Cote Deonath: Tribute To Elvis

Cote Deonath

Photos courtesy of 49th PL Productions

By James Blevins

Cote Deonath was two years old and spending time with his grandmother, Joellyn, when he was first exposed to the “King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Aaron Presley.

At that young age in 1999, Cote confesses, he couldn’t sit still for anyone. A naturally rambunctious child, Cote needed something, anything, to distract him from his more Tasmanian Devil-like impulses. The trouble was there didn’t seem be anything distracting enough to distract him—at least nothing his family had stumbled upon yet.

“I was a little demon child,” admits Cote, 21, with a laugh. “I was very hyper. I still am to a certain extent. But on that particular day, my grandmother was at her wit’s end with me. She had tried everything to calm me down. “Then,” says Cote, “she tried something new on a whim.”

The whim she went on was Elvis.

Joellyn put a VHS copy of Elvis’ 1962 film Follow That Dream into the tape deck. The video’s effect on two-year-old Cote was almost immediate. “I was mesmerized,” remembers Cote. “I didn’t move from that spot. And I guess when the movie was over, my grandmother told me that I had started immediately moving and jumping around and causing more havoc, so she rewound the tape, pushed play, and I was still again.”

Something about the gyrating rock icon captivated young Cote. Whenever Elvis was on the screen, Cote was paying strict attention and relishing everything he saw, replaying Elvis’ many motions and mannerisms back and forth in his mind. The film made an irreversible impression. “I think Elvis has that effect on a lot of people,” offers Cote. “He certainly has had that effect on me. After that, I was constantly watching his movies and video clips. I started thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’’”

A lifelong passion for Elvis had been born that afternoon at his Grandma Joellyn’s house, but this would prove to be only the first phase of how uniquely that passion would continue to manifest itself in Cote’s life.

As far as four-year-old Cote was concerned, anything could be used as a microphone in a pinch. But he much preferred using a real one to share his passion for Elvis Presley with others. Cote first performed as Elvis for his Dunnellon Christian Academy at the tender age of four. He sang along and performed to two of Elvis’ hit songs, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hound Dog.”

By the time he was eight, Cote had started making a name for himself outside of Florida, performing at Elvis festivals across the country. When he finished his two-song set, his family had to come out and literally pull him off the stage. “I remember having such a good time,” says Cote. “I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to do the whole CD.”

A year later, Cote was performing as “Little Elvis” all over Florida, making appearances at his hometown of Dunnellon’s Boomtown Days, Plant City’s Strawberry Festival, and the Orange Blossom Opry in Weirsdale.

By the time he was eight, Cote had started making a name for himself outside of Florida, performing at Elvis festivals across the country. In 2007, he even performed in Tupelo, Mississippi—Elvis’ hometown—for the first of three visits as a kid to Tupelo University’s annual Elvis Festival (more on this later).

In Tupelo in 2009, Cote reenacted the famous moment when an 11-year-old Elvis chose the guitar over the bicycle for his birthday present in a hardware store in 1946. An 11-year-old Cote played Elvis in the actual famous hardware store, with the actual famous guitar. “I couldn’t touch it,” recalls Cote, “but it was on display. I got to hold a replica for the actual reenactment. It was a huge honor to reenact the moment that shaped that young man’s life, and shaped the music industry as well. “I mean, just think about it,” continues Cote. “What if he’d picked the bicycle? The world would be a very different place. I don’t know! That’s some Back to the Future, alternate-timeline stuff right there!”

This new phase of Cote’s passion for Elvis was quickly becoming something he was taking very seriously. He started taking vocal lessons. He learned how to play the guitar right-handed like Elvis, because, like Elvis, Cote was naturally left-handed.

“I sang every day,” remembers Cote. “I talked non-stop about Elvis. I would even slick my hair back in school pictures. Kids from my school were going home and asking their parents who Elvis was. And their parents would be like, ‘Yeah, I know who he is, but where did you hear about him?’ I just wanted to be him so bad as a kid, and I wanted everyone to know who he was.”

In 2016, when he had turned 18 and was a senior at Dunnellon High School, Cote decided to go pro as an Elvis tribute artist. Now, for starters, what exactly is the difference between an Elvis tribute artist and an Elvis impersonator? “People use the term ‘tribute artist’ with Elvis,” explains Cote, “because it’s a higher standard than ‘impersonator.’” Impersonators, according to Cote, really think that they are Elvis. Tribute artists do not. Impersonators portray Elvis 24 hours a day, seven days a week, using his mannerisms and style of speech for effect—sometimes comical effect. Tribute artists do not.

Impersonating Elvis can easily go the way of caricature, claims Cote, and become an oversimplification of a very talented and complex man. Whereas for tribute artists, mimicking Elvis is not the game. For them, it is exclusively about honoring and respecting his life and rich musical legacy. “I do it because I want to educate and bring Elvis’ music to the next generation of fans,” says Cote of performing. “And as long as that’s everyone’s goal as a tribute artist, I think that’s the difference.”

Now, when it comes to competing as an Elvis tribute artist, there are only 18 competitions that are recognized by Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) and Graceland, which represents the Elvis Presley Estate. One of the biggest is the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest, which takes place annually at Graceland itself.

After winning his first professional Elvis tribute artist contest at the Tampa Bay Elvis Festival earlier in the year, Cote placed in the Top 10 at EPE’s Ultimate Elvis in 2016, his first year as an eligible contestant. This was no small feat, as only 18 competitors across the world are even chosen to participate.

“It was unbelievable,” says Cote of his first Ultimate Elvis experience. “I was very fortunate to be up against a lot of veteran guys that I could look up to and learn from. It was kind of a whirlwind for me.”

In 2018, Cote wowed the Ultimate Elvis crowd, finishing in the coveted Top 3 and winning the top-American title outright. He would follow that title a few weeks later by becoming World Champion at the Images of the King Elvis Festival in Memphis. Since going pro, Cote has won eight grand championships out of the 18 officially recognized. He even won Tupelo’s Elvis Festival in 2017, the same festival he went to as an 11-yearold kid when reenacting Elvis’ birthday trip to the hardware store.

Through Elvis, Cote has since seen so many of his dreams come true and his mission in life become ever clearer. A mission he might have even caught glimpses of right from the start, watching a grainy VHS copy of an old Technicolor film in his grandmother’s living room. “Elvis has given me an outlet to make people happy,” states Cote, “a platform to spread a message of joy and harmony everywhere I go. I have friends all over the world now because of Elvis. I intend on sharing his music and what he stood for as long as I can.”

IN 2012, Cote’s grandmother, Joellyn— his first and greatest fan, according to Cote, and the first person to expose him to the majesty and grace of Elvis Presley—passed away. Her being gone had a profound effect on Cote. He even contemplated stepping away from the stage for good. “I almost gave it all up,” remembers Cote. “I didn’t do much of anything for a while. I didn’t listen to Elvis. It’s almost like I excommunicated him from my life because it was too much. My grandmother was my rock.”

But after grieving for the better part of a year, Cote realized he had to continue on, for Joellyn’s sake. It was the best way for him to honor her, he concluded, to honor the gift she had given him when he was two years old and hellbent on making some noise. He saw it almost as a choice. A choice between living a life that was ordinary, and living a life that was extraordinary, a choice maybe not too dissimilar to the famous choice Elvis once had to make between a bicycle and a guitar.

“I think a lot of people face that choice,” suggests Cote. “No matter if you’re a tribute artist, an actor, or a musician. If you want to pursue something that you really love, you have to choose to take that path every step of the way. “Follow your dreams 100 percent of the time,” recommends Cote. “Nothing else is going to satisfy you more than following that dream.”

The King himself couldn’t have said it better.

WANT TO SEE COTE?

Cote has an active performing schedule and also hosts a summer festival in Inverness in July. Visit his site and the one for the festival on July 18-20 for more information:

www.elvisthesummerfestival.com www.coteastheking.com

Beyond Jailhouse Rock

Cote’s five favorite, non-hit Elvis songs.

1. “It’s Easy for You” from Moody Blue, 1977. “He was going through a really mellow phase at this time in his career. And if you really listen to Elvis and understand his music as it reflects things that were going on and happening to him in his life, then this is a good song to listen to for that.”

2. “It’s Still Here” from Elvis (Fool), 1973. “This is one I just discovered recently. It’s Elvis playing piano and there’s a bass line, and that’s it. It’s raw and just unbelievable.”

3. “It’s Your Baby, You Rock It” from Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old), 1971. “This song is really calm and kind of country. The melody just flows.”

4. “Unchained Melody” from Moody Blue, 1977. “Another song off Moody Blue, the last album he put out in his lifetime. Words can’t describe how beautiful his version of this song is, the emotion he conjures up when he sings this song at the piano [at his last televised concert in Rapid City, South Dakota, two months before his death] is beyond words. It was a statement from him at his lowest that he still had it. That he never lost it. That it was always there inside of him, despite everything else.”

5. “I’ve Got a Thing About You Baby” from Good Times, 1974. “Oh, man, that’s it. I just love this song. I have to say, I’m so happy that you asked me these questions. This is probably my favorite interview. So many people ask me what my favorite Elvis song is and I always end up saying ‘Jailhouse Rock’ or something similar. It’s nice to bring up some other Elvis songs that are just as worthy of attention.”