Collective Soul and Elvis Presley

Cris Cohen: We talked last time about recording at Elvis Presley's Palm Springs, California house (for the Here To Eternity album). But I'm curious, besides it being an interesting story to tell, what drew you to that location?

Dean Roland of Collective Soul: The house hadn't been updated since he lived there. Literally the same appliances, the same bathrooms… all that stuff was the same. And no one has lived there in many years. So it wasn't the luxury factor because… it wasn't there.

It was really the history, knowing that he was the last person to ever record there, maybe even the only (person), I think. It was a little bit of a reverence and inspiration to take advantage of.

Cris Cohen: Okay. Because you could have stayed there on your own, but the fact that you guys went to the trouble of recording at this locale is what makes it extra interesting.

Dean Roland: He was a huge inspiration for us growing up. Our dad was a huge Elvis fan. There was a lot of Elvis Presley in our house. And we were big fans of all the music, the gospel records, all that stuff.

So we moved (our studio) into the house and set it up. It was a little tricky here and there, but you walk in the front foyer, the front door, (it’s) just a big living room. That's where he recorded. We just set up our stuff in there. Set the drums up. We brought this piano in. We were all in one room.

And then we had a control room just down the hallway, which was Lisa Marie's bedroom when she was a child. We set that up there and went to work.