 On January 28, 1956, Ely watched Elvis Presley on television for the first time, and he decided that he wanted to play guitar. At his first guitar lesson, he was required to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb", an experience that Ely found so demeaning that he quit after that lesson and began picking out his favorite guitar riffs by ear. Ely played guitar and sang for the Young Oregonians, a travelling vaudeville show for entertainers under the age of 18. "We didn 't get paid in money, we got paid in experience," Ely recalled.
