“My very first truck I ever had in my life was a GMC,” Blake Shelton told Jay Leno. Then when Leno joked that an old guy like Shelton should be able to drive an old truck, Shelton quipped, “I already hate this show.”
This show is Jay Leno’s Garage, and on Wednesday night (May 20), Shelton will be Leno’s guest. They will take the wheel of the 1967 GMC pick-up truck that Elvis Presley bought and used on his Circle G Ranch in Horn Lake, Mississippi. Even though Shelton has his doubts about Presley even owning trucks, Leno has the paperwork to prove it. And while Presley did use the truck around his ranch, this one ultimately made its way to the Elvis Presley Museums and has been on display in Niagra Falls, Canada, Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, SC, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. It reportedly still has the original six-cylinder engine. (How much did Leno pay for the 53-year-old truck? We may never know. But at the truck’s last auction a year ago, its estimated value was $100,000 to $125,000.)
The two stars go on to swap Elvis stories, car stories, and even one Elvis car story: “I drove that Pantera he shot a bullet into,” Leno brags about the King’s yellow De Tomaso Pantera. As the legend goes, Presley was in a fight his girlfriend, and wanted to speed off in the sports car but it wouldn’t start. So he shot the car through the door, hitting the steering wheel and the floorpan.
But back to Leno and Shelton.
After their drive, they pulled into Hollywood’s Formosa Cafe for a bite. Leno gets a steak, and orders Shelton a PBB&B — a 732-calorie peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich, Presley’s favorite — neither of which is actually on the menu.