Elvis has left the constructing — to go to church.
A New Jersey deacon who can be an Elvis Presley tribute band singer is thought to get his parishioners “All Shook Up.”
Anthony Liguori Jr. is lovingly known as “Deacon Elvis” by the devoted at Corpus Christi Church in Hasbrouck Heights. However new churchgoers are sometimes shocked by his resemblance to The King.
“During Christmas services, I could see these people come in, and then they’re tapping on the shoulder and pointing … It’s pretty funny to watch,” Liguori, 64, instructed The Publish.
“Even as I’m up there proclaiming the Gospel, I’m watching the people looking at me, some of them with smirks on their face. And then their family who brought them in is saying, ‘No, this is what he does.’”
The Saddle Brook, NJ native doesn’t sing on the pulpit, however he does sport sideburns, excessive hair and a sterling silver cross that was handmade for Elvis by the famous person’s ranch hand in 1972.
A fan of Liguori’s, Don Dunn, bought the cross in 1978 at a Memphis conference for round $1,500. When Liguori was ordained a deacon by the Catholic Church in 2011, Dunn gifted it to him.
“He said, ‘I have no children and I got to give it to somebody that really would deserve this.’ I was floored. And he gave me . . . a photograph of Priscilla wearing this.”
It’s not unusual to equate Elvis with faith, Liguori defined.
“People would yell out at concerts, ‘Elvis, you’re The King!’ And he would say, ‘No, I’m not, Jesus is The King,’” he mentioned.
“A lot of the churches where he lived in a very poor part of Mississippi were black Gospel churches, so he got a lot of that rhythm and soul from them.”
He additionally famous the late singer, who died at 42 in 1977 and would have turned 90 on Wednesday, was extraordinarily beneficiant.
“When he made it and the money just started rolling in, he saw it as a way to help people. He literally gave homes to not only people he knew, but strangers, and didn’t want any publicity.”
When he was 6, Liguori’s great-grandmother launched him to Elvis’ motion pictures.
“I thought he was cool, the girls, the guitars, the motorcycles, the hairstyle,” recalled Liguori, who started taking part in Elvis’ music in highschool and performing professionally in faculty.
Though he attended mass each Sunday, it was a near-death expertise at 20 — when his omentum, a flap of tissue that covers the stomach organs, twisted from years of contact sports activities — that introduced Liguori nearer to God.
“My whole body was being poisoned … I remember being in the operating room and kind of rising … I saw the whole tunnel and light thing, as cliché as that sounds … I had my vision of paradise … Jesus embraced me and I felt his warmth and power heal me.”
After sharing his story with others, Liguori, who married his highschool sweetheart and has two youngsters, felt a calling to the deaconhood.
Deacons, who undergo 5 years of seminary coaching, carry out most of the capabilities that clergymen do.
“We can preach the Gospel, baptize, perform wedding ceremonies, preside at funerals. The only things we don’t do is hear confessions or do the consecration,” he defined.
His nickname got here quickly after he was ordained, when he was requested to sing at a retreat, marketed with a poster that proclaimed, “The music is going to be provided by Deacon Elvis.”
“At first, I was taken aback, but the poster was approved by the archbishop, who actually called me that in person.”
The singer-songwriter, who’s within the Alabama Nation Music Corridor of Fame, performs nationwide along with his band, which incorporates his son Christian — in every single place from cruise ships to casinos to, in fact, his church.
“We did a fundraiser here a year ago and packed the house. We couldn’t sell another ticket.”
