Springer appeared on an episode of Kidd Kraddick's syndicated morning radio show on Jan. 8, 2010, the date of Elvis Presley's birthday. Springer talked about his love for The King's music and shocked the show's hosts by singing an Elvis song that sounded incredibly close to the real McCoy.
Radio host Big Al Mack owned and ran a restaurant in Dallas called Big Al's McKinney Avenue Tavern and invited Springer to host a show at his place. The show became a regular event for Big Al's place for the next few years on Elvis' birthday.
"I'm always looking for doing a different type of promotion for my restaurant," Mack says. "I asked if he'd do that at the restaurant and he did. We ended up doing that three or four years in a row where he'd come down on Elvis' birthday or around Elvis' birthday and sing a couple of songs."
The event helped create a friendship between Mack and Springer.
"It became a regular thing where he'd look forward to it and I would look forward to it," Mack says.
The annual Elvis karaoke competition attracted a huge crowd of fans willing to shout Springer's trademark "Jer-ry!" The chant followed him throughout his TV talk show's 27-season run and long after its final episode aired in 2018 — when Springer held back tears while giving his final "Final Thought" and urged his viewers to "Take care of yourselves and each other," a catchphrase he used throughout his TV career from his days as a TV news commentator to his chair-flinging TV fight fest.
As videos of Springer's performers found their way online and captured the attention of outlets like the internet tabloid TMZ, his Elvis covers became another strange facet of his persona. Springer sang songs such as "Love Me Tender" and "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" on talk shows, at speeches and even at a wedding reception. Springer appeared on the most recent season of the FOX singing competition The Masked Singer as a character named "Beetle."
"He had the deep voice and he would sing and wouldn't dress like [Elvis] or anything," Mack says. "Everybody would holler out 'Jerry! Jerry!' Everybody loved it. I've had several people that have reached out to me since he passed away and said thank you for making him so accessible to me and I didn't do a whole lot. He was the one that did it and people loved it."
Talk show host Jerry Springer, middle, with former radio host Tom Joyner, left, and Kidd Kraddick's morning show host Big Al Mack, at Mack's McKinney Avenue Tavern.
Courtesy of Big Al Mack
Springer would often stay late into the night for Big Al's annual karaoke show to sign autographs and take pictures for everyone who wanted one. Mack says he was gracious and friendly to everyone who met him.
"He was a very humble guy," Mack says. "He realized that people wanted to hang out with him and he did as much as he could to accommodate everybody."
Mack had to close his popular McKinney Avenue bar, but he's since reopened in Waxahachie with Big Al's Down the Hatch Restaurant and Bar. Springer's annual show may not have continued at his new place, but Mack says they kept in touch, exchanging messages, updates about their families and jokes.
"He never took himself too serious," Mack says. "He knew what his show was. It was junk food, but he took it the way it was. I remember one time he came down and we were talking on the show and I don't know how it came up but we were talking about how when we're boarding an airplane as normal people, we try not to make eye contact with the people sitting in first class, and he leaned over and said, 'There's other people on your plane?'"
