Glen Campbell, who died today five years ago, was Elvis Presley’s contemporary and King’s friend when he helped record the soundtrack for the 1964 movie Viva Las Vegas. He once said, “Elvis and I grew up in the same humble way—picking cotton and looking at the south end of a mule heading toward North.” It’s no surprise, then, that when King turned down a Western movie role, the producers went with Campbell instead.
The film in question was John Wayne’s True Grit, for which Duke won an Academy Award for his role as US star Marshall Rooster Cogburn.
Elvis was the original choice to play Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, however, by the late 1960s, King was taking a break from films to focus on rebooting his live music career after the success of the 1968 Comeback Special.
According to Elvis’ cousin Billy Smith, Wayne himself asked the singer to co-star in a movie with him several times.
Since Wayne was already a huge star, the producers of True Grit rejected Elvis and went with Campbell.
He also sang the title song True Grit, which Elvis’ would have been if he had taken the movie.
The track was written by Elmer Bernstein and songwriter Don Black and it earned nominations for Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards for Best Original Song.
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