Elvis is alive and living in Granada province

When British musician and Elvis Presley impersonator Heston Lee appeared on the popular Spanish TV Show Al Cielo con Ella in June, he said it was an “enormous privilege” to perform as part of a surprise 82nd birthday celebration for Spanish singer Miguel Ríos, “the king of Spanish rock”.

Heston, who has lived in Granada province's Lecrin Valley since 2019, revealed to SUR in English that the appearance came about because the TV company found him through his social media and called him up. “It was very short notice and within a few hours I was on a train to Madrid for the shoot the next morning,” he reveals.

The company had seen videos of Heston's Elvis impersonation and seen that he is a musician in his own right. Heston says of the impersonation work, “It's still early days but I am hoping to perform in the USA and of course to visit Graceland.”

Heston, 54, has been doing Elvis impersonations for about a year and a half but has always been a musician, performing his own original music both solo and with a band, as well as performing covers.

Heston, who grew up in Derbyshire, is also a fan of Michael Ríos and says, “I heard his music over the years and being also from Granada, his name kept coming up. The mayor in the village I live in is perhaps his biggest fan. He was kind of blown away when I told him about the TV appearance.” On the show Ríos reveals that Elvis was the person that inspired him to become a musician himself.

“My music journey began in 1998, when I was gifted an abandoned Spanish guitar. I did not put it down for 10 years and taught myself to play from a book,” Heston explains. It was in “about 2011” that he started writing songs and his first public performance was at an open mic session and a chance encounter while visiting a friend in Berlin: “I made friends with musicians and started writing songs. The open mic was a way to try them out on the public,” he recalls.

Heston goes on to say, “One night a producer was in the audience who owned a startup recording studio. He gave me subsidised studio and recording time. We recorded 16 original songs together and it inspired me to focus on building a career in music.”

Heston says that he has lived “on and off” in Spain for the last 30 years, having first gone to Fuengirola in 1992 for a year, when his then girlfriend's parents emigrated here and she was keen to join them. “I came along for the ride and stayed a while,” he says.

He returned to the UK for a time before coming back to Spain in 2003, this time to Malaga city and then to Barcelona until 2019 when he “settled” in the Lecrin Valley “Living in the Lecrin Valley means I can get down to the coast within about 20 minutes and about the same time to Granada city.”

He goes on to say, “I just felt at home. It was something about the lifestyle, culture, weather, food and friendly locals. It got under my skin. It took time to get the language down but now my Spanish is very good, so I'm told, I recorded two of my songs in Spanish, Johnny and Oh Biddy,” Heston says of his reason for staying here.

The musician reveals that he has picked up not just the language, but some Spanish habits too. “I used to eat churros all the time but now toast and tomato is enough,” he says.

After moving to Granada province he met music producer Martin Youth Glover: “He has a recording studio in the area and is best known for being in the band Killing Joke and The Fireman with Paul McCartney.”

He says that they kept in touch and four years later Glover produced Heston's debut album Farewell My Love, “which was a great privilege”. In fact Oh Biddy was recorded at Mini Hollywood in Almeria province's Tabernas desert.

As for Elvis, Heston says he has always been a fan of his music and legacy, although admits that the idea of performing as Elvis “did not come straight away”. However, he says that he “got started because I knew a few songs of his already and the rest fell into place like it was meant to be”.

Heston's talent for music even got him on Dragons Den in the UK in 2018 (as Matt Lee) when he pitched for investment in a platform called Play Me The Song. He explains that “the idea was to hire a musician through the website for a song dedication”. He adds, “I did not get any money from the dragons but it was a good experience.”

Another project Heston has in the pipeline is Elvisgram (https://elvisagram.com). The idea, he explains, is to build a community or network of people who “go out performing as Elvis Presley”. He goes on to say that you can also send Elvis E-cards.

Elvis has turned into a “full-time job”, Heston says, having worked in sales and telemarketing for many years and a stint as an English teacher. He's learned how to make websites as a hobby, which he recognises “was useful when I started releasing my own music and began hustling for gigs as much of the promotion is online these days”.

He goes on to say, “I will have to see where it leads. Above all, my passion is about performing, singing and making people happy. Performing as Elvis is a truly great honour and his music means so much to millions of people all over the world.”

As for life in Spain, Heston concludes, “I have been back to the UK for periods of time but my heart and soul are happiest here.”