Imagine for an instant that you are an established Memphis musician, home from a tour in the Navy, and restarting your band. An unknown teenager sings a couple of songs at your auditions, but you don’t like him. Maybe it’s the beat-up guitar he carries. Maybe it’s the way the lanky guy dances. But you don’t want him in the band.

You could let him go with some constructive criticism. Or you could try to get a laugh from the room. So, more for the benefit of everyone present than for him, you joke, “Stick to driving truck because you’re never going to make it as a singer.” You are, after all, the 21-year-old veteran of the Memphis scene in the room. A few months later, you hear Elvis Presley recorded his first single with Sun Records.

Hindsight is 20/20, and history loves to leer at Eddie Bond’s 1954 decision. The musician had indeed been playing around Memphis since he was 15. And at 21 he got back to town and held auditions for his renewed band.

Elvis Presley, on the other hand, graduated high school a few months after his 18th birthday and stuck around Memphis. He immediately started working at a machinist shop, later upgrading to a truck-driving job for Crown Electric. Why? The bump from $33 a week to $40. He used his extra cash to pay for time at Memphis Recording Service studios, cutting a couple of one-copy personal vinyls. He shyly asked around about bands looking for a singer.

The aspiring musician eventually landed a few gigs with Ronnie Smith, who had been a member of Eddie Bond’s band. So when Eddie got back to town, Ronnie mentioned the auditions at the “Hi Hat” club to Presley.

Bond later claimed the club’s owner had forced him to reject Elvis. But a mutual friend revealed his joke about the teenage truck driver sticking to his day job. After Elvis’ “That’s All Right (Mama)” with Sun Records was a hit, Eddie asked Ronnie to reach out about that singer position. Elvis turned it down.