So I picked up the two Guralnick biographies and started reading them, and as you do if you're reading books about music, you start listening to the tracks as you're going along. Before I'd finished the first book I became a diehard Elvis fan, and by the time I'd finished the second one I had an Elvis tattoo.

He might not have written his own songs, but he was the master producer and engineer of his generation. It's also popular opinion to say that the original Hound Dog is better, but no it fucking isn't. That's just bollocks. Elvis' version of that song is lightyears ahead, and if you listen to the two of them back-to-back you can hear what he was doing.

This was obviously the ‘50s so it was all cut live, and he’d stand in the middle of the room with all the musicians around him and they’d do 60 takes in a row. He’d be like, ‘Bar three, verse two; drop that F sharp to an E. Now let’s do it again.’ He was in full control of his vision.

It's taken me until my mid-30s to realise it, and when I was younger I didn't really get it.