Elvis Tribute Artist from Stow Singing National Anthem at Cleveland Indians Game

A bevy of Elvis Presley tribute artists will be greeting and entertaining fans at Friday’s Cleveland Indians game, but only one of them gets to perform the National Anthem: Stow resident John Jensen.

The professional Elvis entertainer will take the microphone at Progressive Field right before the 7:05 p.m. start of the first of a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins. Elvis Night will feature a post-game fireworks show themed to the King of Rock and Roll’s greatest hits.

This is at least the third year Jensen has worked alongside other Elvis tribute artists cruising the stands, posing for pictures and crooning to fans.

“Every year they have an Elvis Night around the anniversary of his death, Aug. 16, 1977,” Jensen said. “We all dance during the seventh inning stretch. Last year I was doing my Elvis moves on top of the Indians dugout with Slider.”

Jensen said he is consistently ranked within the top five Elvis performers nationally on GigMasters, an internet-based booking agency for entertainers. Yet he stumbled upon this career path quite by accident.

Ten years ago Jensen was a rhythm guitarist for a ’50s doo-wop band. While setting up for a show, he started belting out the last song he had heard on the radio, “All Shook Up.”  The theater owner overheard it and immediately booked Jensen for a full Elvis show for three nights.

“The problem was, I only knew one Elvis song,” the 49-year-old laughed. “I had only three months to learn a full Elvis show with an eight-piece back-up group.”

Even though he wasn’t an Elvis fan, Jensen pulled the three-night gig off and has had steady work impersonating the cultural icon ever since. His act is called John Jensen’s Hail to the King Show.

“I don’t try to convince people I’m Elvis. I don’t channel Elvis. I don’t want to be Elvis,” Jensen explained. “I’m a guy who appreciates good music — and my natural singing voice is nearly identical to Elvis’. That’s why I’m an Elvis tribute singer.”

Between songs Jensen becomes himself again, telling the audience stories about Elvis’ life and career and why he was The King of Rock and Roll.

“He combined gospel, soul, rhythm and blues, rockabilly and country into his own style, which is where rock and roll came from,” Jensen said. “Elvis gave rock and roll its edge. He was the guy John Lennon and Paul McCartney wanted to be like.”

Jensen said he knows 70 to 80 numbers from Elvis’ 700-song catalog.

“I try to stick to the songs that people know, all the number one hit songs,” he said. “I like doing ’50s Elvis the most. That’s when he was in his prime, on the cutting edge of rock and roll. I don’t like to venture past 1971 or ’72.”

The eight-year Stow resident has traveled to numerous U.S. states to perform his Elvis act. His booking manager – wife Karen Jensen – travels with him, runs sound at his shows and often gets introduced to the audience as his “makeup and costume mistress.”

When he isn’t doing his Elvis thing, Jensen is performing with the Northeast Ohio-based ’60s tribute group The Fads. And, four months ago, he started playing with Train of Thought, a classic rock band.

As if those jobs don’t keep him busy enough, Jensen occasionally does engineering design consulting work. And it’s because of that job that Jensen is a tad nervous about his National Anthem performance at Progressive Field.

“I’ve got 50 of my co-workers going to the game after getting word of it, and my family is going to be there,” Jensen said. “I can sing for a million people and it won’t bother me, but sometimes, if someone like my mom is in the audience, I’m a nervous wreck.”

His mother, a Connecticut resident, won’t be attending the game. So is he confident the difficult song can be performed as Elvis without a glitch of any kind?

“There’s social etiquette involved in singing that song — and it’s a hard song to sing, but I sing so many different varieties of music and I have a large vocal range, so I should be okay,” he laughed.