Of course the choice was not accidental. McInerny led since 2005 “Elvis lives”, a tribute to Elvis Presley awarded in 2007 by the BBC as the best in Latin America. Investigating, Bó found his record and did not hesitate to recruit the musician for his adventure.
A decade after the premiere, the artist answers the phone at his house in Gonnet and speaks with Ámbito. “I didn’t realize it was ten years,” he admits. What it was like to leave his profession to dedicate himself to art, his present playing in private events and the memory of the experience that changed everything.
Genesis
Mc Inerny is 57 years old and has a musical life. His mother, now retired, was a concert pianist and teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts in La Plata. His father, a fan of country, blues and jazz, traveled a lot and always came back with vinyl.
At the age of 7, little John began to study guitar. “I always tried to do music. As a teenager too, I’ve had countless groups. The first recording I made was in 1980. By then I was already recording in La Plata, as it was recorded before, with open tape”, he says.
That homely palette, where the refinement of classical music coexisted with the freedom of American rhythms, led to a figure that would mark the young man with fire: Elvis Presley.
Putting his incipient devotion into practice was not easy: not even the King had a foothold in a distant Argentina. McInerny explains: “At least in La Plata, Elvis did not exist. The country is very Beatlemaniac; it always looked more to Europe than to the US. There is a love/hate relationship with the US. Whether you like it or not, the product of an artist, in this musical case, It goes through diffusion.
The same two or three Presley albums were repeated in all the record stores, and, except for Badía, they did not usually play his songs on the radio: “The artist can be a genius, but if you don’t spread it, if it doesn’t get on the radio or you don’t bring his material, he goes unnoticed. That happened with Elvis “.
elvis lives
In addition to being a musician, Mc Inerny is an architect. A large part of his life was shared between teaching at the Faculty of Architecture in La Plata and performing on stage.
It was only in 2004, after a long journey, when he wanted to take a leap. To do this, she recruited local artists and formed “Elvis Lives”, with a repertoire dedicated entirely to his idol. In 2007 the BBC chose him as the best tribute in Latin America.
At that time, Armando Bó Jr. was already flirting with filming the movie and researching the king. One day, sniffing around the trays of the “Elvis Shop” in Buenos Aires, he found the first Elvis Vive album and knew that something was happening there.
“We went with Elvis Vive to his production company’s New Year’s Eve party. From then on I was in permanent contact with him to be the actor’s coach in everything related to Elvis”, comments the interviewee. But that accompanying role would only be temporary. Fate had something greater in store for him: be himself the protagonist of the film.
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The movie
“The Last Elvis” premiered in 2012. Mc Inerny played Carlos Gutiérrez, an Argentine Elvis willing to take his tribute to the last consequences. The acting trinomial was completed with Griselda Sicilian in the role of Priscila, Gutiérrez’s ex-wife, and Margaret Lopez like Lisa, their daughter.
Far from the grandiloquence of Presley and his entourage, Carlos has an opaque life, which is divided between his work in a factory in the Conurbano, his presentations in clubs and casinos and his permanent struggle to get paid for those shows.
“I have great memories of the movie. It took a long time too, so there was a lot of interaction both with Armando and with all the people from the production company. What happened was very nice. Being remembered is fantastic. It means that something has been done well.” the protagonist reflects.
In this regard, he admits having seen the entire film only three times: “The script seems extremely original to me. The film is not so talkative, there is not so much text, which I think is very good. It has good photography. Griselda’s performance is fantastic; Margaret’s too. You have to put a little desire on mine to see it (laughs)”.
And although he considers himself self-critical, he is grateful for having been recognized as a revelation with the Silver Condor and the INCAA Southern Prize: “They have been very good to me.”
The film not only marked John’s appearance in the cinema but also a 180 degree turn in his career. From the premiere of it, he began to devote himself fully to music. The shows, the interviews and the events multiplied. She has even been to Europe, Russia, Japan and Australia.
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Present
As a result of that experience, today Mc Inerny is devoted to his artistic career. Among other activities, he performs musical collaborations in films. His version of “Always on my mind”, for example, was included in “Corazón de León”, a film directed by Marcos Carnevale and starring Guillermo Francella and Julieta Díaz.
He also does shows, although due to the pandemic he only plays at private events. “I realized that normality has not returned,” he explains, “so people do not gather together in a closed place, which seems fantastic to me, because you have to take care of yourself. You already go to private events with a certain cachet and you know what you are going to find”.
However, he confesses that he is managing a recital in a theater in Buenos Aires for the end of the year.
Among his adventures, he highlights having shared the stage with Palito Ortega, with whom he came to play at Luna Park: “Ramón is a guy who deserves everything good that has happened to him. He is an excellent person, that he has been as kind to me as he has been, I know, to many other people that he gave opportunities to. My relationship with him is fantastic, thanks more than anything”.
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From modern times, he ponders the irruption of social networks, which allow him to approach a younger audience, and that Elvis and his liturgy are no longer classified as “fat”. “That is already in the past. Luckily we have grown in many things,” he celebrates.
As the interview draws to a close, John Mc Inerny says he hasn’t seen Baz Luhrmann’s brand-new “Elvis” yet, although he plans to. And he kneads a closing reflection: “Everything has been positive with ‘The Last Elvis.’ At that time and now too. I have great memories of the movie.”
Already in retreat, the singer appreciates the talk and says goodbye. The phone goes silent.
Elvis has left the building.
Source: Ambito
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