When Roy McNeal was a little boy, he could envision only one thing in his future. He wanted to sing.

Little could he have known that he'd end up working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry: Elvis Presley, Lawrence Welk, Jimmy Dean and Brenda Lee.

In the world of Southern gospel quartets, some people considered McNeal the best lead vocalist of his time. Fans - so eager to touch the man whose smooth, powerful voice riveted them - pulled and ripped his shirt as if he were a rock star.

Now retired from the road and living in Dyersburg, McNeal leads a quieter life. He's creating a gospel trio with Connie Tittle of Samburg and her son, Justin. McNeal's wife, Beverly, is the group's pianist. They started rehearsals last week and plan to limit their performances to a 50-mile radius of Dyersburg.

At 68 years old, McNeal has experienced a lifetime of music.

He was the ninth of 12 children born to Maggie and Teary M. McNeal in Atlanta, Ga. He recalled a fun childhood, playing basketball and baseball, and singing in the church as well as during family gatherings.

He made his debut in the church at 7 and was on television by the time he was 12. McNeal said he couldn't remember the name of the television show, but he and another youngster, Brenda Lee, alternated singing songs.

"I never did see her again until I got older and moved to Nashville," he said.

McNeal joined The Rangers, a Southern gospel quartet and began singing professionally when he was 20 years old. He said he took a year's worth of voice lessons with an opera singer named MiDari.

"I just wanted to be the best I could be," he explained. The strategy worked.

" I was in the top five lead tenors in the nation," he said, noting that a committee selected the best singers each year and his name was on the list repeatedly.

After a five-year stint with The Rangers, McNeal went on to sing with The Prophets for 10 years, The Statesmen Quartet for five years and The Stamps Quartet for five years. Although he still performs some and offers voice lessons, he retired from the road in 1979.

In that time, he said he recorded about 50 albums and achieved some recognition.

"What a Wonderful Day" became his signature song. McNeal estimates that he sold a million copies of that recording with The Prophets.

One of The Prophets' albums is now featured in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame at Dollywood. And, The Statesmen Quartet with Hovie Lister became RCA Victor's best selling gospel artists and was billed as the nation's No. 1 drawing card in the gospel field in the 1960s.

As a member of The Prophets, McNeal was invited to perform with Lawrence Welk's band; on the Jimmy Dean Show, a television show; and on the Gospel Singing Jubilee in Nashville.

While he was with The Statesmen in the early 1970s, the quartet performed in New York's famed Carnegie Hall. The audience numbered 7,000-8,000 persons.

What gospel music fans probably remember the most, though, may be the Gospel Singing Caravan. The show featured a number of gospel groups, including The Prophets, The Le Fevres, the Johnson Sisters and the Blue Ridge Quartet. The caravan traveled the nation and had a regular TV show carried by 65 network TV stations.

It was during one of the caravan's tours that he entertained his largest audience ever. About 10,000 persons purchased tickets to hear The Prophets sing in the Shrine Auditorium in Springfield, Mo.

"We traveled 200,000 miles a year in customized buses, and flew sometimes, and we just had fun singing on the bus," he said. "It's not easy. You have to pace yourself."

McNeal even made it to Dyersburg a number of times.

In the 1960s, The Prophets participated in the Blue Cap Gospel Singing that was held in the old Dyersburg High School gymnasium, which used to stand across the street from First United Methodist Church's fellowship hall.

In the 1970s, while he was between jobs, McNeal lived in Dyersburg with his brother and sister-in-law. W.C. and Nell McNeal owned the Green Village Beauty Salon then.

Roy McNeal said he never held a traditional job. When he wasn't singing professionally, he teaches voice lessons.

One stop was mandatory every year: the Southern Gospel Quartet Convention in Ellis Auditorium in Memphis. That's where McNeal met Elvis Presley.

"He was just a regular guy," McNeal said. "His first love was gospel music and he liked to talk to gospel singers."

In the 1970s, when McNeal was singing with J.D. Sumner and The Stamps, Elvis usually invited the gang home to sing gospel music. They gathered around the piano in the living room.

"We would go to Graceland and sing half of the night," McNeal recalled. "He loved to sing. ... We went to his home practically every time we went to Memphis." Elvis asked The Stamps Quartet to join him on stage in the 1970s. McNeal recalled performing in concerts in Nashville, North Carolina and Florida.

"We backed him up," McNeal said. "He selected the Stamps Quartet to do that."

In fact, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame reported on its Web site that Elvis called the quartet "his favorite singers."

While Elvis was famous for throwing his scarves to the crowd, McNeal learned that some fans also wanted a piece of him, no matter what.

He said guards had to be posted in front of the stage during some of his concerts with The Prophets and The Statesmen.

Once, though, fans swarmed him as he was leaving the stage after a Prophets concert in Memphis. One woman grabbed his shirt and held on. The shirt ripped before McNeal got away.

McNeal took the ripped shirt in stride. He quickly changed clothes and then met fans at a booth, where he autographed records. The woman who'd ripped his shirt met him again at the table. She wanted more than an autograph; she wanted his torn shirt. He obliged.

Now, he admits, the woman scared him a little bit.

"They would do anything they could do to touch you," he said. "They just liked to touch you."

Dianne Wilkinson of Dyersburg wasn't surprised that McNeal had been mobbed. She has witnessed the power of McNeal's voice.

She was in high school the first time she heard him sing. "He walked out on the stage and when I heard that man's voice, it literally raised the hairs on my neck. I was just transfixed," she said.

McNeal's voice was powerful and he used it well to make each song his own. Wilkinson said she could tell that he'd had vocal training and most singers didn't in those days.

"McNeal had such a high range to sing lead, and he could sing tenor, too," she said. "He had such great control in the higher ranges."

Wilkinson said McNeal's style was often imitated. "In 1965, they all wanted to wake up and sing like Roy McNeal," she said.

While she lost track of McNeal in the 1980s and 1990s, Wilkinson said she recognized him immediately when he walked into Springhill Baptist Church. She e-mailed the news to her friends and headlined it in the column she writes for the "U.S. Gospel News."

McNeal and his wife were visiting the church, and Wilkinson said she desperately hoped that they decide to make Springhill Baptist their home church. That didn't happen, but during one of the McNeals' visits, Wilkinson said she played the piano as Roy McNeal sang.

Wilkinson was beside herself. "All I could think was: 'I am playing for Roy McNeal! I am playing for Roy McNeal!'"

She invited McNeal and several friends to her home after church one Sunday night. They spent the evening listening to McNeal's records. Wilkinson said she owns dozens of McNeal's records, including some he'd forgotten about. McNeal sat quietly on the couch listing.

"He had a far-away look," she said. "I'll tell you, it was like a trip down memory lane.

"He is, in my opinion, the finest song stylist in Southern gospel music," she said. "Roy just had a special way of putting a song across. He made it his own."