It’s Tuesday and Walt Sanders is desperate.

Only 30 tickets have been sold for a 7:30 p.m. Thursday appearance of Walt Sanders and the Cadillac Band at the Paramount Theatre.

“We’ve got to sell some tickets or we’re going to go hungry driving back to Ohio,” he said in a telephone interview that he initiated this week.

It’s tough riding on the leisure suit-tails of the king of rock ‘n’ roll.

First of all, Sanders made it clear, “I am not an Elvis impersonator. This is a tribute to Elvis.”

Describing the difference between an impersonator and a tribute artist takes some time.

“I take a different approach with my tribute show, than impersonators do,’ Sanders said. “Audiences will hear his greatest hits, but they will also hear some obscure Elvis songs that, maybe, they never heard before.”

There are 10 Elvis impersonators “registered” in Minnesota.

One of them, Brad Boice of Harmony, who has played the Paramount Theatre, was most recently a featured at the 2008 Mower County Fair.

Everett “Howie” Atherton has been imitating Elvis since he was 11 years old.

He received $500 to $6,000 per event, according to GigMaster’s online service.

Art Kistleer, Minneapolis, receives between $500 to $10,000 per event.

Buddy Elvis will portray the “King” for $150.

People frequently associate Elvis impersonators/tribute artists with Las Vegas.

Let’s simplify this … Elvis impersonators, however, can be hired from New York to California and everywhere in between.

They have spent years studying Elvis’ music and mannerisms. Typically, Elvis look-alikes portray the older Elvis Presley, with the sunglasses, the jump suit, rhinestones and long sideburns. There are others portraying the younger, more clean-cut Elvis of the 1950s.

Besides looking like Elvis and dressing like him, most will sing and play like they imagine “The King of Rock and Roll” himself did.

Dressed in authentic Elvis outfits, they will perform the classic songs, including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Love Me Tender” and many more.

Sanders said, “My show is a family-friendly piece of entertainment that comes from the heart.”

Sanders is a 1985 graduate of Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Ohio. His musical influences are as wide as a mile is long, according to his online biography.

From the “Sisters and the Brothers” groups of the 1940s to groups like Styx and Heart from the 70s and 80s, to Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Helen Reddy and Anne Murray.

But most of all: Elvis.

At a young age, Sanders would try to imitate the singer. During these early years, he said he was quiet and shy, his only audience members were the four walls of his bedroom.

It was during this time that he first got the urge to be an Elvis “impersonator.”

At 28 years old, his little sister talked him into going out to a karaoke club.

That was the beginning of making his dream a reality.

To this date, Sanders still enjoys an occasional night out at a karaoke club, but touring with the Cadillac Band is what he does for a living at age 42.

“I may have started out as an Elvis impersonator, but I left that long ago to become a tribute artist. There’s a difference,” he said in the telephone interview. “This is not just another glitzy ‘Thank you very much’ kind of show.

“I don’t just idolize Elvis. I respect him.” he said.

Want to know more about the tribute artist go to his Web site, onenightwithyou.net.