by Jessica Easthope
When Elvis Presley’s “Amazing Grace” rings out of Corpus Christi Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, the music has the power to bring you back in time.
So does the musician playing the guitar – with the hair, clothes and voice to match. But Deacon Anthony Liguori doesn’t impersonate Elvis, he pays tribute to him. Better known as “Deacon Elvis,” Deacon Anthony says he and the king of rock and roll were both fans of a greater King.
“Elvis became more to me, I wasn’t obsessed in the sense of some of these fans,” he tells Currents News. “:I just really, genuinely, connected with him… Elvis would be in concert and sometimes people would scream out in the audience, ‘Elvis, you’re the king!’ And he would say, ‘No, I’m not the king. Jesus Christ is the king.’”
Deacon Anthony has been an Elvis tribute artist for decades, packing up his guitar and traveling the country performing as the late entertainer in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Nashville. He’s someone who became a fan early on in life.
“My grandmother and my great-grandmother would watch Elvis movies, with the whole guitar and the hairdo and the motorcycles and everything that went along with it,” he recalls. “I became an instant fan.”
While wearing out the grooves on his Elvis records as a kid, Deacon Anthony realized that what kept his attention was much deeper than what first caught it.
“I guess I was intrigued by everything about his life and his generosity and the way he treated other people and his gospel music as well was a big, important influence in my life,” he explains.
But in his twenties, Deacon Anthony had a nearly fatal health scare and an experience that would go on to shape the rest of his life. “I was on the forefront of paradise, of heaven,” he tells Currents News. “I could see the golden glow and the angels singing. And that’s when I met Jesus. I could feel this warmth of love coming through him. And then ultimately, he had sent me back and said it wasn’t my time.”
Today Deacon Anthony – who is a singer-songwriter himself – still performs as Elvis, and the look and music have become his tools for evangelization.
“For me, it’s Jesus, one-on-one love, compassion. That’s where my ministry takes me,” he says, “And in the end, that’s all that really matters. And maybe someday He’ll say, ‘well done.’ I don’t know, but hopefully.”
In the end, his goal will always be to be remembered as someone who helped and made a difference – not as Elvis – but as Anthony.