Meeting Elvis: Road Manager’s Book Reveals the Beatles’ Biggest Day
A memoir reaches publication
Evans’s family made the memoir available to Kenneth Womack, a Beatles expert and author of numerous books about the group. Evans had dictated the material into a portable cassette recorder in 1975, and a stenographer was hired for the project.
The manuscript runs to about 95,000 words. Womack used it in his 2023 biography of Evans, but the memoir itself is due to appear in December under the title With the Beatles.
The Elvis encounter recalled
Evans joined the Beatles as their road manager after working as a bouncer at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. His memoir includes his first-hand account of the band’s meeting with Elvis Presley at the singer’s Hollywood home.
Evans wrote that the meeting was the biggest day of his years with the Beatles. Womack said the account offers a complete record of what happened, amid longstanding debate among writers about the encounter.
A dangerous Philippine tour
The memoir traces the Beatles from the Help! album through the Magical Mystery Tour EP, the Get Back single sessions and their final studio years. It also recounts their tour of the Philippines, where they unintentionally caused offence by declining an invitation to an official event with first lady Imelda Marcos.
Evans described being jostled by a dozen men at the airport as the group headed toward immigration. He wrote that he felt unable to retaliate and found it heartbreaking to watch the Beatles being treated roughly.
Key points
- Evans’s memoir is scheduled for first publication in December as With the Beatles.
- The manuscript contains about 95,000 words dictated in 1975.
- Evans called the Beatles’ meeting with Elvis Presley the biggest day of his years with the band.
- The memoir recounts a threatening airport incident during the Beatles’ Philippines tour.