Johnny Rivers performs at Baton Rouge High School in 2010. Rivers, a former student there, had nine top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 17 in the top 40 during the 70's. He'll perform the last concert before the 1928 school is closed for two years for massive renovations.
The rock and roll star will be back at his old high school and in the auditorium where he grew up watching performances — including a very young Elvis Presley.
"Lot's of memories in that building," said Rivers, who will do a benefit performance at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.
Rivers, 67, had nine top 10 hits in the 1960s and '70s. Some, such as "Secret Agent" and "Memphis," are considered generational anthems.
A New York native, Rivers' family moved to Baton Rouge when he was 8 years old. He attended school there until he dropped out at 15 to pursue a recording career.
For years the high school auditorium was a center for concerts in the state capital.
Rivers recalled going to a country music show at the auditorium in the 1950s at which Presley, then an unknown, was performing. The King, wearing a pink suit, drew laughs from the audience as he twitched around while warming up. Then he sang "That's All Right Mama," Rivers said.
After the concert, Rivers went outside where Elvis was getting ready to leave in his pink and white Cadillac.
"I knew right then what I wanted to do with my life," Rivers said.
His Saturday concert will be the last in the auditorium before the school, built in 1928, is closed for a massive, two-year renovation.
"It's going to completely change the interior," said principal Nanette McCann.
The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
"We've been working with the historical people to keep the exterior exactly the same," McCann said.
In addition to Rivers, other notable alumni include Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Football Hall of Fame member and former LSU and Green Bay packers star Jim Taylor and Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Petit.
Rivers' concert will benefit the school's AM-FM radio station. The student-run station is part of the school's radio-television-film program.
Rivers, who now lives in Los Angeles, did a benefit concert last year that helped raise money for a new transmitter for the radio station, McCann said.
"It's a great place," Rivers said. "I always look forward to being on that stage."
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