Johnny Lang greeted a visitor to his mobile home, dubbed “Graceland II,” with a smile, a joke and an Elvis Presley tale, and they kept coming.

You can understand why “The King” picked him as one of his buddies when both served in the Army in the late 1950s into 1960.

Lang, 86, of Macomb County, befriended the legendary singer during Presley’s two-year enlistment, including a 17-month stay in Germany. Lang was friends with him from September 1958 until March 1960 when Elvis’ service ended. Lang, who volunteered, was a year younger than 23-year-old Elvis upon entry.

The gregarious Lang said while their friendship, which began on the way to Germany, lasted only 18 months, the memories and affection have remained with him.

“He is the most charismatic person I have ever met in my life,” Lang said recently in his home adorned with Elvis memorabilia. “I never met a man with so much charisma. The guy had the greatest laugh in the world.”

Lang said Elvis liked him because Lang made him laugh and never asked for anything.

“I didn’t want nothing from him. I just wanted to be his friend,” he said. “I didn’t want a thing from him. In fact, I had a hard time taking a buck, a can of pop from him.”

Elvis gave Lang a watch, which Elvis’ secretary got engraved for him with, “To Johnny, From Elvis,” and a metal lighter.

Elvis rose from humble beginnings in the mid-1950s to become an unprecedented superstar with his progressive rock ‘n’ roll singing and suggestive stage movements, and sold well over 1 billion records and starred in 31 movies.

Elvis was drafted into the Army and served in the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32nd Armor, mostly in the battalion’s Headquarters Company at Friendberg, about 16 miles north of Frankfort.

Lang was a machine gunner at the same base and stayed in the barracks.

Lang rode a taxi every weekend to Elvis’ house in nearby Bad Nauheim, where Elvis was allowed to live with a group of friends, many of whom traveled there with him and became part of what was known as the “Memphis Mafia,” as well as his father, Vernon, and grandmother.

Lang talks about his experiences with Elvis and other friends, including Charlie Hodge, Wes Daniels, Lamar Fike and Red and Sonny West in a five-part series of videos on the youtube.com show, “Globetrotting with Trey,” by Trey Miller. Three parts have been introduced, with two more to come, the next one Tuesday, April 12.

“Johnny was a great interview,” Miller said.

Keith Paolella, a friend of Lang’s, recently held a premiere party at his Shelby Township home for Lang for the youtube.com show, where they showed the more than two hours that is be posted.

“It was a huge success,” Paolella said. “It made Johnny very happy.”

Lang said he is quoted in a handful of books about Elvis, including, “Sergeant Presley. The Untold Story of Elvis’ Missing Years,” by Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield. Elisabeth, who lived in Germany, was Elvis’ secretary for about a year there and married Rex, who was one of Elvis’ friends.

He was friends with the Mansfields. Rex Mansfield died four years ago. Lang remains in contact with Elisabeth, who lives in Tennessee, and a phone call between the two is featured in “Globetrotting.”

Lang said last week the guy group typically hung out at the house on Saturday afternoon, went to the movies on Saturday night and played football on Sunday afternoon, frequently in front of a few hundred spectators, many of them female.

Elvis, who was 6 feet tall and 175 pounds, played quarterback and Lang, who was 5 feet 7 inches tall and 145 and speedy, played halfback like he did at St. Mary’s in Royal Oak.

Lang said he first saw Elvis from a distance at Fort Hood, Texas, Army base but didn’t meet him until September 1958 while they were on a train to New Jersey to depart for Germany.

Lang had befriended Hodge, who took him to a train car to meet him. Lang said he was “paralyzed” with apprehension but Elvis made him feel comfortable.

“’Sit down, chief,’” Elvis told him, he said. “We talked about movies, and I got to know him a little bit.”

Elvis seemed to like how Lang treated him. Lang called Elvis, “Babe,” a reference to Babe Ruth, although Elvis didn’t like it.

“He’d say, ‘Don’t call me babe.’ I’d say, ‘OK, babe.’”

He recalled one time Elvis sat down at the piano in the house on a Saturday afternoon and asked Lang to come sit with him and sing. Lang admittedly is not a good singer.

“Elvis, said, ‘Why don’t you try whistling Johnny?”

“I said, ‘Never ask me to sing again.’

“He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

One Sunday when Elvis was combing his hair while getting ready to play football, Elvis asked him, “Johnny, do you think I’ll ever be bald?”

“I said, ‘No, no. I’ll be bald someday. You’re going to get uglier.’

“He says, ‘Let’s go play football,’” Lang said, laughing.

Elvis loved karate, too. Lang said he used those movements while performing on stage.

“He just loved it,” he said. “He did all those movements on stage. They were karate movements.”

Elvis one time asked Lang to do karate with him. Elvis accidentally punched Lang in the ear with a ring on and made him bleed. Elvis apologized.

Another time he and Elvis wrestled on a bed in an upstairs bedroom, and the bed broke and made a loud noise as Lang said he “had him in a full nelson.” Elvis’ grandmother ran upstairs and scolded the young men.

Naturally, Elvis was the center of attention whenever he went out. Hundreds or thousands of people, many of them girls and young women, would gather.

Lang called Elvis “smooth” and a “Southern gentleman” but said he doesn’t like to talk much about Elvis’ romantic adventures.

“Women just loved him,” Lang said. “They’d flirt with him. I’d sit and watch him on the couch with the women, three on one side and three on the other. They just wanted to get close to him.

“I’d be sitting there watching. He’d look over at me and give me one of these (a wink).”

Lang said sometimes he would bring a female friend to the home without informing her it was Elvis’ residence.

“They’d get there and see Elvis come down the stairs, and I thought they needed an ambulance. I thought they were going to pass out,” he said with a laugh.

Many years ago he was contacted by the National Inquirer, which offered to pay him for unheard stories about Elvis but refused.

“I love the guy. I’d never do anything like that,” he said.

Lang did relate a story about Elvis eventual wife, Priscilla Presley, around the time she and Elvis met in Germany, where Priscella’s stepfather was stationed. She was only 14.

Elvis staged a New Year’s Eve party in 1959 at a hotel. Lang, a self-described good dancer, said he was dancing with Priscila for about a half on the dance floor when Red West tapped him on the shoulder and said, “You’re going to have to quit dancing with Priscilla.” Johnny said, “Why?” Red said, “I don’t know. I just do what I’m told, just quit dancing.” Lang said, “OK.”

He said Elvis displayed his compassion when two young women came to the house on a Saturday afternoon while Elvis was signing autographs. One woman was a “German farm girl” who was not well groomed, but Elvis was attentive. Lang made a comment about her after she left.

“He says, ‘Let me tell you something, Johnny boy. Those are my fans, and without those fans I wouldn’t have what you’re looking at today,’” Lang said. “He says, ‘And I wouldn’t hurt her feelings for all the money in the world.’”

Lang sometimes gets choked up reminiscing about Elvis.

“To me, when I got to know him, he wasn’t the Elvis Presley of the world. He was my friend,” he said.

“He loved James Dean. He loved Marlon Brandon and that’s who he wanted to be like,” Lang said. “And if given the opportunity he would’ve been like him. But that Parker didn’t give a s— because all he cared about was making money.”

Lang said he also regrets never seeing Elvis again after saying goodbye to him on his last day in Germany. When they parted, Elvis told him to visit any time.

But Lang was busy as a hardworking steelworker for 30 years at a plant at Eight Mile and Mound roads, a husband and father of five, and didn’t travel much.

Lang twice saw him in concert in Detroit, at least once at Olympia Stadium. and one time tried to visit him at a hotel after the show but was rebuffed by Hodge for some unknown reason, he said. (Elvis’ first Olympia concert occurred almost exactly 65 years ago, March 31, 1957.)

But he said that disappointment doesn’t stain his memories. He closely followed Elvis’ career, read all of the Memphis Mafia’s books and built a large memorabilia collection through purchases and gifts. He displays a few photos of himself with Elvis.

Lang recalled getting a telephone call Aug. 16, 1977, from his then wife, minutes before he was scheduled to speak at a union meeting. She told him Elvis died.

“Oooh man. I felt so bad. I was crying like a baby,” he said. “I walked in there and said, ‘I’m outta here. I’m going. Take over.’”

He spent that evening reflecting in his peaceful backyard on Moravian Drive in Clinton Township where lived at the time.

Lang has made it his mission to keep the memory of Elvis alive by recounting tales of “The King” to everyone he meets and has spoken in front of groups. The former high school acting student said he gets nervous when he first gets on stage but gets warmed up and comfortable.

“One guy from the audience told me I make them feel like Elvis is right there in the room,” he said.

Viewers of the Globetrotting series gave Lang good reviews in youtube.com comments.

Jackie Cooper posted: “Johnny Lang is such a great character, lovely man. Sounds like he had a great time with Elvis and his friends in the army. Wish I could of been there. Thank you Trey.”

— Miller of “Globetrotting with Trey” produced the show with the help of Billy Stallings, who broadcasts a youtube.com show that also explores Elvis called “The Spa Guy.”

Johnny Lang, second from left, with friend Keith Paolella, Billy Stallings of “The Spa Guy” and Trey Miller of “Globetrotting with Trey.” Miller is holding a watch and Stallings is holding a lighter given to Lang by Elvis.  SUBMITTED PHOTO

Macomb County man recounts Army friendship with Elvis in Germany

Below are the three videos with Johnny Lang which are on YouTube now.

ELVIS Army Memories from his Friend..Johnny Lang #ElvisPresley #Elvisinthearmy

youtu.be/QeOWVgE1aPg