Songwriter on Elvis Presley

“Every day, there are new stories about deepfakes and Artificial Intelligence-cloned voices and images that manipulates someone’s likeness without their consent. This is not just a problem that effects celebrities, this is a human problem that affects us all. As a mother of three daughters, I am terrified by how this technology has been used to exploit teenagers. It’s fitting that this bill is named the ELVIS Act, because Elvis Presley performed so many different types of songs–from love songs to the blues, from pop songs to gospel music–but he infused them with his distinct voice, likeness, and personal qualities to create something new. Every individual should have the right to control their unique God-given qualities.”

“I idolized Elvis. I sent him so many songs and I never heard word one. Then one day in 1976 I was pitching songs and this famous publisher sat down next to me and says, ‘Layng, do you have a song for Elvis?” There were three I thought might work. Interestingly, the one I was least excited about, the one I almost didn't bother to send in, was the one Elvis chose. The song was "Way Down." Someone in the music industry called me i 1977 to tell me "Way Down" was climbing the charts. I was so excited. Two days later, I got another call, this time from my attorney. She said, "Layng, are you near a television? Elvis Presley is dead. How did this happen?. He listened to my demo of me singing It was just the most impossible thing I've ever heard of. And it still is, that my song would be the last he released as a single.”