the previous afternoon at his home in Memphis. The Boy Who Would Be Blelvis sat in his room listening to the local black station, but they were playing nothing but Elvis Preseley hits. Nonplussed, he flipped to another station. More Elvis. (I remembered the day Jerry Garcia died: I had thought the friend who gave me the bad news was pulling my leg until he flipped on the radio, and we heard the Dead on every station.) He flipped again, and stopped. The radio was playing Treat Me Nice. “Not bad,” the future Blelvis mused. Next came You’re So Square, Baby I Don’t Care. He was hooked. The very next day, he ran out to buy his first Elvis album: A Legendary Performer: Volume 1. The rest is history.