![\"Pianoelvis01\"](\"http:\/\/whisnews21.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/pianoelvis01.jpg\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nUnloading a $3.5 million piece of rock ‘n’ roll history ain\u2019t easy.<\/b><\/p>\n
Elvis Presley’s gold-leaf piano leaving Country Music Hall of Fame Unloading a $3.5 million piece of rock ‘n’ roll history ain\u2019t easy. Terri Fenn has tried Craigslist.\u00a0EBay. Mailers to record labels that include Disney, BMI and Sony. Phone calls and emails to the Grand Ole Opry, Graceland and wealthy private investors. And still Elvis Presley\u2019s famed 24-carat-gold-painted grand piano, a first-anniversary gift from Priscilla, sits in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum \u2014 for now. Fenn, a Smyrna Middle School family and consumer science teacher, has until Sept.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75666,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24242\/revisions\/75666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Elvis_Presley_Jailhouse_RockS\"](\"http:\/\/whisnews21.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/10\/elvis_presley_jailhouse_rocks.jpg\")
Terri Fenn has tried Craigslist.\u00a0EBay<\/a>. Mailers to record labels that include Disney, BMI and Sony. Phone calls and emails to the Grand Ole Opry, Graceland and wealthy private investors.<\/b>
\nAnd still Elvis Presley\u2019s famed 24-carat-gold-painted grand piano, a first-anniversary gift from Priscilla, sits in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum \u2014 for now.<\/b>
\nFenn, a Smyrna Middle School family and consumer science teacher, has until Sept. 3 to fulfill her contract to sell it, one she landed by being the friend of a friend and enjoying ties to Nashville\u2019s music and real estate industries.<\/b>
\nAfter that, it goes to a major auction house and, presumably, someplace other than the Country Music Hall of Fame.<\/b>
\n\u201cIt could go to a Japanese investor. They love Elvis,\u201d Fenn said. \u201cJapanese are the number one collectors of Elvis stuff. I obviously have to sell it to whomever. But I think we could all agree that it should be at the Country Music Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/b>
\nShe\u2019s already been contacted by a producer from A&E \u201cShipping Wars,\u201d wanting a heads-up when it leaves the hall.<\/b>
\nThe family of\u00a0Russ Kemppel, an Akron, Ohio, businessman<\/a>\u00a0who died in January 2012, owns the piano. Kemppel bought the piano for $2 million. He moved it out of Graceland, Presley\u2019s Memphis estate, 22 years ago and leased it to the hall for $1, said Scott Ferrell, Kemppel Industries\u2019 CEO and executor of the estate.<\/b>
\nNow the family would like to sell. Ferrell said he connected with Fenn in an effort to keep the piano in Nashville, but he’s given the required 90-day notice to end the hall’s lease.<\/b>
\nMuseum director Kyle Young issued a statement this morning:
\n\u201cThough it wasn\u2019t considered a key piece in the collection from an historical perspective \u2014along the lines of Bill Monroe\u2019s Loar, Maybelle Carter\u2019s L-5, Earl Scruggs\u2019 Granada or countless other instruments we display \u2014 nevertheless it is a marvelous piece of popular culture and our visitors enjoyed seeing it.<\/b>
\n\u201cWe are grateful to the piano\u2019s owners for loaning it to the museum for so many years and, if it does indeed sell, we will be sorry to see it go.\u201d<\/b>
\nContact Heidi Hall at<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>hhall@tennessean.com<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>or 615-726-5977<\/strong>
\nArticle sent in by Marty Martel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"