Chris Isaak Given Keys To Rock 'N' Roll Diner
Veteran musician Chris Isaak was left stunned during sessions for his latest album when studio bosses gave him free run of a nearby diner where his idols Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash frequently ate.
The Wicked Game hitmaker has paid tribute to his rock 'n' roll heroes by recording cover versions of their classic songs at the famed Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee where the original tracks were laid down.
And he was awestruck when the venue's owners told him Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and other rock legends would often eat a meal at a local restaurant - and he was free to help himself to a burger whenever he was hungry.
Isaak tells the Bbc, "It was incredible recording there and also they gave us the key (to the diner) - next door to the studio is a diner that's been there since, like, 1950, and that's where (Roy) Orbison and Johnny Cash would sit and talk and stuff, and (the studio staff) go, 'Listen, in the middle of the night (if) you get hungry go over there and fix yourself something'.
"So we'd play 'til two or three in the morning and then we would go next door and fix ourselves a burger or something and then go back over and play."
Asked why he chose to record rock 'n' roll covers for the album, titled Beyond the Sun, Isaak replies, "It's just the music I grew up listening to. When I was a kid my parents had a really small but fantastic record collection. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Elvis - and that's the songs that I'm doing... Everybody remembers those tunes."