Elvis Last 24 Hours

Memphis Tennessee the home of the late great Elvis Presley WC hang [ __ ] down over me ya got a first-class ticket but I'm as blue as a for candy then I'm walking in man fell swap you in my feet and feet of appeal here for the first time Elvis is closest friends and confidants known as the Memphis mafia tell their own emotional story of Elvis's last few hours on earth I turned him over and down I knew ID was dead let's do it needless to say a lot of times up listen to an Elvis song him just broke down you know came and cried Elvis took drugs because he liked it everybody thinks of trying to escape everything when I get pissed off with the people that help contribute to it but I get pissed off at Elvis it's a smart man he knew what he was doing but he denied it I threatened the doctor he said if I ever see this man and the shape again I will go all the way Colonel Parker walks up to me we stand toe-to-toe and he stares Cole into my eyes is the only thing that's important is that that man is on stage tonight nothing else matters nothing Sun Studios in Memphis it was here fifty years ago that rock and roll was born and so began the legend that is Elvis Presley in the course of a glorious career Elvis would take the world by storm starting in 1954 with his first hit that's all right mama turn the baby I'm leavin time to show well then you won't be bothered with me hanging out Elvis was a very very shy retiring type individual he didn't he didn't like to be around new people he didn't trust him he trusted us we were a source of comfort he could be what he wanted to be around us he could be himself if there was an Ellis himself and it was around us he didn't like Elvis did not make friends easy he just didn't like to do it and with us he didn't have to do it and with us we all could be what we wanted to be and he could be the same 3 p.m. Thursday the 15th of August 1977 Elvis is preparing her yet another back-breaking tour the second tour of that year Elvis's girlfriend ginger Alden didn't want to go on tour with him ginger was just 21 and not prepared to bow to his every demand something Elvis was used to even during his doomed marriage to Priscilla over the years his Memphis mafia had supplied him with a string of compliant girls if you've got wealth and looks they're really going to come and then I come fast and hard and you what you have to do is on a continual basis weed them out he was so charismatic that he would draw you know he was like they were like miles flying around a flame it's [ __ ] to me today one Saturday night at a time when it was only seven of us including Elvis see on Friday night and Saturday night Elvis used to let all the girls and hung around the gates and and one Saturday I was bored so I went to in the house and I counted all the women that were in the house without seven guys and this is not an exaggeration there was a hundred and fifty two women there man I thought I was in heaven he [ __ ] yeah how can I say it was it was exciting all the time you know and I thought many of this is a dream I don't ever want to wake up you know so but it it had its moments too but you know overall if you look at it it was such an exciting time it was something new Elvis was gifted with the fact that you know he was constantly looking for something new to do and you never knew what this man was going to come up with you know the phenomenal part of it was that the screaming in the hollering and you couldn't hit they wouldn't stop and it would I mean he could sing a number nobody even knew what he said um it was just pandemonium it never stopped Elvis had a tremendous draw to him emotionally and physically well you looked at him and you thought that is probably about the best-looking man I've ever seen you know and he just had a charisma about him he had a way of pulling you in it people call it southern charm he had in spades 8 p.m. Thursday the 15th of August 1977 Elvis goes to the dentist in search of prescription drugs is accompanied by ginger Billy Smith and Billy's wife Joe in the movie years the drugs were in control the sleeping pills and we the uppers for the energy level B I couldn't take them every day not to be the goody-goody but I just couldn't I just couldn't take that pill cut was going to do to me make my mouth drive just going to make me wired all day and I just didn't want to do it but I had to take him some times because he would stay up to 3 o'clock morning 2:30 3 o'clock and we get up at 5:00 to go on location and there's no way and you know I learned very start I sleep when he sleeps fire on the way the guys around Elvis we would just you know we stayed wired up all the time we didn't go to bed till you know 2 o'clock in the evening and it was tiring after a while and so we take a little speed to stay up in next day and a lot of times he couldn't go to sleep because we were high and we had a big sleep he'll go to sleep and we lived that way for a long time we really lived hard but luckily we were young we could do it amidst the fun and games there were already warnings of what excessive drug use would bring one time every we were going so hard that Elvis started getting bloody nose and whenever the doctor and doctor said you guys need to get some rest his resistance was getting down and it kept getting a bloody nose so we had a rest for a couple days Elvis did everything to excess he had massive appetites for food sex drugs and rock and roll he approached his search for spiritual serenity in the same enthusiastic way Larry Geller was Elvis's personal hairdresser and spiritual guru I always had a beautiful head of hair I mean the man had everything even had the hair it was a little fine it would lack body but he had a beautiful head of hair and I remember I sprayed it and I was molding it and I said so what do you think all this he said a great great great nice swirled around in his chair he looked at if I want to ask you a question my hair is great but was more important to me is this what are you really into Larry what are you really all about I sit with he threw me for a loss for a moment I mean here's a person who's totally straight forward and I said Elvis I mean you know that I work with celebrities and I do their hair this is who I do for a living but what's more important to me than anything else is my search for truth to find a purpose for a living I said look I know your Elvis Presley you're the biggest star in the world I know this must sound corny to you is it wait wait a minute wait a minute Larry wait that's not corny at all you have no idea how I need to hear what you have to say about this please man just keep on talking and I did self-realisation park which is close to the ocean in Southern California in the Pacific Palisades was the place that Elvis loved to visit and the monks that lived there became friends with Elvis and Elvis would love to just leave the world walk around the park enjoy the serenity and people left them alone they recognized him because a lot of people do go there it's a very special place and nobody bothers of anyone Elvis would go into the chapel and he would meditate we would go in the back and speak with some of the monks they would reveal and explain certain experiences that they would have we walk around the lake I was loved the park he said look how come I have that experience I want to feel God I said well I was look it doesn't happen like that when you want something you want it now and you expect it you have to be patient and you have to surrender your ego in his latter years Elvis embarked on a punishing touring schedule organized by his manager Colonel Tom Parker he didn't like the idea of doing you know two shows a night sometimes three seven days a week and he bothered him and it festered infested and fashiona there it's like when I called him and from LA when we were going to that last tour I said you just need to shut it down this cut it off that's just you know I said let's just cancel this tour out and he's Lamar I've got a payroll which you know when he says when you say that you go we'll he's right but at the same time I tell him I said listen I said you got two or three guys around here that'll go to Hawaii with you I said we'll hang out and you just you know and you get yourself back together again he said let's talk about that after his tours over sounds like a good idea he didn't make with his records no longer selling Elvis his only income came from these tours and being 40 plus he no longer had a huge following he was teetering on the brink of financial meltdown touring paid the bills for now but 50% of the income went to Tom Parker the colonel too was facing bankruptcy Colonel Parker probably was one of the most degenerate gamblers I've ever known in my life Nevada they used to say his money's not worth anything he played roulette in and would put chips on every number he would play craps and bet the horn the center one night I was up about God I think I was up fifty sixty thousand dollars Mary I was just I was running the crap table crazy and he came up and took my money and put it on don't pass don't pass you don't don't pass you found 11 and I threw a seven and lost it off one pop and I just I wanted to throw it but I couldn't and I said you know Jesus god I said I've worked my butt off faster w he said how much did you start off with I said I started off with two thousand so he counted out $2,000 gave trees in there you even know what God but I mean he was right I was even turn you know I was wrong Gaby in a way I only lost you doubt not you know we all have our little idiosyncrasies I was he is was gambling and and I loved him to death but he didn't play the game like you have to play it to win I mean he would go through with those on roulette live he would drop five or six chips there to own that one ten or twelve on this one and that's what ever fell out of his hand yeah that's what I do and when he hit and didn't really win could he had more bet than what it would hit out he did yeah I mean listen one night in between shows this was in 70 and we were at the crap table he commerce it listen did you got to stay with me here and I said well I said you know I said I've got to go upstairs early so no you stay here is that I'll get you up there on time I said okay so in a period of an hour and a half he lost over a million and a quarter come on back and let's play a little house a week and do what we did before everybody come back baby one night I walked down to the casino I just left Elvis this is after his show and I noticed there was a large group of people roped off and they were all in front of a table watching someone gamble and as I walked up it was Colonel Parker by himself at the table with stacks of chips and he was playing the suckers game of all games it's called a wheel of fortune and the odds of winning that game are the worst it's better if you play craps or blackjack at any rate he's at the table and he spots me in the crowd Larry said come on come here come here sit next to me he said I'm not doing too well I need some luck give me some good thoughts Larry that's an OK Colonel and I felt so uncomfortable I really did after about five ten minutes I said Colonel maybe you'll do better now I hope you will but I have to get back upstairs as Elvis needs me I told my was just gonna walk down for a few minutes so I left the colonel was there for hours upon hours upon hours until like five o'clock in the morning and he lost one and a half million dollars that night as Elvis prepared for his last tour that would start in Portland Maine on August the 17th it was clear that he had no choice but to perform if he were to remain solvent and for Tom Parker it was essential that his gambling losses were covered Elvis had turned into the Colonel's own cash cow we're on tour in Louisville Kentucky and this was about four months before Elvis passed away in Elvis the night before had a very difficult time he felt he had a fever he felt nauseous he felt flu-like he couldn't sleep he had a very very difficult night it was late afternoon and doctor Nick who in dr. Nick with officer dr. who traveled with us was in the bedroom with Elvis I was in the front room the television was on and there was a pounding on the front on the door which is very unusual because we own that floor no one was allowed there we had security cops position in front of the elevators everything was blocked off so who would knock on the door like that so I immediately walked over to the door looks through the people and there's Colonel Parker who never came to visit Elvis unto her I opened the door I said colonel he said where is he as always in in the bedroom let me tell me you're here he said no I'm going right in so he with his cane he walked past me he opened the door and this is what I saw doctor Nick was holding Elvis's head Elvis is in the bed semi-conscious almost comatose and he was moaning he was and he was in such bad shape and doctor Nick was dunking Elvis's head into a bucket of ice water to revive him the door closed and I thought immediately okay this is good this is good now the old man Parker is going to see what's going on here he's going to see how bad the bad shape Elvis is in and he's gonna do something about it I mean he can't allow this to go on this inhuman 90 seconds later door opened up Colonel Parker walks up to me in stem stoat and I get up we stand toe-to-toe and he stares Cole into my eyes he says now you listen to me the only thing that's important is that that man is on stage tonight nothing else matters nothing there's a lot of I can't think of any role I like to live up to my reputation up even high sky this is it folks while committed to a hectic touring schedule at the behest of the colonel and with mounting financial and physical problems Elvis and his mafia had become more and more isolated from the real world I knew over the years but was very isolated from the outside world we do know what's going on the outside we very seldom read the paper we watched a lot of sports a lot of TV shows what do we know how to watch the news we were very very much hidden from everything going on the outside we lived in an insulated world within our own group and our group I mean somebody said that Elvis really never left his bedroom well he didn't Elvis would get on his airplane bedroom and go to a hotel bedroom and would go from a hotel bedroom to his Graceland bedroom Elvis over the years every once in a while he'd get like that he'd go to his upstairs and he might spend a week or two and not even show his face but that was only like a week or two now we're talking about mites you know 10:00 p.m. August the 15th 1977 the guys were assembling in Memphis for what would prove to be one tour too far by the mid-70s Elvis's drug habit had become a serious threat to his life in 1975 what I had been seeing a little bit of the previous year or so was getting worse and I was very concerned about his health it wasn't like it had been before when he was taking the opera's in the sleeping pills when he started experimenting with the you know the down stuff that's when we start getting concerned although it's not just me the town stuff is like Demerol and things like that pain medication that brings you and let you down and kind of just float you know it's loud it is like a synthetic and his five times more powerful in pure morphine mostly given for cancer patients terminally ill cancer that just couldn't handle the pain but see his in his mind were not illegal drugs these were prescription drugs now the doctors write them for him he's abusing him but they're not illegal drugs in his mind I got a call from all of us saying Jerry can you help me I said what are you talking about he said I I'm on the floor I can't get up and I said who's there and he said nobody so I ran downstairs I don't know what car got into whatever went to the doctor's house and sure enough Elvis was there this was a proud man you know he was even proud around us and this broke my heart and he was on the floor so we picked him up put him in bed his legs really just wasn't working I was hurt I was angry and I waited downstairs for the doctor to come in I said what the hell is going on so what are you talking about when I told him what I just gone through and he said well you know this liquid diet and we're not giving him any drugs we're just giving him placebos and I I I threatened the doctor I said if I ever see this man in this shape again I will go all the way I go upstairs and Elvis is on a stationary bicycle just I mean he's going full speed she's probably had been out of the bed about four weeks right hmm and he Charlie doesn't know what's going on he doesn't know about my meeting with the doctor and everything and gamma trolley when you get your medical degree you can start telling the doctors how to treat me and he was furious cows took drugs because he delight them there was no everybody thinks that there's some sort of supercilious situation where he would develop this thing of trying to escape none of the guys were in any doubt the drugs and ensuing health problems had changed elvis both mentally and physically elvis had not been in good health for some time and many of his physical problems were caused by his diet elvis had eaten typical southern cooking all his life mostly fried and deep-fried and refried dishes a diet certainly not conducive to good health he would eat crisp bacon sliced tomatoes mashed potatoes and gravy and sauerkraut leave at night and mix it all together knead it and loved it and elvis what he's definitely got tired of it and anyone anymore so he got off of it the last year of Elvis's life he went back to eating mashed potatoes sauerkraut sliced bacon sliced tomato I mean bacon sliced meat is very crisp and I said you know what you're doing here what do you mean I said you're back you try eating 57 he said never thought about that Elvis had a lot of physical problems that were really eating away at him he had glaucoma he had hypertension you know that every night after his show his blood pressure would shoot up to 180 200 every night that's a tremendous strain on the heart Elvis had a [ __ ] twisted colon I can't tell you the problems that that that plagued him because of it he also had his blood sugar that was a little too high his body would start get bruises on his leg one night they're on tour he tripped and fell down the stairs its back of the stage twisted his ankle and he he had a very difficult time after that moving on stage midnight August the 15th 1977 waiting for the tour to commence the guys knew Elvis was unhealthy but they still believe nothing could touch or hurt him August 15 1977 I flew in from Los Angeles can ready to a tour that next next day we were supposed to leave for Portland Maine and we were sitting around the kitchen talking and and that was his upstairs with ginger Alden his girlfriend at the time and Billy Smith was there and his wife and they leave we just ate dinner of the guys couple guys they're not talking about tomorrow what we got to do I call upstairs I say help us I'm here anything we need in there should know about anything you need for tomorrow and he was fine he was seemed very well three or four o'clock I don't remember exactly what time it was but he called out at the house and he said you know would you and Joe come out and and me you and Joe and ginger go down to the racquetball I said sure so we met about somewhere around 4:30 I guess and it was Joe and ginger and then Elvis and ginger and me and Joe and then me and Ellen and then time it got to me and Elvis will it doesn't got down now the silly they say it was no public oh racquetball gave me though we were getting exercise we were trying not desperately to see who can nail the other one with a ball you know and then he finally swung so hard he missed and he hit himself on the shin and that that ended the game right there here and he went to complain about it hurting so our races Pat's leg up then I looked at I said it's not bleeding I said he can't be hurt then he got into a kind of a melancholy mood you know he went to the piano and he was playing hipper songs for you know for gender in US and then that lasted maybe about 15-20 minutes lost in his music It was as if Elvis was 21 again I'm always for the day my darling to stay I'd be lost without your Oh and then we went back to Graceland I went upstairs and I washed and dried his hair for him and we talked to the bathroom all right you know he he even told me some and he said I'm gonna try to make this the best tour ever you know and he said I'm gonna try to go to sleep I said okay I said I'll look you need me I'll be at the house you know and I assumed he was going to bed he has mood swings would were more frequent most of Elvis Presley was always a upbeat person he really was and I guess that's one of the things with him that made you you know like to be a part of that because he was and then to see him how these mood swings you know more frequent and and it was scary you know it really was and I didn't like it me I just didn't like it at all I would say that Elvis started slipping after he accomplished that feat of the billion and a half people watching him live from around the world on that satellite show from that point on I would say of just a slowly slide no up and down just slowly slide I tried not to let his moods a lot of times affect my moods if I did we were both in the pits of hell at that time literally and so therefore when I thought he was down I was gonna try to be up and when he was up I was automatically up I mean I was at in tune to him but it was difficult it was hard you know and you want to just say god man you know come on it's not too late you know get a grip in your life you know and get away from the drugs you know don't don't use them you don't have to and take a little time off nothing's that impressing you don't owe anybody anything if you get rid of me tomorrow and I totally mad and I meant it from the bottom of my heart if you get rid of all these guys they will understand and if they don't they were not your friends to start with but take some time off and he'd just look at me say I can't how to much to too many people we lived a wild and fast life and those matter of years that we he was on earth so like that song you know he did it his way I'm not giving the song any credit but I wish he would have changed and did it our way but he did it his way and we could talk to him at times he said agree and say yeah I'm gonna change my life yeah I'm putting that right out I'll do it when I ready to it and we all had that hope because the last vacation in March of 1977 we all went to Hawaii we had a great time he was in a great mood he was out there on the beach having a good time he's overweight at the time but he was he was smiling we thought hey this is a good chance you know they did clean his act up for about 30 days or more but then all of a sudden boom right back again at Graceland Elvis now faced the grind and rigors of yet more performances with the backup of his friends but none of them were happy Elvis's decline had accelerated when I when I see him on stage performing in the manner that he started performing there at the end where he wanted to do the best show he could but with what he was nothing let the worry was that he was really burning burning burning and the light was getting dimmer I must say this is painful for me that when Elvis came on stage he came such a tired whoever has not seen Elvis live has missed the greatest Entertainer of the 20th century the greatest star of the 20th century but when I saw him I am my heart sank because I knew if something was wrong I could see in his eyes I saw his face I said he's he can't last like this another five years we were all very frustrated we but we all could do only we could do is that we can't he's 42 years old you can't force this man to do anything you know people now people say why did you guys have him committed how could I have him committed 42 years old I get him committed his father could have committed you know you kept proof he's crazy your hands are tight your hands are tied I didn't lay back in the later years that last year and a half I didn't lay back I said what I wanted to say and the hell of it is after all I look back on it I just didn't do any good you know and that's what hurts more than anything 6:00 a.m. the 16th of August 1977 Elvis was Restless he told ginger he was going to read in the bathroom 2:00 p.m. the 16th of August 1977 ginger went to the bathroom to check if Elvis was ok got the next day came to the house about 12 noon this is the 16th and about 2 o'clock the phone rings intercom and one of the maids picks up the phone and it's ginger she says come upstairs I need help I was fainted so I ran upstairs I go ahead to the bed bathroom and Elvis fell over he was laying on the floor I turned him over and I knew my knee was death I just knew it just but I was hoping he wasn't I picked the phone called the operator did it have 9-1-1 at that time and said we need an ambulance here at Elvis Presley's house and I didn't tell who was and me'll out I couldn't do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because Elvis mouth was closed shut there was no way possible his room as I did that but somebody made that story up I was trying to massage his heart as well as I could and it just seemed forever people all coming up there and it was pandemonium the AM was finally showed up seemed forever and I found out later it was like 20 minutes before they got there we got him in the ambulance stretcher came got down the ambit's I jumped in the back you have a glance all the way to the hospital trying to were talking to him and we get to the hospital real quick the Baptist Hospital got there they rushed him into the emergency room I tell you it was tough and 30 minutes later about 30 minutes I would think doctrine came in through the room and he said Elvis has left Elvis is gone and we all broke down and we all hugged each other it was you know very you know very emotional time naturally we were still in a state of shock even when you think about we never thought this could ever happen I go to Graceland I pulled into the gates and Elvis's uncle says to me ah Larry did you hear what just happened that's a no what happened he said I was just died well wait about what did you just say he said how this just died I look up at his bedroom I looked at him I can't begin to tell you the State of Mind that put me in about 1:30 according to the phone rang and it was my cousin Patsy who is Elvis is double first cousin and my first cousin so she had she had called out there and she said she said oh my god she said Elvis is dead and I said whoa wait a minute Patsy I said well you mean I said is he gone to the hospital she said yell they'd take him to the hospital I said he's been you know in the hospital before I said hey he saw he's here bi she said now she said he's dead there's a PR guy from the hospital was there with me he asked me said do you want to make the announcement that office is no longer with us and I couldn't do the announcement I couldn't make the announcement the press I told the PR guys you do it I can't do it and God we're driving down and I radios on and they playing all this record and the disc jockey says by the late Elvis Presley ah I literally went berserk I realized I'd never see all this Presley again that's the first time I realized it and I hit this wall so hard I crushed my hand I'd have an operation still has scars and Colonel was on the phone to Joe and he was saying yes I know and you need to do this unity to that so he hung up the phone and I was leaning on the television set was on a stand and I was leaning on it my left arm in fact you know things become really in della fide in your mind and he walked up within probably eight inches of my face ten inches and he said you got to go back to Memphis I was a dead and I looked at him and it hit me like like a sledgehammer and I and I looked at him I said listen I said you know what I said you're finally ran him to the ground didn't you and he got mad at me I said you know what I'm talking about I said y'all wouldn't let him up you kept working him you kept working it he said you need to leave and I said yeah imma leave keep from knocking your damn teeth out when they brought him out to the house and all the next day I had some relief you might say when I saw him because I realized it's true you know you've got to accept it that's true whereas before I could believe you know that he was just sick you know in the hospital I was just hearing what they wanted to tell me but when you see the real thing then you know it's it's air and you got to deal with it I got into the house and there is a group a lot of the guys are there and there's little Lisa Marie walking around seen my daddy is dead my daddy is dead Vernon is his father sitting in a chair is it Larry Larry and I run over a clasp collapse into his arms and what am I gonna do and I'm not gonna do Larry he said Larry you can help to go do all this his hair you gotta go to the mortuary Larry you got it he know he knows you know how he would like to look as I told you worry mr. Presley don't you worry I'll go and I would never ever thought he would've died we all talked about it but he's too strong he was too strong a person he said he's gonna change his life and he didn't it it was tough it got to a point where a lot of guys I want to talk about I think that he had so much to give and here it is you know he hits the floor and died by himself and I think it's horrible I think it I mean nobody has a nova I mean nobody want I mean everybody said nobody wants to die and nobody wants to especially die alone I don't think it had been so nice we'd all could have been around him but I mean it was he fell for the floor and died it's horrendous I was led by these police officers into a brick building that was very cold very dark it's a long corridor I walked down this corridor and all I could hear was my heart beating bumpy boom well boom and I stopped in my tracks cuz I saw what was in the other room there was a table I saw a body on the table with a sheet I walked into the room there was Ellis I walked up to him I stood right by his head on this side Charlie Hodge stood on the other side there's a few morticians in room and there was a silence row long period of time I just looked at that face that beautiful magnificent face now I had to do his hair and the next shock kicked in we were off tour for six weeks we had a hiatus period there's a regrowth hmm half an inch so all white hair I didn't bring my dies with me I think my god what am I going to do now it was a lady there and I said do you have your mascara with you and she did it was a little black thank God mascara a little teeny brush so I smeared it all around blended it into his black hair that I dyed black and it worked it took me good 45 minutes to an hour just to prepare his hair because first of all Elvis was lying horizontally his life force left the body so there was nothing there so I had to work on it work on it and work on it which I did at a certain point the morticians who were applying makeup to his hands and his by upper body like they do they pulled the sheet down and Charlie Hodge screamed he said what the hell are you how could you do that in front of us so the criss-crossed autopsy scars they covered back up and over the years you know the big story Elvis might be alive oh how I wish that was true I worked on his body and I've worked on his body thousands of times it was Elvis Presley that's it just no doubt about it and memories just sort of cascading down memories of the first night that I met Elvis telling me how I must have been plucked out of the millions of millions of lives be Elvis there has to be a reason in things of the over the last 13 14 years it was so unbelievable so surrealistic at a certain point I thought no wait a minute this isn't real he's sleeping he's going to open his eyes he's going to imitate Chief Inspector Clouseau from the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies Elvis knew all the lines he was going to wake up and sit up and say hey what's going what the hell's going on here this get back to Graceland no no no that I understood exactly what was happening I understood this is the corpse of Elvis Presley and his life force his souls not in that body anymore Vernon Presley Joe Esposito and a few of the guys Jerry Schilling and a few others we walked up to see all this for the very last time because now he's going to be interned someone took his TCB ring off and the lid of coffin is coming down and I'll tell you right now purpose purposely consciously right before the lid came down I put my hand in and put my head right on his forehead said goodbye right one of the people house person to touch him lid came down and I was the funeral during the funerals and some weird things happen you know we got ready for the to load the casket into the hearse after we loaded it now all of a sudden this tree limb broke and make made a hell of a sound really didn't made a crashing sound was not that big a tree limb but it was big enough and to look at it it looked green it didn't look like it was rotted and then felled it look everybody kind of looked at each other and of course I think I think allah Mara said something you know said he'll at least still at work or something like ya know then we got to the mausoleum and they had him set up and there was this little round window up above and it faced east to west and it was all I guess round 3 4 o'clock in afternoon and when the Sun finally came over for the the wood separates the panes it was full of them it though this pretty across across that casket you've ever seen of course I can't tell you the cold chills that run across my body you know I'm I thought you know my best friend is dead no matter what you want to say that's the biggest loss to me I've ever had and we can say he had a good career we can say this we can say that but the guy is dead it was that rocket ride with Elvis that we went through it was such a part of life you know and and a fascinating one at that and you can't just turn that on and off when you get ready there's times when it'll hit me and I'll just sometimes it's happy sometimes it's sad me needless to say a lot of times up listen to an Elvis song and just broke down yo and cry we show a little and it all time not for good don't you there's not a there's not a day that goes by I don't think about it I have dreams about I've had him my last wife when I tie just jumped up in a bed sitting straight up Elvis at Hawley Lamar and I heard him and he woke me up man heard his voice like he was right next to him and I was in a cold sweat he said what is I said he just hollered at me and I it every day it goes on into still get very pissed off about it you know it took a while I didn't get pissed off right away to her to confuse to frustrated over not being able to do anything to stop it and I get pissed off with the people that help contribute to it but I get pissed off at Ellis it's a smart man he knew what he was doing but he denied it maybe he really couldn't see any way out I'm changing he mention it to Billie his cousin Billy told me that last year when we weren't around he mentioned that you know maybe did sometimes take a little bit too much medication I was anger about his death Elvis I thought he had no right to die I thought he had no right to die at that age I think that he left too much on the table if anybody ever left too much on the table Elvis to die my trouble I just flashed back to all the good times we were heading there you know the party's up in the pool that smiling laughing and having good times but that's never going to happen again I spent about 20 years trying to make up for it after Elvis start make up for all the things that I didn't do with my family when I was taking those pills and when I was with Elvis I'm not very proud of those things but that was the way of life we had it was the mentality that Elvis really set and of course we didn't have to go along with it but we did is that the life is it belongs to the guys and not to wives and he excluded wives a lot and what we did but that's really no excuse for me the impact upon my life has been so profound not just meeting Elvis and working for him and having the unique relationship that I did have with him but his death you know the day he died then I went to the mercury to do his hair I thought to myself then in there I'll never be the same again and I haven't been it's almost like I so ruptured so to speak yes you know you come to terms with it but it stays with you in that moment those moments of his death have remained until this very moment and I'm sure they will take I until I take my last breath my blue suede shoes boarded the plane touchdown in the land of the Delta blues in the middle of the pouring rain Dudley's see Hank will shoot down over me yeah got a first-class ticket but I miss blue as a boy can be then I'm walking in Memphis it's walking with my feet ten feet off a beer walking in Memphis but to really feel way I feel saw the ghost of Elvis when you you never knew follow him up to the and I watch him walk right through now securing it in the steel it's just her around is there's a pretty we and father King in the jungle room when I was walking in there I was walking with my feet 10 feet off a beer walk in them but I feel the god catfish on the table they've got gospel laverne green be glad to see you when you haven't got a prayer put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane touchdown new land of the downs of Blues in the middle of the pouring rain touchdown of the Delta blues in the middle of the poori you

Channel: Matthew Scarborough

Views: 1,186,571

Rating: 4.7566981 out of 5

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Id: kezAqHaDg2E

Length: 53min 47sec (3227 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 18 2013