MERIDIAN, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – A free outdoor concert in downtown Meridian will feature an Elton John tribute performance as part of the city’s Jet Jam event, kicking off a weekend of entertainment ahead of the Wings Over Meridian Air Show.
Ben Frey, known as “Almost Elton,” will take the stage Friday evening as the lead performer of Still Standing: A Tribute to Elton John. The event is presented by the Arts & Community Events Society (ACES) and will be held on the City Hall lawn, with First Mississippi Federal Credit Union serving as the title sponsor.
Queen City Newsfeed spoke with Frey earlier in the day in Meridian, where he shared insight into the performance and the work that goes into recreating the Elton John experience.
“If you’ve ever been to an Elton John show in the last 20 years, you’re going to see basically as close as we can possibly get to achieving something like that,” Frey said. “It’s Elton from start to finish. We try to be exactly like an Elton John show.”
Frey said one of his favorite songs to perform is “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” a track from Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album.
“It’s just a story about how Elton was engaged to be married before he was Elton John, and it all went wrong, and a friend of his kind of set him straight,” Frey said. “It has great backing vocals which are provided by my band. It’s just a beautiful song. I love doing it.”
Frey has spent years studying Elton John’s performance style.
“I’ve studied the way he moves, I’ve studied the way he sounds, and we just try to recreate that,” he said.
The tribute act dates back to the early 2000s, when Frey began performing Elton John songs as a fan and pianist before developing the full show.
“I started out because I was a huge fan of Elton John. I sang his albums all the time,” Frey said. “Somebody came up to me and said, ‘you kind of look like him, too.’ So we got this idea to do a tribute show. It started out just me and piano, and along the way, we added different musicians.”
Frey said the current lineup of his band is the strongest he has performed with.
“It’s just been a slow progress to get here,” he said.
Frey also praised Meridian and the local community during his visit.
“It’s been great. Everybody’s been so nice, and so kind,” he said. “We saw Billy Ocean last night at the MSU Riley Center, and it was such a great experience. That’s such a beautiful place. The whole town just has this great, kind of retro, old town feeling to it.”
Jet Jam begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday with a performance by The Live Stock Band, followed by a pet mayor inauguration at 6:45 p.m. Frey’s performance is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The event serves as the unofficial kickoff to the Wings Over Meridian Air Show, set for Saturday and Sunday at Naval Air Station Meridian and featuring performances by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.
