June 22, 2025 • 37 mins
Righto! I was luck enough to spend 3 days in Memphis and an Afternoon in Nashville. I'm a bit of a music nerd so this is very much an musical adventure. Here's my itinerary and handy travel tips:
3 DAYS IN MEMPHIS:
DAY 1:
- Mum and I met at Memphis airport
- I got a 6AM flight out of LA then flow into Austin Texas and got a connecting flight to Memphis, all up it took about 6 and half hours.
- Explored Beale St which is full of bars and music venues
- It’s located in downtown Memphis
- Renowned for its deep roots in blue music
- Then we headed to Blue City Cafe which is known for its famous ribs, which naturally I had to try, they came with coleslaw and spies beans, so yum!
- Mum got the seafood gumbo (which comes with okra) and she got “Larry’s greens” which was more like collard greens and absolutely delis.
- I had a Tennessee whiskey and mum had a Pino Grigio from California
DAY 2:
- Sun Studio tour, ok this was incred, its $20 and you legit get to stand where Elvis and Johnny Cash wrote so much magic
- So its a rock-n-roll recording studio and it’s legit still there, the sound proof tiles in the ceiling and walls, the same piano with a cigar burn in it.
- Sam Phillips created Sun Studio and built it up to be what it became.
- They even have one of the microphones Elvis used
- This has been the place so many iconic artists have written music; Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash started their careers
- Fun fact: its also a coffee shop and the coffee is delis (local roasters called French Truck Coffee)
- In this arvo mum and I split up, she really wanted to head to the Civil Rights museum and its also the location where Martin Luther King was shot.
- I went to the STAX museum of American Soul music its where Otis Redding recorded a bunch of music. It was an old movie theatre converted into a recording studio.
- Isaac Hayes also wrote his famous Shaft theme song here, and this museum houses both his Oscar and Grammy, oh and don’t forget his Cadillac.
- I’m so glad I visited this museum, it felt really special
- Then I met mum for dinner at Flyway brewery and I had a really nice local whiskey called “Old Dominique” I got a bowl of Brussels sprouts, then mum and I shared a plate of pickles and she got some cheesy dip situation.
DAY 3:
- It’s Graceland Day!
- We pre-booked our tickets for an 11AM start time, now if you’re staying downtown like us then you’ll def need to uber to this location
- We met for a coffee first, went to a little cafe called French Truck Coffee (local roasters)
- Then we headed to Graceland, straight out of the gate its HUGE! It’s like an Elvis Disneyland and they’ve thought of absolutely everything. There’s 6 different gift shops and 10 museums outside of the the Graceland house.
- We spent the whole day here, legit didn’t leave until it closed at 5PM so my first tip is plan to spend the day if you want to see everything.
- It started with an audio guided tour of Graceland and the mansion is as you would imagine it, exactly how he would have had it. The dinning room is complete with silverware that was gifted to Elvis and Pricilla from their wedding.
- My two favourite areas were his “jungle room” which was green and inspired by his time in Hawaii, and complete with an indoor waterfall.
- I also loved his meditation area which is also where he’s been buried, along with his parents, great grandmother, daughter and grandson. I found the memorial meditation area really emotional. I popped my hands on the grass where his grave is and thanked hi
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Get a. I'm Lola Berry, nutritionist, author, actor, TV presenter,
and professional overshaer. This podcast is all about celebrating failure
because I believe it's a chance for us to learn,
grow and face our blind spots. Each week, I'll interview
a different guest about their highs as well as their lows,
(00:26):
all in a bid to inspire us to fearlessly fail. Hello,
this is a Tour Guide episode. It is a Memphis
with a little Asterix and Nashville because I got to
do nearly a full day in Nashville and I soaked
up a lot in that time. So I'm going to
(00:46):
take you through everything we did, all in a bid
to hopefully inspire you if you want to do a
Memphis and or Nashville or Elvis trip or Johnny cashtrip.
So much musical stuff has been covered in this strip.
So first of all, I think you could do Memphis
in two or three days for sure, because there are
(01:08):
those specific places like Graceland and Sun Studio, and other
than that, Memphis is pretty quiet. So I'm going to
give it to you really like raw and real, because
there's some really awesome stuff about Memphis. But there were
a few times when I was like, oh, this is
this safe, right, So okay. Day one, Mum and I
(01:30):
both met at Memphis Airport. It's a really easy airport
to navigate. It's quite small fun factor. You can't get
to Memphis direct from Los Angeles. You're going to have
to do a stop off somewhere. I flew Delta Airlines.
I stopped off in Austin, Texas. I had one hour
stop over there, and I literally had to walk from
Gate eight to gate three. It was like a three
(01:53):
minute situation, so easy. And Memphis Airport is actually like
loads of space to sorry. Austin Airport bought loads of
space to chill and relax, lots of snacks, lots of
food options actually healthy food options too, which I was
really impressed by. So yeah, I would say that route
that I went LA Austin Memphis is a really good route.
(02:16):
I caught a six am flight, so I got picked
up at four am, and it just meant because there's
a time difference between LA and Tennessee, there's a two
hour time difference, it just meant that I still got
a bit of the afternoon when I landed. So Mum
and I met at the airport at about two pm,
we got an uber to our not Airbnb, but it
(02:37):
was an apartment, like mum privately booked an apartment. She
was in charge of the ACoM for Memphis. I put
forward all these bougie airbnbs, but they were quite expensive,
so I was like, okay, you pick somewhere where you were.
So we stayed downtown, not downtown in the thick of it,
like near Beal Street, but technically in the downtown area.
So we were very close to Sun's studio. So as
(03:00):
soon as we got in, we essentially unpacked and we thought,
let's just go for a walk. We've both been sitting
on flights and whatnot. We walked to Beal Street. Now
Beal Street is essentially it's renowned for its deep roots
in blues music, and there's just essentially bars and foody
spots with like music flowing out of it. I imagine
(03:20):
anytime of the day. We were there at five pm.
It is. It is literally in downtown Memphis. It is
really fun, real viby, like people doing two dollars whiskey
shots like it was a lot of it was just
a cool vibe. A lot of touristy things like a
couple of like touristy shops. There's bb King's shop there
(03:41):
as well. There's We end up walking just behind Beal
Street to another street parallel. I don't know if it
wasn't Union, it was another street, but there was like
Elvis's Taylor Is there, So it was really really cool,
and we grabbed dinner at a place in that touristy
hotspot of Beal Street and we went to a place
(04:02):
called Blue City Cafe. It's known for its famous ridge ribs,
which naturally I had to get. Also were in the South,
Obviously I'm going to get the Southern food. So I
got ribs that came with Coleslaw spicy beans and wait
for it, Texas bread, which is imagine thick, wonder white.
(04:24):
It is delicious but so sweet. Everything was sweet, like
the beans were sweet, like things are quite sweet in America.
Mum got the gumbo and she got what's called Larry's greens,
which is more like a kind of like collard greens.
That was really nice, and it came with they're called
hush puppies, but they're essentially little balls of corn bread.
(04:46):
That's how I would best describe them. And they were
really young too. I got a Tennessee whiskey. Mum got
a Pinot Grigio from California. Perfect night one, perfect, and
then we just made sure we walked to like a
local grocery market store beause Mom want to get some
yogurts for Brecky and I got a big bottle of
water stuff like that, and then we walked home chilled
(05:06):
that night. And then day two we had nothing planned.
We didn't know if we were going to do Graceland
day two or day three. We pre booked Graceland, which
I would highly recommend you doing because it saves a
bunch of time, especially when you're there because there's a
lot of lines and queuing up. But anyway, we pre
booked Graceland. That was the only thing we'd done. We
hadn't pre booked Sun Studio because you can't, but we
(05:29):
had looked up the times that the tours started, so
they're every half an hour, like ten thirty, so there
once there once an hour at like ten thirty, eleven, thirty, twelve, thirty,
one thirty two, three thirty. Really amazing. So this is
a recording studio set up by Sam Phillips. It is
where Alvis got his big break. Jerry Lee Lewis as
(05:52):
well Johnny Cash, and a lot of them recorded here
in the infancy of their careers, like Elvis did his
first put down, that It's all Right Mama song when
he was eighteen, and then that Sam Phillips guy was like, no,
I wanted to get away from pop, you know, And
so he didn't do anything with Alvis, but he bought
(06:13):
him in a year later to sing for a band
he was putting together, and the rest is kind of
like history. So we did that. You can kind of
do that tour. So that is a guided tour, and
everyone's really passionate there and like loves being there. Really
good coffee too. It's also I've got a good merch
shop like gift shop and coffee, really yummy coffee local
(06:33):
roasters called the French Truck coffee and that was delicous.
You just can't take any liquids into the tour, so
I would say, if you're going to have coffee, go there,
have your coffee date first or after. And their merch
is so fun and good thing about Memphis it's cheap.
It's not expensive, like meals aren't expensive. Like I got
(06:56):
a whiskey out for one of the dinners. It was
five It was like it's half the price of LA
So that Sunstudio, because it was so close to our apartment,
that was kind of done within an hour and a half.
We walked home, had a little reset and kind of thought,
all right, Oh. Then I took Mum for lunch at
this place called Sunrise, which is unreal. I got this
(07:20):
it's called the Rooster biscuit, but essentially biscuit is like
an American scone, is the best way I can describe it.
A little bit bigger, a little bit sweeter. And then
I got the rooster, which is like fried chicken but
with hot honey. Oh my god, so good. Mum got
big American pancakes. So I was like, this is your
birthday because we were celebrating our birthdays. So Mum's born
(07:41):
on the fourteenth of July and I'm born on the
fourteenth of September, and this trip all started on the
fourteenth of June. So we were like, you know, I
got mum Graceland tickets, Mum got me part of the trip,
you know. So it was like our birthday celebration together.
So Sun Studio, you can kind of do it within
an hour and a half. I would say maybe too
if you really want a meander around a bit longer.
(08:03):
You literally get to go into the recording studio. You
get to hold the microphone, the Elvis held. It's so curl.
There's pictures of Johnny Cash on the wall as well,
loads of guitars. There is a piano with a big
cigar burn in it, and they'll tell you the story
all behind that. Really really cool. Highly highly recommend doing
(08:27):
Sun Studio tour. It's about twenty bucks. And when we
went home and Mum was like, look, I think I
want to go to the Civil Rights Museum, which is
at the Lorraine Hotel. It's where Martha Luton, if I
can say it right, Martin Luther King was assassinated and
you can see exactly the spot, like they've put a
wreath there, and the motel itself has been turned into
(08:48):
a museum. But I when I was talking to the
guy that gave us out tour at Sun Studio, he
mentioned Stax Museum, and that is the Museum of American
Soul Music. It's where Otis Reading recorded a bunch of music.
It was an old movie thea that was converted into
(09:09):
a recording studio back in the day. It's also where
Isaac Hayes wrote the famous Shaft theme song, which you
will totally know. I should play it for you. It's
such a good song. Anyway, I was like, Mom, I
was like, because we only had one day left after,
I was like, Oh, I think I really want to
I was like, Mom, I think I really want to
go to this this museum, this other, this Stax Museum,
(09:34):
this American Soul music museum. And She's like, well, I
thought you wanted to do civil rights and I'm like totally.
I was like, but I think I'm going to regret
it if I don't. I just had a feeling. I
was like, I think I'm going to regret it if
I don't. Do you know the Stax Museum. So we
went separate ways and agreed to text each other later
in the day. Oh, this is the let me pay
(09:55):
you the Isaacay's song. You're going to know it. It's
such it's so good. And his Grammy is in the
museum and his Oscar, so he won a Grammy and
an Oscar for this I thing. So if I can
play it for you, yeah, you know, that right. So
(10:23):
his office is there, his Cadillac is there, heapes of
his clothes is there, and there's a whole Otis Reading section.
I got to learn a lot about Otis reading because
I only knew his call like his songs, but I
didn't know that he passed away Toper Young in a
plane crash. I didn't know any of that, so that
(10:44):
was really cool to learn about. But it takes this
museum takes you through like the history of American soul
music and how it came from, like gospel and so interesting.
So then so that was really fun. However, I didn't
know this where, I want to be really honest with you,
I didn't know it was in a super unsafe area.
It's in South Memphis. And the uber driver that took
(11:07):
me there was like, because I was going to walk,
and then I was like, ooh an hour and ten
minutes mom, and I had already been walking, and I
also just had laser on my face, so I was like,
I don't really want to be too much in the sun,
and it's mighty hot right now, and I was like, oh,
I don't really want to be in the sun. I
was like, I'm just going to Uber it it's fifteen
minutes away. Anyway, the Uber driver was like Haney and
I was like yeah. She's like, you got a gun.
(11:28):
And I was like, pardon a gun and she's like yeah,
and I was like I don't have a gun. She's like,
darl On, you're going to need a gun out here.
And I was like what do you mean. She's like
you can't. She's like, you can't be in this area.
And I was like okay. So I quickly got out
of the Uber and like got into the the museum.
But everything is like very deserted. I would say all
(11:49):
of downtown other than Beale Street and Son's studio, it's deserted.
It's so weird, like no one's just walking the streets.
And so anyway, I did that. I was at the museum,
stayed took closed and I was like a better book
a Nuba, just because I don't want to, you know,
be walking in an unsafe area. And it's five pm
at night at this stage of the game, it's still
(12:09):
bright and the security from the museum and the person
that like I bought my tickets from to get into
the museum was like, Hey, we're gonna wait with you
until you uber gets here. And I said, oh, okay,
why and they're like, oh no, it's you can't stand
out here, like you just can't. And I did some
googling after and it's the got the highest rate of
homicide in all of America Memphisters. I did not know this.
(12:34):
I didn't know this before going to Memphis, and I
didn't feel unsafe. I just was like ended up becoming
a little bit more aware, and we just noticed little
things like with the apartment block and it was gated,
and a lot of people living in gated communities. And
it's not like wealthy gated communities like what you see
in like Balaiir or Beverly Hills. It's more like from
(12:54):
a safety perspective, really interesting. So I got an uber
home and then I did some obviously googling up and
there's been like in the time that we were there,
there were like four murders. So just like something to
be aware of when you're looking at areas that you're
going to stay. So then Mum and I met up
(13:14):
for dinner and we met at like six o'clocks are
still really bright light. It wasn't too for long, and
we met at this place called Flyway Brewery. I had
a really nice local whiskey. The brand was called Old Dominique,
and Mum got another pino. She loved her white wines.
I got literally a bowl of Brussels sprouts. I wasn't
that hungry, so I got a bowl of Brussels sprouts.
We shared this like pickle plate, and then Mum got
(13:37):
like a cheesy dip situation. We kind of just shared
it all and I think I had a couple of
whiskies that night. Two whiskeys so nice because I'm like,
I'm in Tennessee, like I may as well enjoy local whiskey,
like half of it comes from here. Right then we
went to bed, got up. Day three grace Ps. Mum
loved Civil Rights Museum, by the way, so if you
(13:57):
are interested in that, and so many uber drivers were
like that, you gotta go, you gotta go, gotta go.
So I would definitely put that on your Memphis list
one hundred percent. So Day three, Graceland day, we decided
to go to this little coffee shop. It was the
same brand of coffee that we've tried at Sun Studio,
so we knew it was good, and so we had
(14:18):
a little coffee date in the morning at a place
called French Truck Coffee, and Mum loved it. She was like, oh,
this tastes great, and I'm like perfect. She's just coffee
in America and Australia is quite different, so she's just
trying to maguy for her way around. Can't blame her.
And so I was like, anywhere that's like a local roaster,
you're probably going to get good coffee. Then we got
(14:39):
a uber to Graceland. We got there at eleven and
it is incredible, but it's huge. It is like Disneyland
for Elvis. So I would say spend the whole day
go at ten or eleven so that you're not rushed
for time. We stayed till five pm. We stayed till close,
and we covered everything, but like that last half an
hour we were like quick, quickly, we're trying to get
(15:00):
mat sure. We visited the last gift store because each
gift store is different. There are six different gift stores.
There are ten different museums, not including Graceland the House.
So give yourself the time is my advice. Graceland is incredible.
You get a full audio guided to us. You've got
a little iPad and audio. What's his name, John stay
(15:22):
Moss was in my ears. He was the one narrating
at all, and you literally guided through. They don't let
any more than twenty one people do the tour at
any one time, so you're guided through this whole tour,
like as in, once you're out of the first room,
they'll let another batch of people in. But you walk
in and it's like to the right is the living room,
(15:43):
to the left is the dining room. Just beyond that
is his parents' room, and then you've got this like
humongous kitchen. TV's in every room by the way, and
multiple TVs. And then you kind of like walk down
this corridor. You've got his entertainment room that is like
bright yellow lightning bolt down the wall, a little white
monkey at like statue, but everything's bright yellow, like canary yellow.
(16:10):
And then the lightning bolt is his whole I don't
know if you know about you know, the TCB and
the lightning bolts like his logo and it means taking
care of business, lightning fast. And it's because him and
Priscilla were on a jet one night and saw a
lightning bolt and he drew it and then came up
with that logo taking care of Business Lightning Fast, so
you'll see it on anything Elvis, like it's on his jets,
(16:33):
Like you can buy a lot of merch with it.
I got a little necklace of it. So cooled. Okay,
So then you get to my favorite room. You come
past another room which is like a pool room, and
like even the fabric on the walls he had like
imported in and it took like X amount of hours
for the person to late it because it's like folded
in a very specific way. And then you get to
(16:54):
my favorite room, which is called the Jungle Room, super
inspired by his time in Hawaii, and it's green, it's
got that shag like real sixties seventies kind of carpet,
and there was a live waterfall in there, and all
the furniture is very like all inspired by Hawaii but
so cool. And he did record music in there too
(17:16):
because it was all like carpeted and so so good
for sound recording. Definitely my favorite room in the house
for sure. The only room you're not allowed to go
to is his room, like the upstairs. And apparently I
didn't know this, but Lisa Marie used to it to
feel close to her dad, sit up in his room
and wait for the tours to end before she'd come down.
(17:38):
How crazy is that. Someone wrote to me and told
me that because in she's written a book about her dad.
Her and Riley have written a book about her dad. Okay,
So then you walk out and you walk outside. Oh,
you walk out, he's got like this exercise room where
he played squash, I believe, or like a ten situation,
(18:01):
but it looks like a squash room to be. And
then there's all like leather couches around that. And then
you walk out and you're work walking to Vernon's office,
which is his dad's office, and he'd essentially pay all
the accounting and all of that. I think he had
a little bit of a dodgy pass with accounting his dad,
and may have gone to jail for a little stint
of time early days. He also collected a lot of
(18:22):
the fan mail, and there was so much fan mail.
And then you come out and you see a whole
ranch vibe with four horses, two of which I believe
are rescues of priscillas. And he loved horses, obsessed with
riding horses. His favorite horse was called Rising Sun, and
(18:44):
then he named the whole ranch house of the Rising
sum so cool. And then you come out and around
to his meditation area, and that is what got me.
So when I say got me, it's like the energypletely shifts.
It is like super quiet. No one's talking. It's his
(19:07):
grave Mimi, which I believe is his grandma's grave, his
mom Gladys Love, his dad Vernon. And then you've got
Now I don't think Gladys was buried there, but he
got her stuff brought over and put a graceland down
the line because I think she passed away quite young,
like I want to say forty six or something anyway,
(19:28):
And then you've got Lisa Marie is buried there and
her son Benjamin is buried there as well. Super sad.
So I'm trying to like paint the picture. It's something
about the energy there because his essentially turned it into
a meditation retreat space. It already feels so calm. There's
(19:52):
a water feature, there's a lit flame right at the
top of Elvis's grave, and there's like flowers and people
have put like little kangaroos from Australia, little koalas from Australia,
and so like you get there and you're completely overcome
with emotion, and I don't know if it's just because
(20:14):
of like like it's very sad. It's like I'm holding
holding back teas now. It's very sad and beautiful and
like a celebration at the same time has been like
he went so young forty two, you know. Anyway, so
this is probably one of my favorite albost songs. I'm
just gonna play you a little bit of it because
(20:34):
he's amazing. Oh love him. I know that's not his song,
by the way, but still amazed everything everything he does. Oh,
(20:58):
so many amazing songs. Anyway, So Mum and I took
a beat there and just kind of like sat there
and I put my hands on the grass of his
grave and just like did a little thank you and
prayer and gratitude and wishes and all the fun stuff,
like not fun stuff, but like what felt like really
(21:20):
important and integral. And then and Mum and I had
a little moment there, and then you get onto the
shuttle and they're like, right, you've got ten other museums
to explore, literally, so there's like museums of all his outfits.
There's like it's incredible. There's like Grammys, there's museums of
(21:40):
his time at war. There's his car collection, there's the planes,
plural planes. There's a Lisa Marine Museum. There is a
museum of artists that were inspired by him, and like
all this amazing stuff from kiss and then quotes about
what they've said about him. There's John Lennon's piano was
(22:03):
there and then what he believes, you know, a certain
type of music only existed because of Elvis, and it's
just very, very beautiful. It's like an ode to him.
But like from artists over the years. So highly recommend.
Graceland is ten out of ten. If you're an Elvis fan,
I think you should just totally put it on your list.
And if you're just an Elvis fan, and like all
(22:25):
the other stuff that I talked about earlier, isn't so
much your vibe. Just just Sun's studio in Graceland and
you could do it in I do it in two days.
But yeah, if you're an Elvis fan, you've got to
do Graceland. There is a makeshift Sun studio at Graceland
as well. That section is there, and they've like rebuilt it.
(22:45):
And then they've rebuilt the second studio that he recorded
a bunch of albums with as well. I think it's
W something or other, and that studio has been replicated
as well. Anyway, it's just something thing about. And then
there was oh, there was the last They've got the
case because he was about to tour, either the day
(23:05):
of or the day after he passed away. I believe
it was the day of, and all his favorite brand
of water had arrived in cases, and as the Mountain
Valley brand, Americans are going to know what I'm talking about.
It's a big green bottle with a red label, and
the actual bottles from that last case that he ordered
or was there as his writer, I guess for his tour,
(23:28):
was there so and I was like, mum, that's the
brand of water I drink, so any Americans that drink
Mountain Valley water, it's also Elvis's favorite brand of water
to drink. I took a photo of it and everything,
and then oh my god, there were so many good things.
Was like all his records, the clothing, the jewelry. He's
(23:49):
really into numerology. There were books like he had on
yoga and color therapy, and he had a tiger's eye
gold ring, and he had a fire opal ring that
he wore, and he had this necklace he wore that
in Arabic meant to live, but it had to have
(24:10):
seventeen diamonds in it because seventeen was his lucky numerology number.
Fascinating stuff, so cool, very spiritual, and yeah, I think
he like his energy so special, so so special. Okay,
So with all that done, you end the you end
the Elvis tour at the planes. So he's got a
(24:32):
plane called Lisa Marie. He's got a second plane that's
just got that taking care of business lightning fast logo
on the tail of it. I'm sure he had a couple.
Like the plain thing is wild to me, and like
inside it is like all TVs. A dining room, a
bed chair, like wild, and one's a bigger plane and
(24:53):
one's a kind of like smaller just like twelve seeted
kind of vibe. But yeah, insane. You're allowed to go
on the planes, both of them fully and definitely worth experiencing.
And then we decided we'd walk to where we had dinner,
which is called Marlowe's. It's about a forty minute walk though,
so I probably get an uber. Mom's just a mad walker,
loves to walk, and she's a speed walker. Who might
(25:15):
I add? So we walked from Graceland quickly. We walked
across the road and got a photo. Mom want to
get a photo touching the gates, the Graceland gates, which
are still the same gates. And then we walked up
the road on the same road. It's literally called Elvis
Presley Highway. You walk up and you get to Marlowe's,
which is an Elvis Presley style diner. Of course I
(25:38):
had to get the ribs. So I got the ribs,
same thing comes to coalsaw beans. And then I had
a whiskey just it was called Kentucky Deluxe and it
was five dollars, so so cheap, like super cheap living
in or like eating food and stuff like that, I
would say in Memphis. And that was awesome. And then
(26:00):
we went home. Mumpacked to go to Chicago, and I
packed for a day in Nashville. So fun fact, I
did some research. You can get a bus from Memphis
to Nashville. It's three hours and fifteen minutes. It costs
one hundred and twenty bucks, which sounds like a lot,
but it was so safe, super bougie. Let you get
a little ruggy. They make your coffee since you get
on board, yet as many snacks as you want, you
(26:23):
get lunch served great. Highly recommend. The brand is called
von Lane And it was such a beautiful way to
see the scenery as well, like it's beautiful, lush green forest.
There's a lot of river and waterways. I'm hoping I
saw the Mississippi with river. That's the only thing I
would have done if I had more time in Memphis,
(26:44):
I would have actually gone down to the Mississippi River.
And then I think you're on the state line there,
aren't you. I think Mississippi is technically is it not
another state? I might be really messing that up, but
I'm pretty sure it's close to a state line anyway.
That's what I would do. I've heard the Mississippi River
(27:04):
is beautiful to visit, so did not do that, but
got this bus from Memphis to Nashville. So beautiful, so easy.
I could pull my laptop out, you know, do lots
of work, bloody blah, like listen to music. Whatever you
want to do. You're allowed to be on your phone,
you can be talking. It's amazing. Highly highly recommend it,
(27:25):
and they drop you off in downtown Nashville. So I
literally got off the bus in Nashville. I then went
straight to the Johnny Cash Museum. I also love Johnny
Cash like I love Elvis for different reasons, but Johnny
Cash for me. I know there's something about the way
he shares pain that just like rips your heart open.
(27:49):
And Johnny Cash Museum is an absolute must if you
like him at all. Also, if you're in California, I know,
Oh Johnny Cash has a tie to O Hi, because
Boss and I have seen Oh Hi, like a lot
of Johnny Cash stuff when winter. So I think he
(28:10):
had a house there, that's my take on that. Or
he went there to record music or whatnot. Anyway, So
Johnny Cash museums a musk give himself two hours. Loved it.
The end bit hurt though, so when he does the
cover of the song hurt, the video clip is all
explained there. The chair from the video clip, the bronze
of his head is there is so sad, like I
(28:33):
was crying, so you have to. Then I walked back
into the museum and like, watch something really exciting and positive,
like all his movies have done. I didn't know he
was an actor as well. I didn't know he had
the Johnny Cash TV Show for two years. I didn't
know that he opened up the Cash House so that
people could come and visit, much the same way you
can visit Graceland. Vibes so and I didn't know the
(28:56):
way he was like super interested in like the West
as well, but he like the way he sung in prisons,
and when he sung in prisons, he'd wear the inmates
same outfits and the inmates like he's so and the
way he always wore black as he I don't know.
I just find there's something about Johnny Cash's heart and
the way he sings, like, oh, anyway, amazing, amazing, amazing.
(29:19):
Loved it so much. It loved it like Graceland for
very different reasons, very different experiences. You could do the
Johnny Cash Museum in two hours, obviously, Graceland you need
the whole day. But loved it. And then I just
went and explored broad Broadway, which is like essentially that
I said to Matt, It's like the Times Square of Nashville,
(29:40):
and that was amazing. Like people just sprawling out of bars,
cowboy boot shops, cowboy hat shops, whiskey like going and
we'll do whiskey tastings. And it's right on a river.
I think it's called the Cumberland River or something like that. Beautiful.
I stopped there, had a little snacko and then I
went back to the which is where I got dropped off,
(30:03):
essentially right at their Country Music Hall of Fame and
museum did that. That was incredible. It's got a Dolly
Parton show on right now and a Luke Comb's show
on right now. I'm obviously into the older stuff, but
I loved like there was still so much cool old
history of country music. Little bit of Elvis stuff there again.
Another one of his Cadillacs has like a TV inside.
(30:24):
It's all gold plated phone inside. This guy was amazing.
And then a little bit of Johnny Cash and Junekarter
stuff and the Carter sisters stuff. And I didn't know,
but like may Bell Carter was a star in her
own right as well. There's a lot of that. And
(30:44):
then it basically there's different levels, so it starts with
the older stuff and then it ends on the newer stuff.
There's also an education center, lots of Taylor Swift stuff.
There's like a Taylor Swift makeshift bus tour bus as
well one of her dresses. There's like three of her
guitars there, so if you're a Taylor fan, I think
you probably get loads out of that. There's a whole
post malone section as well, so good. And then it
(31:08):
literally ends in and I didn't even know, but the
Country Music Hall of Fame is this round rotunda where
there are bronze casts of the people that have been
inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame's faces, and
that is incredible. There's a wishing well there as well.
You can stand in the middle and there's like amazing
acoustics with this cool like triangulate triangular shape thing coming
(31:32):
from the ceiling. Definitely made a few wishes for the
Bossa Cheno and I. They're in cred And then I
went to this place called Hattie Bee's and had amazing
They call it chicken sandwich, but it's a chicken burger.
There's no mistaking it. It was good. And then I
had it with what people on TikTok are calling a
fridge cigarette, which is a diet coke, which I'd never get,
(31:53):
but I was like in holiday mode and it was perfect.
It was so fun. And then I slowly just headed back.
I got drenched. It was like hot but raining. So
I went back to the hotel lobby, got change, and
then just booked an uba. I went to the airport
and then at the airport, I'm lowering my voice because
I don't know the boss knows. I got this little
(32:14):
extra treaty. But there was at the airport Voodoo. The
brand is called Voodoo Donuts. They have them in La too,
Voodoo Donuts from I want to know where they're from.
Oh there. So the brand, it's a Portland, Oregon brand.
(32:36):
It's known for its unique and creve of donuts. But
I think they're all vegan. Yeah, Gormet donut. Anyway, I
got a maple log I'm saying it soft, and I
got they caught the Romeo Raspberry and so Raspberry ran
Field donut. Fucking great. Had that at the airport. I
was like, I'm going out with a bang, and it
was so fun. And then on the flight back, I
(32:57):
had another fridge cigarette and nothing, a diet coke and
loads of water and then Bob's runkle. That was end
of my trip. It was unreal. It was like a
foody adventure, very music based. And if you're into Johnny Cash,
gotta go to the Johnny Cash Museum. If you're into
Elvis Presley, you gotta go to Graceland, and you'd want
(33:20):
to go to Sun's studio as well, because that's like
you get to literally touch the doorhand, the lucky they
got the lucky Elvis doorhand or where he came in,
and you get to hold the microphone he held, like
and that's only twenty dollars, Like I would highly recommend
doing if you're just like just mad for albers, which
I have family members that I'd fly in, get in
the afternoon, go straight to Sun's studio, have that to it,
(33:42):
and then just spend the whole next day at Graceland.
That'd be my vibe. And also I'm mad for a
bit of merch. Got a little bit of merch everywhere
and Graceland it's I thought the merch would be radonk
but I got a T shirt for ten dollars, another
T shirt at twelve fifty. I got a shock four
five dollars, like an Elvis shot glass for five and
(34:05):
I got that the Taking Care of Business Lightning so
TCB with a lightning bolt necklace fourteen dollars like fourteen
fifty or something, so pretty good value. Obviously, all of
this I'm saying is in American terms, but really really good,
and I would highly recommend that bus service because it
just like it also meant that my travel home. So
(34:27):
the flight from Nashville to Lax was three hours and
forty six minutes, so it was just a lot easier
getting homely, not jumping off at other airports anything like that.
It was just like such a straight shot home, so easy.
I will say the traffic at Lax last night at
ten thirty pm was a mentor. It was bonkers last night,
(34:49):
but still got home safe and sound. So such a
great trip so fun. Would do it again and would
highly recommend, and probably just be a little bit of
wear of safety in Memphis. I would say I felt
safe the whole time in Nashville. That said, I was
just in the main tourist drag. Obviously didn't get to
go out and explore other areas in Nashville. If I
(35:10):
had another day in Nashville, for sure, I would have
gone to the Grand Old Opry, and I would have
gone to Ryman's Auditorium as well. And I probably would
have done a whiskey tour because Matt and I love whiskey,
and obviously Tennessee is known for its whiskey, so they
would have been the only things that I would have
added on. But I have a feeling Matt and I
(35:31):
will go to Nashville because it's just quite easy to
get too from LA in comparison to Memphis. So yeah,
that is my hot tip. Also, Nashville and Memphis are
on the same time zone, so it's not like you
need a readjust or anything like that. Very easy. No,
that's not too full on. And yeah, I hope I
(35:52):
hope you like this, you know, musical little adventure that
I've taken you on today, and I hope that it
inspires you to, you know, have a little musical trip
one day, you know, That's what I hope. I want
(36:13):
to leave you with my Fae, my other favorite Elvis song.
If I can spell Elvis in my Spotify you're Spotify
or Apple Apple person? I am such a Spotify person,
all right, I'll leave you with this beodautiful song, Love
(36:38):
Him what.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
It's well.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
All right, Big Love, my friends go. Hopefully you get
to do I hope this inspires you. Memphis and Nashville,
go do it all right. Hooru, Big Love. That's a
wrap on another episode of Fearlessly Failing. As always, thank
you to our guests, and let's continue the conversation on Instagram.
(37:29):
I'm at Yamo Lollerberry. This potty my work for podcast
is available on all streaming platforms. I'd love it if
you could subscribe, rape and comment, and of course spread
the love.
Get a. I'm Lola Berry, nutritionist, author, actor, TV presenter,
and professional overshaer. This podcast is all about celebrating failure
because I believe it's a chance for us to learn,
grow and face our blind spots. Each week, I'll interview
a different guest about their highs as well as their lows,
(00:26):
all in a bid to inspire us to fearlessly fail. Hello,
this is a Tour Guide episode. It is a Memphis
with a little Asterix and Nashville because I got to
do nearly a full day in Nashville and I soaked
up a lot in that time. So I'm going to
(00:46):
take you through everything we did, all in a bid
to hopefully inspire you if you want to do a
Memphis and or Nashville or Elvis trip or Johnny cashtrip.
So much musical stuff has been covered in this strip.
So first of all, I think you could do Memphis
in two or three days for sure, because there are
(01:08):
those specific places like Graceland and Sun Studio, and other
than that, Memphis is pretty quiet. So I'm going to
give it to you really like raw and real, because
there's some really awesome stuff about Memphis. But there were
a few times when I was like, oh, this is
this safe, right, So okay. Day one, Mum and I
(01:30):
both met at Memphis Airport. It's a really easy airport
to navigate. It's quite small fun factor. You can't get
to Memphis direct from Los Angeles. You're going to have
to do a stop off somewhere. I flew Delta Airlines.
I stopped off in Austin, Texas. I had one hour
stop over there, and I literally had to walk from
Gate eight to gate three. It was like a three
(01:53):
minute situation, so easy. And Memphis Airport is actually like
loads of space to sorry. Austin Airport bought loads of
space to chill and relax, lots of snacks, lots of
food options actually healthy food options too, which I was
really impressed by. So yeah, I would say that route
that I went LA Austin Memphis is a really good route.
(02:16):
I caught a six am flight, so I got picked
up at four am, and it just meant because there's
a time difference between LA and Tennessee, there's a two
hour time difference, it just meant that I still got
a bit of the afternoon when I landed. So Mum
and I met at the airport at about two pm,
we got an uber to our not Airbnb, but it
(02:37):
was an apartment, like mum privately booked an apartment. She
was in charge of the ACoM for Memphis. I put
forward all these bougie airbnbs, but they were quite expensive,
so I was like, okay, you pick somewhere where you were.
So we stayed downtown, not downtown in the thick of it,
like near Beal Street, but technically in the downtown area.
So we were very close to Sun's studio. So as
(03:00):
soon as we got in, we essentially unpacked and we thought,
let's just go for a walk. We've both been sitting
on flights and whatnot. We walked to Beal Street. Now
Beal Street is essentially it's renowned for its deep roots
in blues music, and there's just essentially bars and foody
spots with like music flowing out of it. I imagine
(03:20):
anytime of the day. We were there at five pm.
It is. It is literally in downtown Memphis. It is
really fun, real viby, like people doing two dollars whiskey
shots like it was a lot of it was just
a cool vibe. A lot of touristy things like a
couple of like touristy shops. There's bb King's shop there
(03:41):
as well. There's We end up walking just behind Beal
Street to another street parallel. I don't know if it
wasn't Union, it was another street, but there was like
Elvis's Taylor Is there, So it was really really cool,
and we grabbed dinner at a place in that touristy
hotspot of Beal Street and we went to a place
(04:02):
called Blue City Cafe. It's known for its famous ridge ribs,
which naturally I had to get. Also were in the South,
Obviously I'm going to get the Southern food. So I
got ribs that came with Coleslaw spicy beans and wait
for it, Texas bread, which is imagine thick, wonder white.
(04:24):
It is delicious but so sweet. Everything was sweet, like
the beans were sweet, like things are quite sweet in America.
Mum got the gumbo and she got what's called Larry's greens,
which is more like a kind of like collard greens.
That was really nice, and it came with they're called
hush puppies, but they're essentially little balls of corn bread.
(04:46):
That's how I would best describe them. And they were
really young too. I got a Tennessee whiskey. Mum got
a Pinot Grigio from California. Perfect night one, perfect, and
then we just made sure we walked to like a
local grocery market store beause Mom want to get some
yogurts for Brecky and I got a big bottle of
water stuff like that, and then we walked home chilled
(05:06):
that night. And then day two we had nothing planned.
We didn't know if we were going to do Graceland
day two or day three. We pre booked Graceland, which
I would highly recommend you doing because it saves a
bunch of time, especially when you're there because there's a
lot of lines and queuing up. But anyway, we pre
booked Graceland. That was the only thing we'd done. We
hadn't pre booked Sun Studio because you can't, but we
(05:29):
had looked up the times that the tours started, so
they're every half an hour, like ten thirty, so there
once there once an hour at like ten thirty, eleven, thirty, twelve, thirty,
one thirty two, three thirty. Really amazing. So this is
a recording studio set up by Sam Phillips. It is
where Alvis got his big break. Jerry Lee Lewis as
(05:52):
well Johnny Cash, and a lot of them recorded here
in the infancy of their careers, like Elvis did his
first put down, that It's all Right Mama song when
he was eighteen, and then that Sam Phillips guy was like, no,
I wanted to get away from pop, you know, And
so he didn't do anything with Alvis, but he bought
(06:13):
him in a year later to sing for a band
he was putting together, and the rest is kind of
like history. So we did that. You can kind of
do that tour. So that is a guided tour, and
everyone's really passionate there and like loves being there. Really
good coffee too. It's also I've got a good merch
shop like gift shop and coffee, really yummy coffee local
(06:33):
roasters called the French Truck coffee and that was delicous.
You just can't take any liquids into the tour, so
I would say, if you're going to have coffee, go there,
have your coffee date first or after. And their merch
is so fun and good thing about Memphis it's cheap.
It's not expensive, like meals aren't expensive. Like I got
(06:56):
a whiskey out for one of the dinners. It was
five It was like it's half the price of LA
So that Sunstudio, because it was so close to our apartment,
that was kind of done within an hour and a half.
We walked home, had a little reset and kind of thought,
all right, Oh. Then I took Mum for lunch at
this place called Sunrise, which is unreal. I got this
(07:20):
it's called the Rooster biscuit, but essentially biscuit is like
an American scone, is the best way I can describe it.
A little bit bigger, a little bit sweeter. And then
I got the rooster, which is like fried chicken but
with hot honey. Oh my god, so good. Mum got
big American pancakes. So I was like, this is your
birthday because we were celebrating our birthdays. So Mum's born
(07:41):
on the fourteenth of July and I'm born on the
fourteenth of September, and this trip all started on the
fourteenth of June. So we were like, you know, I
got mum Graceland tickets, Mum got me part of the trip,
you know. So it was like our birthday celebration together.
So Sun Studio, you can kind of do it within
an hour and a half. I would say maybe too
if you really want a meander around a bit longer.
(08:03):
You literally get to go into the recording studio. You
get to hold the microphone, the Elvis held. It's so curl.
There's pictures of Johnny Cash on the wall as well,
loads of guitars. There is a piano with a big
cigar burn in it, and they'll tell you the story
all behind that. Really really cool. Highly highly recommend doing
(08:27):
Sun Studio tour. It's about twenty bucks. And when we
went home and Mum was like, look, I think I
want to go to the Civil Rights Museum, which is
at the Lorraine Hotel. It's where Martha Luton, if I
can say it right, Martin Luther King was assassinated and
you can see exactly the spot, like they've put a
wreath there, and the motel itself has been turned into
(08:48):
a museum. But I when I was talking to the
guy that gave us out tour at Sun Studio, he
mentioned Stax Museum, and that is the Museum of American
Soul Music. It's where Otis Reading recorded a bunch of music.
It was an old movie thea that was converted into
(09:09):
a recording studio back in the day. It's also where
Isaac Hayes wrote the famous Shaft theme song, which you
will totally know. I should play it for you. It's
such a good song. Anyway, I was like, Mom, I
was like, because we only had one day left after,
I was like, Oh, I think I really want to
I was like, Mom, I think I really want to
go to this this museum, this other, this Stax Museum,
(09:34):
this American Soul music museum. And She's like, well, I
thought you wanted to do civil rights and I'm like totally.
I was like, but I think I'm going to regret
it if I don't. I just had a feeling. I
was like, I think I'm going to regret it if
I don't. Do you know the Stax Museum. So we
went separate ways and agreed to text each other later
in the day. Oh, this is the let me pay
(09:55):
you the Isaacay's song. You're going to know it. It's
such it's so good. And his Grammy is in the
museum and his Oscar, so he won a Grammy and
an Oscar for this I thing. So if I can
play it for you, yeah, you know, that right. So
(10:23):
his office is there, his Cadillac is there, heapes of
his clothes is there, and there's a whole Otis Reading section.
I got to learn a lot about Otis reading because
I only knew his call like his songs, but I
didn't know that he passed away Toper Young in a
plane crash. I didn't know any of that, so that
(10:44):
was really cool to learn about. But it takes this
museum takes you through like the history of American soul
music and how it came from, like gospel and so interesting.
So then so that was really fun. However, I didn't
know this where, I want to be really honest with you,
I didn't know it was in a super unsafe area.
It's in South Memphis. And the uber driver that took
(11:07):
me there was like, because I was going to walk,
and then I was like, ooh an hour and ten
minutes mom, and I had already been walking, and I
also just had laser on my face, so I was like,
I don't really want to be too much in the sun,
and it's mighty hot right now, and I was like, oh,
I don't really want to be in the sun. I
was like, I'm just going to Uber it it's fifteen
minutes away. Anyway, the Uber driver was like Haney and
I was like yeah. She's like, you got a gun.
(11:28):
And I was like, pardon a gun and she's like yeah,
and I was like I don't have a gun. She's like,
darl On, you're going to need a gun out here.
And I was like what do you mean. She's like
you can't. She's like, you can't be in this area.
And I was like okay. So I quickly got out
of the Uber and like got into the the museum.
But everything is like very deserted. I would say all
(11:49):
of downtown other than Beale Street and Son's studio, it's deserted.
It's so weird, like no one's just walking the streets.
And so anyway, I did that. I was at the museum,
stayed took closed and I was like a better book
a Nuba, just because I don't want to, you know,
be walking in an unsafe area. And it's five pm
at night at this stage of the game, it's still
(12:09):
bright and the security from the museum and the person
that like I bought my tickets from to get into
the museum was like, Hey, we're gonna wait with you
until you uber gets here. And I said, oh, okay,
why and they're like, oh no, it's you can't stand
out here, like you just can't. And I did some
googling after and it's the got the highest rate of
homicide in all of America Memphisters. I did not know this.
(12:34):
I didn't know this before going to Memphis, and I
didn't feel unsafe. I just was like ended up becoming
a little bit more aware, and we just noticed little
things like with the apartment block and it was gated,
and a lot of people living in gated communities. And
it's not like wealthy gated communities like what you see
in like Balaiir or Beverly Hills. It's more like from
(12:54):
a safety perspective, really interesting. So I got an uber
home and then I did some obviously googling up and
there's been like in the time that we were there,
there were like four murders. So just like something to
be aware of when you're looking at areas that you're
going to stay. So then Mum and I met up
(13:14):
for dinner and we met at like six o'clocks are
still really bright light. It wasn't too for long, and
we met at this place called Flyway Brewery. I had
a really nice local whiskey. The brand was called Old Dominique,
and Mum got another pino. She loved her white wines.
I got literally a bowl of Brussels sprouts. I wasn't
that hungry, so I got a bowl of Brussels sprouts.
We shared this like pickle plate, and then Mum got
(13:37):
like a cheesy dip situation. We kind of just shared
it all and I think I had a couple of
whiskies that night. Two whiskeys so nice because I'm like,
I'm in Tennessee, like I may as well enjoy local whiskey,
like half of it comes from here. Right then we
went to bed, got up. Day three grace Ps. Mum
loved Civil Rights Museum, by the way, so if you
(13:57):
are interested in that, and so many uber drivers were
like that, you gotta go, you gotta go, gotta go.
So I would definitely put that on your Memphis list
one hundred percent. So Day three, Graceland day, we decided
to go to this little coffee shop. It was the
same brand of coffee that we've tried at Sun Studio,
so we knew it was good, and so we had
(14:18):
a little coffee date in the morning at a place
called French Truck Coffee, and Mum loved it. She was like, oh,
this tastes great, and I'm like perfect. She's just coffee
in America and Australia is quite different, so she's just
trying to maguy for her way around. Can't blame her.
And so I was like, anywhere that's like a local roaster,
you're probably going to get good coffee. Then we got
(14:39):
a uber to Graceland. We got there at eleven and
it is incredible, but it's huge. It is like Disneyland
for Elvis. So I would say spend the whole day
go at ten or eleven so that you're not rushed
for time. We stayed till five pm. We stayed till close,
and we covered everything, but like that last half an
hour we were like quick, quickly, we're trying to get
(15:00):
mat sure. We visited the last gift store because each
gift store is different. There are six different gift stores.
There are ten different museums, not including Graceland the House.
So give yourself the time is my advice. Graceland is incredible.
You get a full audio guided to us. You've got
a little iPad and audio. What's his name, John stay
(15:22):
Moss was in my ears. He was the one narrating
at all, and you literally guided through. They don't let
any more than twenty one people do the tour at
any one time, so you're guided through this whole tour,
like as in, once you're out of the first room,
they'll let another batch of people in. But you walk
in and it's like to the right is the living room,
(15:43):
to the left is the dining room. Just beyond that
is his parents' room, and then you've got this like
humongous kitchen. TV's in every room by the way, and
multiple TVs. And then you kind of like walk down
this corridor. You've got his entertainment room that is like
bright yellow lightning bolt down the wall, a little white
monkey at like statue, but everything's bright yellow, like canary yellow.
(16:10):
And then the lightning bolt is his whole I don't
know if you know about you know, the TCB and
the lightning bolts like his logo and it means taking
care of business, lightning fast. And it's because him and
Priscilla were on a jet one night and saw a
lightning bolt and he drew it and then came up
with that logo taking care of Business Lightning Fast, so
you'll see it on anything Elvis, like it's on his jets,
(16:33):
Like you can buy a lot of merch with it.
I got a little necklace of it. So cooled. Okay,
So then you get to my favorite room. You come
past another room which is like a pool room, and
like even the fabric on the walls he had like
imported in and it took like X amount of hours
for the person to late it because it's like folded
in a very specific way. And then you get to
(16:54):
my favorite room, which is called the Jungle Room, super
inspired by his time in Hawaii, and it's green, it's
got that shag like real sixties seventies kind of carpet,
and there was a live waterfall in there, and all
the furniture is very like all inspired by Hawaii but
so cool. And he did record music in there too
(17:16):
because it was all like carpeted and so so good
for sound recording. Definitely my favorite room in the house
for sure. The only room you're not allowed to go
to is his room, like the upstairs. And apparently I
didn't know this, but Lisa Marie used to it to
feel close to her dad, sit up in his room
and wait for the tours to end before she'd come down.
(17:38):
How crazy is that. Someone wrote to me and told
me that because in she's written a book about her dad.
Her and Riley have written a book about her dad. Okay,
So then you walk out and you walk outside. Oh,
you walk out, he's got like this exercise room where
he played squash, I believe, or like a ten situation,
(18:01):
but it looks like a squash room to be. And
then there's all like leather couches around that. And then
you walk out and you're work walking to Vernon's office,
which is his dad's office, and he'd essentially pay all
the accounting and all of that. I think he had
a little bit of a dodgy pass with accounting his dad,
and may have gone to jail for a little stint
of time early days. He also collected a lot of
(18:22):
the fan mail, and there was so much fan mail.
And then you come out and you see a whole
ranch vibe with four horses, two of which I believe
are rescues of priscillas. And he loved horses, obsessed with
riding horses. His favorite horse was called Rising Sun, and
(18:44):
then he named the whole ranch house of the Rising
sum so cool. And then you come out and around
to his meditation area, and that is what got me.
So when I say got me, it's like the energypletely shifts.
It is like super quiet. No one's talking. It's his
(19:07):
grave Mimi, which I believe is his grandma's grave, his
mom Gladys Love, his dad Vernon. And then you've got
Now I don't think Gladys was buried there, but he
got her stuff brought over and put a graceland down
the line because I think she passed away quite young,
like I want to say forty six or something anyway,
(19:28):
And then you've got Lisa Marie is buried there and
her son Benjamin is buried there as well. Super sad.
So I'm trying to like paint the picture. It's something
about the energy there because his essentially turned it into
a meditation retreat space. It already feels so calm. There's
(19:52):
a water feature, there's a lit flame right at the
top of Elvis's grave, and there's like flowers and people
have put like little kangaroos from Australia, little koalas from Australia,
and so like you get there and you're completely overcome
with emotion, and I don't know if it's just because
(20:14):
of like like it's very sad. It's like I'm holding
holding back teas now. It's very sad and beautiful and
like a celebration at the same time has been like
he went so young forty two, you know. Anyway, so
this is probably one of my favorite albost songs. I'm
just gonna play you a little bit of it because
(20:34):
he's amazing. Oh love him. I know that's not his song,
by the way, but still amazed everything everything he does. Oh,
(20:58):
so many amazing songs. Anyway, So Mum and I took
a beat there and just kind of like sat there
and I put my hands on the grass of his
grave and just like did a little thank you and
prayer and gratitude and wishes and all the fun stuff,
like not fun stuff, but like what felt like really
(21:20):
important and integral. And then and Mum and I had
a little moment there, and then you get onto the
shuttle and they're like, right, you've got ten other museums
to explore, literally, so there's like museums of all his outfits.
There's like it's incredible. There's like Grammys, there's museums of
(21:40):
his time at war. There's his car collection, there's the planes,
plural planes. There's a Lisa Marine Museum. There is a
museum of artists that were inspired by him, and like
all this amazing stuff from kiss and then quotes about
what they've said about him. There's John Lennon's piano was
(22:03):
there and then what he believes, you know, a certain
type of music only existed because of Elvis, and it's
just very, very beautiful. It's like an ode to him.
But like from artists over the years. So highly recommend.
Graceland is ten out of ten. If you're an Elvis fan,
I think you should just totally put it on your list.
And if you're just an Elvis fan, and like all
(22:25):
the other stuff that I talked about earlier, isn't so
much your vibe. Just just Sun's studio in Graceland and
you could do it in I do it in two days.
But yeah, if you're an Elvis fan, you've got to
do Graceland. There is a makeshift Sun studio at Graceland
as well. That section is there, and they've like rebuilt it.
(22:45):
And then they've rebuilt the second studio that he recorded
a bunch of albums with as well. I think it's
W something or other, and that studio has been replicated
as well. Anyway, it's just something thing about. And then
there was oh, there was the last They've got the
case because he was about to tour, either the day
(23:05):
of or the day after he passed away. I believe
it was the day of, and all his favorite brand
of water had arrived in cases, and as the Mountain
Valley brand, Americans are going to know what I'm talking about.
It's a big green bottle with a red label, and
the actual bottles from that last case that he ordered
or was there as his writer, I guess for his tour,
(23:28):
was there so and I was like, mum, that's the
brand of water I drink, so any Americans that drink
Mountain Valley water, it's also Elvis's favorite brand of water
to drink. I took a photo of it and everything,
and then oh my god, there were so many good things.
Was like all his records, the clothing, the jewelry. He's
(23:49):
really into numerology. There were books like he had on
yoga and color therapy, and he had a tiger's eye
gold ring, and he had a fire opal ring that
he wore, and he had this necklace he wore that
in Arabic meant to live, but it had to have
(24:10):
seventeen diamonds in it because seventeen was his lucky numerology number.
Fascinating stuff, so cool, very spiritual, and yeah, I think
he like his energy so special, so so special. Okay,
So with all that done, you end the you end
the Elvis tour at the planes. So he's got a
(24:32):
plane called Lisa Marie. He's got a second plane that's
just got that taking care of business lightning fast logo
on the tail of it. I'm sure he had a couple.
Like the plain thing is wild to me, and like
inside it is like all TVs. A dining room, a
bed chair, like wild, and one's a bigger plane and
(24:53):
one's a kind of like smaller just like twelve seeted
kind of vibe. But yeah, insane. You're allowed to go
on the planes, both of them fully and definitely worth experiencing.
And then we decided we'd walk to where we had dinner,
which is called Marlowe's. It's about a forty minute walk though,
so I probably get an uber. Mom's just a mad walker,
loves to walk, and she's a speed walker. Who might
(25:15):
I add? So we walked from Graceland quickly. We walked
across the road and got a photo. Mom want to
get a photo touching the gates, the Graceland gates, which
are still the same gates. And then we walked up
the road on the same road. It's literally called Elvis
Presley Highway. You walk up and you get to Marlowe's,
which is an Elvis Presley style diner. Of course I
(25:38):
had to get the ribs. So I got the ribs,
same thing comes to coalsaw beans. And then I had
a whiskey just it was called Kentucky Deluxe and it
was five dollars, so so cheap, like super cheap living
in or like eating food and stuff like that, I
would say in Memphis. And that was awesome. And then
(26:00):
we went home. Mumpacked to go to Chicago, and I
packed for a day in Nashville. So fun fact, I
did some research. You can get a bus from Memphis
to Nashville. It's three hours and fifteen minutes. It costs
one hundred and twenty bucks, which sounds like a lot,
but it was so safe, super bougie. Let you get
a little ruggy. They make your coffee since you get
on board, yet as many snacks as you want, you
(26:23):
get lunch served great. Highly recommend. The brand is called
von Lane And it was such a beautiful way to
see the scenery as well, like it's beautiful, lush green forest.
There's a lot of river and waterways. I'm hoping I
saw the Mississippi with river. That's the only thing I
would have done if I had more time in Memphis,
(26:44):
I would have actually gone down to the Mississippi River.
And then I think you're on the state line there,
aren't you. I think Mississippi is technically is it not
another state? I might be really messing that up, but
I'm pretty sure it's close to a state line anyway.
That's what I would do. I've heard the Mississippi River
(27:04):
is beautiful to visit, so did not do that, but
got this bus from Memphis to Nashville. So beautiful, so easy.
I could pull my laptop out, you know, do lots
of work, bloody blah, like listen to music. Whatever you
want to do. You're allowed to be on your phone,
you can be talking. It's amazing. Highly highly recommend it,
(27:25):
and they drop you off in downtown Nashville. So I
literally got off the bus in Nashville. I then went
straight to the Johnny Cash Museum. I also love Johnny
Cash like I love Elvis for different reasons, but Johnny
Cash for me. I know there's something about the way
he shares pain that just like rips your heart open.
(27:49):
And Johnny Cash Museum is an absolute must if you
like him at all. Also, if you're in California, I know,
Oh Johnny Cash has a tie to O Hi, because
Boss and I have seen Oh Hi, like a lot
of Johnny Cash stuff when winter. So I think he
(28:10):
had a house there, that's my take on that. Or
he went there to record music or whatnot. Anyway, So
Johnny Cash museums a musk give himself two hours. Loved it.
The end bit hurt though, so when he does the
cover of the song hurt, the video clip is all
explained there. The chair from the video clip, the bronze
of his head is there is so sad, like I
(28:33):
was crying, so you have to. Then I walked back
into the museum and like, watch something really exciting and positive,
like all his movies have done. I didn't know he
was an actor as well. I didn't know he had
the Johnny Cash TV Show for two years. I didn't
know that he opened up the Cash House so that
people could come and visit, much the same way you
can visit Graceland. Vibes so and I didn't know the
(28:56):
way he was like super interested in like the West
as well, but he like the way he sung in prisons,
and when he sung in prisons, he'd wear the inmates
same outfits and the inmates like he's so and the
way he always wore black as he I don't know.
I just find there's something about Johnny Cash's heart and
the way he sings, like, oh, anyway, amazing, amazing, amazing.
(29:19):
Loved it so much. It loved it like Graceland for
very different reasons, very different experiences. You could do the
Johnny Cash Museum in two hours, obviously, Graceland you need
the whole day. But loved it. And then I just
went and explored broad Broadway, which is like essentially that
I said to Matt, It's like the Times Square of Nashville,
(29:40):
and that was amazing. Like people just sprawling out of bars,
cowboy boot shops, cowboy hat shops, whiskey like going and
we'll do whiskey tastings. And it's right on a river.
I think it's called the Cumberland River or something like that. Beautiful.
I stopped there, had a little snacko and then I
went back to the which is where I got dropped off,
(30:03):
essentially right at their Country Music Hall of Fame and
museum did that. That was incredible. It's got a Dolly
Parton show on right now and a Luke Comb's show
on right now. I'm obviously into the older stuff, but
I loved like there was still so much cool old
history of country music. Little bit of Elvis stuff there again.
Another one of his Cadillacs has like a TV inside.
(30:24):
It's all gold plated phone inside. This guy was amazing.
And then a little bit of Johnny Cash and Junekarter
stuff and the Carter sisters stuff. And I didn't know,
but like may Bell Carter was a star in her
own right as well. There's a lot of that. And
(30:44):
then it basically there's different levels, so it starts with
the older stuff and then it ends on the newer stuff.
There's also an education center, lots of Taylor Swift stuff.
There's like a Taylor Swift makeshift bus tour bus as
well one of her dresses. There's like three of her
guitars there, so if you're a Taylor fan, I think
you probably get loads out of that. There's a whole
post malone section as well, so good. And then it
(31:08):
literally ends in and I didn't even know, but the
Country Music Hall of Fame is this round rotunda where
there are bronze casts of the people that have been
inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame's faces, and
that is incredible. There's a wishing well there as well.
You can stand in the middle and there's like amazing
acoustics with this cool like triangulate triangular shape thing coming
(31:32):
from the ceiling. Definitely made a few wishes for the
Bossa Cheno and I. They're in cred And then I
went to this place called Hattie Bee's and had amazing
They call it chicken sandwich, but it's a chicken burger.
There's no mistaking it. It was good. And then I
had it with what people on TikTok are calling a
fridge cigarette, which is a diet coke, which I'd never get,
(31:53):
but I was like in holiday mode and it was perfect.
It was so fun. And then I slowly just headed back.
I got drenched. It was like hot but raining. So
I went back to the hotel lobby, got change, and
then just booked an uba. I went to the airport
and then at the airport, I'm lowering my voice because
I don't know the boss knows. I got this little
(32:14):
extra treaty. But there was at the airport Voodoo. The
brand is called Voodoo Donuts. They have them in La too,
Voodoo Donuts from I want to know where they're from.
Oh there. So the brand, it's a Portland, Oregon brand.
(32:36):
It's known for its unique and creve of donuts. But
I think they're all vegan. Yeah, Gormet donut. Anyway, I
got a maple log I'm saying it soft, and I
got they caught the Romeo Raspberry and so Raspberry ran
Field donut. Fucking great. Had that at the airport. I
was like, I'm going out with a bang, and it
was so fun. And then on the flight back, I
(32:57):
had another fridge cigarette and nothing, a diet coke and
loads of water and then Bob's runkle. That was end
of my trip. It was unreal. It was like a
foody adventure, very music based. And if you're into Johnny Cash,
gotta go to the Johnny Cash Museum. If you're into
Elvis Presley, you gotta go to Graceland, and you'd want
(33:20):
to go to Sun's studio as well, because that's like
you get to literally touch the doorhand, the lucky they
got the lucky Elvis doorhand or where he came in,
and you get to hold the microphone he held, like
and that's only twenty dollars, Like I would highly recommend
doing if you're just like just mad for albers, which
I have family members that I'd fly in, get in
the afternoon, go straight to Sun's studio, have that to it,
(33:42):
and then just spend the whole next day at Graceland.
That'd be my vibe. And also I'm mad for a
bit of merch. Got a little bit of merch everywhere
and Graceland it's I thought the merch would be radonk
but I got a T shirt for ten dollars, another
T shirt at twelve fifty. I got a shock four
five dollars, like an Elvis shot glass for five and
(34:05):
I got that the Taking Care of Business Lightning so
TCB with a lightning bolt necklace fourteen dollars like fourteen
fifty or something, so pretty good value. Obviously, all of
this I'm saying is in American terms, but really really good,
and I would highly recommend that bus service because it
just like it also meant that my travel home. So
(34:27):
the flight from Nashville to Lax was three hours and
forty six minutes, so it was just a lot easier
getting homely, not jumping off at other airports anything like that.
It was just like such a straight shot home, so easy.
I will say the traffic at Lax last night at
ten thirty pm was a mentor. It was bonkers last night,
(34:49):
but still got home safe and sound. So such a
great trip so fun. Would do it again and would
highly recommend, and probably just be a little bit of
wear of safety in Memphis. I would say I felt
safe the whole time in Nashville. That said, I was
just in the main tourist drag. Obviously didn't get to
go out and explore other areas in Nashville. If I
(35:10):
had another day in Nashville, for sure, I would have
gone to the Grand Old Opry, and I would have
gone to Ryman's Auditorium as well. And I probably would
have done a whiskey tour because Matt and I love whiskey,
and obviously Tennessee is known for its whiskey, so they
would have been the only things that I would have
added on. But I have a feeling Matt and I
(35:31):
will go to Nashville because it's just quite easy to
get too from LA in comparison to Memphis. So yeah,
that is my hot tip. Also, Nashville and Memphis are
on the same time zone, so it's not like you
need a readjust or anything like that. Very easy. No,
that's not too full on. And yeah, I hope I
(35:52):
hope you like this, you know, musical little adventure that
I've taken you on today, and I hope that it
inspires you to, you know, have a little musical trip
one day, you know, That's what I hope. I want
(36:13):
to leave you with my Fae, my other favorite Elvis song.
If I can spell Elvis in my Spotify you're Spotify
or Apple Apple person? I am such a Spotify person,
all right, I'll leave you with this beodautiful song, Love
(36:38):
Him what.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
It's well.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
All right, Big Love, my friends go. Hopefully you get
to do I hope this inspires you. Memphis and Nashville,
go do it all right. Hooru, Big Love. That's a
wrap on another episode of Fearlessly Failing. As always, thank
you to our guests, and let's continue the conversation on Instagram.
(37:29):
I'm at Yamo Lollerberry. This potty my work for podcast
is available on all streaming platforms. I'd love it if
you could subscribe, rape and comment, and of course spread
the love.
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