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Q&A on "The Faith of Elvis" | Billy Stanley · The Daily Writer

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome back to the Profitable Writer Podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new here, my name is Kent Sanders.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an author and ghostwriter, and this is a show that helps you grow your impact and income as a writer.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me for this episode of our Summer Experts Tour.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Nearly three years ago, in October 2022, the book The Faith of Elvis was published.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I had the honor of writing it for Billy Stanley, Elvis' stepbrother and the author of the book.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Billy grew up with Elvis and spent 17 years by his side on a constant basis, working for Elvis, sharing his life, and being a core part of his entourage.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Very few people on Earth knew Elvis as well as Billy and his brothers did.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got to tell you, I had an absolutely fantastic time working on that book with Billy.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in honor of the book's two-year anniversary last fall, I hosted a QA session with Billy where he answered lots of burning questions about Elvis from people who had read the book or just simply liked Elvis.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: A few of the questions that Billy answers include Did Elvis do his own Bible study on Sundays since it was hard for him to attend church like a regular person?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Was Elvis a Republican or a Democrat?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: How did Elvis handle the appearance of ghosts at Graceland?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Was there a movie that Elvis made that he didn't like?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And many, many more.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, I think we went through 15 or 20 or 25 questions in this QA session.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was really, really fun to do.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like Elvis, or if you've read the Faith of Elvis book, or if you dislike learning about popular American figures like Elvis, I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't read the book, I highly encourage you to check it out.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Faith of Elvis is heartfelt, it's inspiring, it's funny, and we specifically designed the book to make it very, very readable.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: The number one thing that people have told me about the book is that it was a really, really quick read.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can't think of anybody who has told me that they have read the Faith of Elvis book, and there have been a lot of people who've told me they've read it the last two, three years.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can't think of a single person who told me that they started it but didn't finish it.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of people said, man, I started it and I can't put it down.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't put it down.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have told us that.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I would encourage you to read the book if you haven't.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think you'll really, really enjoy it.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, with that said, I hope you enjoyed this QA session with my friend and collaborator on the Faith of Elvis, Billy Stanley.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Billy, thanks for joining me for this special.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I would call this a two-year anniversary conversation.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're talking about some of the themes related to the Faith of Elvis, which was so much fun to work with you on.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So congrats and thanks for joining me.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and thanks for writing it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So well, I couldn't have written it without all your amazing stories.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was just the scribe, I kind of put the pieces together, but you brought all the the gold to the party.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for that.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it's been an interesting two years since it's come out.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I love all the feedback that we got on it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, people you know really seem to love the book, and I mean our main well, there were several goals for this book when I when I first started it.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: Was the first one um was for the fans and to give them a better perspective of what Elvis was really like instead of they've only seen just one side of Elvis, the entertainer side.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_04: They never got to see the the man that was off the stage, and that's what I wanted to show was that guy.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_04: And also um do something positive about him because you know, there's been a lot said and done about him since he's passed away.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh sadly, you know, I really I was really hoping.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we even discussed this before it even came out.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I wanted to do this for Lisa.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I wanted her to give her, you know, I I'm not sure what she heard when Elvis passed away.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure it wasn't good, but uh I wanted her to see her dad in a different light to where she would go, you know, my dad really was a good person, and he was.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I really that that part when she when I heard she passed away, it was just maybe what a month or so after the book come out, and it that just devastated me.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I still have a hard time when I think about her passing.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: I I just it's just too surreal for me.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, it's interesting to me that even just in the last couple of years, there have been a lot of major things come out about Elvis in terms of you know, a couple of movies.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, one of those was the the massive Elvis movie that came out with Austin Butler starring as Elvis.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, of course, there are always Elvis books coming out.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: There have been a couple there's was a really great documentary that came out about the 68 Comeback Special.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed there's another one coming out, I think, on Netflix pretty soon.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Lisa Marie's book just came out literally a couple weeks ago.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're recording this near the end of October.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And why do you think there is still such an enduring impact that Elvis has on people in general and the culture?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's been many decades since he passed away.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about Elvis and his music and his life do you think that still people are so fascinated by?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: I well, if I knew that, uh you know, then I would tap into the secret and I would try it myself.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_04: But no, I I think he I think he just he touched people's soul with his music.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, unlike any other art, I mean, yeah, that you know, there's a lot of great artists.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, don't get me wrong, like the Beatles and you know the the Who and the Beach Boys, all that stuff.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, Elvis's music, he was the first, you know.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I think he was the first one to, you know, to go there and you know break ground where all these other bands could come in and uh you know uh follow his lead.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: So, but I think his his music, his scope of music touched everybody in some way.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_04: So um I remember when when we started working on this book, you know, 600,000 people go through Graceland every year, and it's you know the second most visited place in the United States besides the White House.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's you know, it's phenomenal.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure Elvis is you know kind of looking down, going, Wow, I can't believe he's so holding because he he always thought people would forget him when he passed away.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That that's absolutely stunning to me that he would think that, even knowing how many people loved him during his lifetime.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess there's always that fear there that somebody's gonna be forgotten.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a bunch of questions to dive into here today.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, that's all the Facebook people.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Facebook and some others.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh absolutely.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna let my mom have the first, have the honor of the first question here.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I asked her the other day, I said, Hey, I'm doing this session with Billy.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, do you have any questions?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we did have a chapter or two in the Faith of Elvis book about this question, but I'm gonna pose it to you anyway because we're recording this in October.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: This uh this conversation will release this later this week.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're getting into the holiday season.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So my mom, Mary McIntyre, asked, How did they celebrate Christmas at Graceland when uh when you were growing up with Elvis?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Christmas, you know, the that's our Christmases were that it it's it's kind of hard to describe in a sense.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_04: And let me just say, get this out first, and then you'll understand.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: Well uh I lived with a man that tried to make every day like Christmas.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: The only difference was during Christmas season we had a tree, and that was it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, every day was like Christmas around Elbus.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_04: But a typical Christmas at Graceland was about two weeks before actual Christmas, we'd put up the tree, and so family and friends would be there and we'd decorate the tree.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: And it was always funny, you know, when Priscilla was around.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_04: Uh at the end, we we'd put the bulbs and the lights and all this, and it had a stand that the tree was in, and it would the tree would go around in a real slow circle, and it had Christmas music play it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: So we'd put the tinsel on at the end.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: And Elvis's thing about tinsel was you grab a handful and you throw it in the air and let it hit the tree.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: Priscilla was one strand at a time.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: So there was there was a big disagreement there uh about putting the tinsel on.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: But me, Rick, and David, we always followed Elvis' lead.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: But it was always funny because the next day we'd come back and look at the tree, and Elvis would always say, Well, it looks like the tinsel ferry was here because a lot of what we put on was gone.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, but that it was it was a big time for about two weeks before Christmas, and then that's when all the presents started started going under, and Elvis would go Christmas shopping, and uh, you know, it it was an awesome sight to see a tree with that many presents under it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: So, and then you know, he loved Christmas shopping.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like going Christmas shopping with Elvis?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, you have a person here who has the means to buy some nice gifts for people, but then when you combine that with this immense generosity that you talked about in the book so much, that must have been just an absolute blast going shopping with him.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I only got to do it once.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's when I got older.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: And it he was funny because he would actually sit and take time and you know, he'd look at a shirt or something like that and say, you know, this really looked good on so and so.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, then he might he might just sit a couple one time this time.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_04: I we I was with him, said, you know, that looks pretty good on me.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: So he said, I'll keep this one.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_04: I think I'll take one.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I mean, he he was he was fun to shop with, that's for sure.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, he he had his list of everybody that he was gonna, you know, buy Christmas presents for.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, he he went through that list himself, you know.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he actually picked it out himself.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: So that's amazing.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_04: I thought that was very cool of him to do that.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me dive into uh I'm just it's gonna seem like we're bouncing all over the room here with these different questions.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we have uh as at the time of recording this, we have a national election coming up in a couple weeks.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this question is interesting given sort of our current context.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Was Elvis a Republican or Democrat?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: This was submitted by Shannon.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, good question, Shannon.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'll say this.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_04: Uh let me let me put it to you like this.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: The guy went and served his country when he didn't.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he could have, if he wanted to, taken the easy way out, and you know, but no, he went ahead and he he was drafted.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: He went and served his country.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_04: He loved his country.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was it was God, country, and family.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the way it was in Elvis's order there.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um that I mean to make it short, um, just to give a quick answer.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_04: He was a Republican.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he he I remember back in the day in the late 60s and 70s, people protesting and stuff say, Well, I'm gonna leave this country.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: Elvis was a firm believer in you know, America, love it or leave it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: And there was a few people, like I think it was Jane Fonda or something, was going, you know, I want to leave.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: I'll buy your Elvis said, I'll buy your plane ticket if you leave.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's the way he felt.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_04: If you didn't love this, if you didn't love it, then you know, go try to pull that stuff some some other country.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: You couldn't do it, and that's why you never see any entertainer, they'll threaten it, but they never do, you know.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: But now he loved this country, and I mean, you didn't say anything bad about it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, Vietnam was going on at the time, and you know, he he he made that one statement that you know he he didn't think he'd just soon keep it private, what his thoughts were.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but he he wouldn't keep it private today.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, not not not the way the world is turned out.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's there's a big difference in the world in 1972 and 2024.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's true, that's very true.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh no, he he would definitely be talking right now, uh, you know, with the way the world is.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it it's just like we've kind of we're on a slide.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: We're you know, we're watching it go uh to hell and in a handbasket.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, that's the sad thing, is you know, we we've all got to do our part to try to, you know, get our country back the way it was.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that ex maybe that partially explains why Elvis continues to be so relevant, is because there was a purity and a sincerity and a wholesomeness to what he did that pe people find a lot of solid of solace and comfort in his music and his entertainment and what he stood for.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that explains part of why he's still so popular today.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm sure that's well, that's a big part of it, you know.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you listen to his gospel music.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I've had hardcore people tell me, you know, I was never an Elvis fan until I heard, you know, I heard his gospel album.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_04: I I mean, these are hardcore bikers and everybody else.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't really care for him, but I heard the gospel, and that's gospel music.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_04: I really liked him.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, wow.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_04: Great.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, here's a question from we're gonna go on a whole different direction here.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Question from Brenda.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Did Elvis believe that Gladys' ghost guided him all the way to the end?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_04: I know for a fact that he always thought that his mother was with him in every step he took.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: So, I mean, uh her clothes were still at Graceland.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I saw him when shortly after we first moved to Graceland, Elvis took me, Ricky, and David on a tour of the house, and we went up to the uh the basement, and there was this big electric train set there.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: We said, Who's this?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_04: He said, That uh this is mine.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: He said, My uh my mom bought it for me after I became famous because she knew when I was growing up I always wanted an electric train set, but they could never afford one.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_04: So once he got once once he got Graceland, she bought him a big electric train set and uh he kept it.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: It was in there, and her clothes was in there in the in the attic too.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: Because we we saw the clothes after our attention was taken away from the the train set.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_04: We asked, Whose clothes are these?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: He said, These are my mom's.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_04: And he said he he just he couldn't bring himself to get rid of them.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he he that's something he couldn't do, so he kept them.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: And uh now there's a there was a couple of times.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there was one time in particular where I was sitting at when we first moved to Graceland.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Vernon and I was watching the late late show, not the late show, but the late late show in the kitchen, and uh I heard footsteps, and Elvis was not home.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was just Vernon, uh, my mom, me, Rick, and David, and that's who was at the house at the time.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: This was like 1961 or 1960.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I heard these footsteps and I said, Who's that?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: Vernon said, What do you mean?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I heard footsteps.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_04: He no, you didn't hear anything.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_04: A couple minutes later, I heard it again.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Didn't you hear, just hear that?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, nothing.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: So the third time I asked, he said, Well, he said, I'm just gonna tell you this.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Don't get scared.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: He said, uh, you know, we think that's Elvis's mom.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, she she checks in on him every now and then to make sure that he's doing okay.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: And when I told Elvis about it, you know, he said, Don't he said, Billy, ghosts aren't what you see in movies.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_04: They they're not they don't come back to do you harm or anything like that.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_04: He said, they come back just to check on you, make sure you're okay.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: He said, you know, you got nothing to worry about, my mom.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know, she would love you, boys.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm only seven, eight years old, right here.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm glad to hear that.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that never concerned you as a kid, thinking that that there were possibly ghosts running around Graceland.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um I grew up with the fact that yeah, Gladys is there.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean it no, it didn't bother me at all.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that's a beautiful story.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: From what I understand, she was a great woman, and you know, it was it was nice to have an extra extra set of eyes watching over you.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So and probably as a kid it it it maybe reinforces the idea of hey, I've got somebody kind of watching me to make sure I don't misbehave too much, and that helps kind of to reinforce good behavior a little bit.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: That never hurts at all.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, here's a question from Brent, uh posted on Facebook.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Did Elvis do his own Bible study on Sundays?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Since we know that he wasn't able to go to church.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know he was constantly reading the Bible, and I'm just referring to what he did instead of going to a church service.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm curious about that as well.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, well, here again, and we touched on it in the book.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Elvis didn't go to church for one reason.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_04: He, if he went, the attention, the attention would have gone to him and not to the preacher, and he didn't want that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: But Elvis had a Bible study pretty much every day.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, seven days a week.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't just on Sundays, it was seven days a week.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he would I can't tell you how many times I would he would call me upstairs for something, and I would get up to his room, and he he'd he'd be sitting on the by on his you know bed or sitting at his desk, and I'd walk up and say, Hey, and he'd just put his hand up and he'd be reading.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_04: He might take a highlighter or a pen or something and mark what he was doing.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: And when he got finished, he's okay.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, then we start talking about whatever it was he, you know, why he called me up to his room, and so uh, but I mean this was every day.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he was in the Bible every day, so he he was seven days a week.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Much more intensive than just going to church one time a week.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, that's sometimes it was funny because in a way he was like a uh Sunday school teacher for me, reckon David, too, when we was growing up.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_04: And the great thing about it was you know, when he was reading from the Bible, he would actually act out the parts.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: So when you have that kind of effect on you, you okay, and he'd be speaking as Jesus, like you know, one for instance was when Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and go ye and preach, you know, the word, you know.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he he acted it out, and it was very powerful.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: Whoa, okay, we got that lesson.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a question related to that one.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: This one's a little bit more controversial, I think.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Linda asks, My question would be a lot of people question whether Elvis truly is in heaven due to how he read a lot of other books on other religions.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the book that he was reading the morning, the morning that he died.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she says, I believe that you saw him in heaven.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think he made peace with God right before he passed?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of three or four questions wrapped into one, I guess.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, here again, we get into a people want to uh they they want to judge, you know, go, okay.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_04: Well, if he was a Christian, you know, he did this, this, and this.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_04: There is no such, let me, I'll tell you right now, there's no such thing as a perfect Christian.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_04: We all we're all fall short of being perfect.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_04: Elvis was not perfect, he'd be the first one to tell you.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: Now, I know what she's talking about, referring to some books that he read, uh, I guess as he was getting old, you know, not older, but this because this happened in like the 60s.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: But he, yeah, he did get into reading some stuff, but he turned back to Jesus.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, same thing with Larry Geller.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, Larry Geller came in and was talking to him about these, you know, far eastern philosophies and stuff like that.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: And he was interested because Elvis was interested in this because he was always his thirst for knowledge on the Lord, you know.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: That you know, he he he firmly firmly believed, you know, there is a heaven and hell, and he was gonna, you know, it's like when Sammy Davis Jr.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: asked, he was wearing a Star of David and a cross at the same time.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: And Sammy Davis Jr.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_04: said, Isn't that kind of a contradictory in terms?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, I'm not gonna miss heaven on a technicality, but yeah, he did, he did read some stuff, and then he there was a I I remember he burned some books too, and this is when we shortly after we moved to Grayson because I was I just happened to be looking out my window, which was facing the backyard, and I saw a bunch of a big old it was kind of like a bonfire.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: He was throwing a bunch of books in there, and I'm sure it had something to do with some of the occult and stuff like that because if he he was just curious, just like most people are, but then when he found out that it was leading him away from the Lord, then he'd get away from now.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_04: Another thing to this lady's question was uh in 1977, before Elvis passed away, uh, when he was doing his last shows and stuff, he met with Rex Humbard and Oral Roberts.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: So he met with two of the biggest Baptist leaders you can think of, you know, in 1977 before he passed away.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_04: And nobody was privy to those conversations because uh just Elvis and those people walked in the room.
• 21:59
  unknown: Right.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, do I know Elvis is in heaven?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I saw him there.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_04: I it it what people call a near-death experience, I call a near God experience, because I mean I saw heaven.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's exactly how the whole book opens.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, literally with that story.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: So but yeah, he was curious, but I mean, if it led him away from the Lord, then it you know, he would he'd I wouldn't say he really study it, he would just out of curiosity read about it, and then if it took him away from what it says in the Bible, then he would put it, you know, put it aside or throw it away.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, got a couple questions about, and thank you, by the way.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Got a couple questions about the book here.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel asks, How did you come up with the title of your book and what inspired you to write it in the first place?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_04: Well, my the near-death experience or near God experience is what inspired me to write it.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: Because, you know, when I saw Elvis, I mean, we're just gonna kind of go through this pretty quickly.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: When I saw Elvis, it was only for a few seconds.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: I I mean it felt like a few seconds to me when I was actually dead, I was actually dead for 10 minutes.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: So after five minutes of no blood going to the brain, then you're dead.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, that that's when that stops all the well, it could have been a dream.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: No, it wasn't a dream.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: I know the difference between a dream and and this.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: So when I saw him, I mean, the you know, uh, he he just he gave me a hug and said, Great to see you.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: And then the next thing I know, it was like everything closed in on his face, it was getting darker.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_04: And he he just said, before I left, he said, Tell my uh family, my friends and fans, I love you, and I'll see you when you get here.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Okay.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_04: And so that right there kind of resonated with me.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, then I heard God say, No doubt, no fear.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_04: And like I said, you know, in the book, the great thing about God when He speaks to you, you don't have He doesn't have to explain what He means by it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_04: I knew immediately what He meant.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: No doubt, there is a heaven, no fear, this is where you'll be.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_04: So um That's pretty much it right there.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: That was really the the basis for what led you into doing this book in the first place, right?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, that's that's I mean, it I wrestled with it for almost, I mean, after that experience for about two and a half, two months almost, I mean, praying about what should I do with this, with this, what I what what I just what was revealed to me.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_04: And then that same voice that said, No doubt, no fear, said you're supposed to tell everybody they're like okay.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: So that's when I I told a few people, and somebody said, Why don't you do a book?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: And so um as we talked, you know, we everybody was bat throwing name uh titles out, and I just said, What about the faith of Elvis?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah, that sounds good.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that's how we went with it.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm curious, maybe maybe let's dive into some book and publishing stuff here for just a second.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: All the people listening who are who are interested in that side of things, because you had been involved in a couple of books before about Elvis.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was your feeling on doing another book about Elvis having been through that process before, working with a writer, going through the publishing?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Were were you excited about that, or did it more feel like a burden that okay, I've got this message, but now I've got to go through this whole process again?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_04: Well, first off, let's just go.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: This is the way I like to answer that question because everybody says, Okay, the uh the the the third book.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah, the first one was too soon.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_04: The emotions were raw.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we weren't expecting I we my brothers and I weren't expecting this onslaught of publishers just throwing themselves at us saying, We do a book, do a book.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: It was too soon.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: We we didn't, you know, and I saw what they were kind of up to in that first book, Elvis We Love You Tender.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_04: And when I when when I saw what was going on that they was exploiting Elvis, and my my my brothers and I and Elvis, I shut up halfway through the book.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mm-mm, I'm not talking anymore about I'm not saying anything else about him because they were doing trying to do the cessation.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: Now, I was in no shape to write a book at that time.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_04: I was still grieving.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this was maybe a year after Elvis had passed away when they approached us, and I was still, it took me, I still I'm still grieving for it, but I mean, at least I know how to deal with it, you know.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_04: Before I didn't, so that's when I turned to alcohol and drugs.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, when I wrote that book, I was not in the best shape.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_04: And it comes, I mean, if anybody has read it, that they can attest to, yeah, well, you was a different person then.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I was, and so that's why I did the book Elvis My Brother, was to okay.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: I, you know, I I shut up during this part, so I just decided to take it a little bit further and okay, talk about Elvis and my relationship, and that's what it was about.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I still wasn't happy because in the in the first two books, they wouldn't let us talk about the spiritual side or Elvis' faith in those two books.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: They did they didn't want to hear it.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_04: No, we don't want to hear that, we want to hear the other stuff.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: So after this experience that I had, I said, okay, now it this is what this book is going to be all about, and that's it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I mean, it wasn't all about the faith of Elvis.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: We talk about a lot of the great things that helped, you know, sometimes I had with the opposite stuff, but a lot of the I mean, the publishers before did they didn't want to hear that.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_04: They wanted to hear the okay, give us the dirt, you know, and I was like, no.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: And that's why with this publisher here, you know, I'm I'm thankful that they came on board and said, No, we we want to make your dream come true.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Okay.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: So that's how this all came about.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_04: It it took a long process to get there, you know, because uh I really wasn't on board with you know the faith part in the first one, but the second the second book I was I was, and uh, but they didn't want to hear it.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_04: So and in this this last attempt at doing the last one I'm gonna ever do on Elvis is you know, I'm I'm thankful that they came aboard and said, we want to make sure that you know your dream comes true on this one.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you feel like at this point you've pretty much said everything that you have to say about Elvis and your relationship with Elvis and your experience with him.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, are there are there more stories yet to tell at this point?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, it's it's every day.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I live, I'm living back in Memphis again, so I you know, I can drive down a street and see, you know, all of a sudden a memory comes to me.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's 17 years uh locked away up here.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and I mean what we've only done is we've revealed maybe this much of everything that's inside my head, you know.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot more that can be told, but I you know, I don't know if I'm gonna do it anymore because uh, you know, I I I think I I think we did a great job on the last book, you know, The Faith of Elvis.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I think I'd rather just leave it at that, you know, right there.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_04: I don't mind sharing stories on Facebook, you know, which I'm more than happy to do.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, just whenever the memories come to me, or I I can listen to us if I hear an Elvis song, a memory will come to me, or if I see a TCM and there's an Elvis movie, you know, I'll sit and if I watch it, that's when they start coming back to me.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I'll I'll sometimes I'll put it down on my note in my phone and you know share a story or something like that with the fans on Facebook.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is a book about Elvis that I don't know if it exists, and I wish that it existed.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I would go out and buy a copy, and that is a book about Elvis and his cars.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's a particular love of yours.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: For me, those were some of the most fun, most fun sections of the book to work on.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because you would tell the story, and then I've got a you know, as the writer, I kind of have to frame it a certain way, and I'm thinking, I wish, I wish there was a book, a huge picture book.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: All these pictures of Elvis and his cars, and and you know, you're a you're a mechanic, you know about all that side of stuff, and I just I wish that book existed.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I that would be so much fun.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_04: I've kidded around on Facebook and said, you know, uh I my next book will be called Riding with Elvis and talk about all the cars.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there you go, Billy.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_04: You you you find a find a publisher and we'll do that book, I promise you.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: How about that?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wish that would be fun.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it would be so much fun.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_04: Those were the best.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that was the bond that Elvis and I shared.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he saw that when I was like seven years old.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he he got me a little model car.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_04: It was it was already put together.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: It was uh, I think it was a Cadillac, and I played with that little car, and it was, I mean, it was like 124th scale, and it was perfect.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I love playing with that car.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: I used to roll it down, you know, the the hill at the front of Graceland.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: I'd just get out there and let it roll down that hill, run down and catch it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: So I didn't want to scratch it up or anything.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: I thought it was so cool.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he when he saw that, he he that he he took me under his wing and started teaching me about cars and about racing and all that stuff, and uh that was the bond that he and I shared together.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, I'm I'm thankful I had him, you know, in my life because of all the things I him and Vernon both I mean, Vernon he was he loved cars too, and I mean Liz and I we we counted about a year ago how many cars between the time I was 15 and up until I was about 18 or 19, how many cars I had.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: And at between 15 and 19, I think I had like 16 or 17 cars.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, yeah.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Vernon, but Vernon was also an avid car collector.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, at one point he did have a a dealer, a used car lot dealership here in Memphis, and so he would bring, you know, I I would always have a car, you know, pretty much to drive, but he would get these cars.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, my first car that I ever had was a 57 Chevy and he paid he traded two bird dogs that he had at Graceland for it, so that's that was where it started.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_04: Then I get I start fixing the cars up once I get it kind of close to where I wanted it, he would trade it off and get another one, and I'd have to start it all over again.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_04: So and I I I had fit.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: I finally asked him when I turned 18 because that's when I started buying my own cars.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Why did you do that?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I had some nice cars, and you you know, I I was just getting them fixed up the way I wanted them.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Do you know how to work on cars?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Yes, sir.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_04: He said, You just answered your own question.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Daddy.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_04: Now I get it.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: You ever watch Jay Leno's garage?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: That show, yeah, all the time.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I try to watch it as much as possible.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, has he ever done an episode on Elvis's cars or anything?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_04: I yeah, I know when I know when the book was on a promotional tour, I tried to tell the people that was in charge of the publicity.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Why don't you get in touch with Jay Leno?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, the guy he's got a car collection, and I mean him oh my gosh, and Elvis would have had a lot in common because Elvis Elvis had a love for cars.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, his love for car, it the passion he had was so strong.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_04: Because I remember I asked him once, yeah, how come you have so many cars?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Billy, I can I got a car for any mood that I want.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_04: He said, depending on what kind of if I'm feeling nostalgic, he had a 53 panel truck that uh they they used to there wasn't the garbage didn't come by and pick up at Graceland.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: The guys like Mike, Mike McGregor and uh Uncle Earl, they would load up the trash in this 53 panel truck and take it to the uh landfill.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_04: And when I got a little bit older, I'd ride with them, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_04: And then but they were thinking about getting rid of it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Over said, No, no, no, no.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_04: And he had it completely redone, I mean, painted black, and it looked like it just came off the showroom in 1953.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_04: It didn't even have a radio in it, it had a heater and that was it.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, this thing was so nice.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I asked him, why do you have that?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: He said, When I want to be nostalgic, he said, it kind of looks like a little bit like the truck I used to drive for uh crown electric.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: And he said, I can just I can get out on this and nobody knows nobody even look at him, you know, because that 53 pound.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it he would today.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because you see that driving around, everybody's gonna stop and look at that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: But 60s, you know, late 60s and early 70s, nobody paid any attention to it.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_04: And if he wanted to go fast, he always had one of the you know the one of the supercars.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I had to teach you the difference between supercar and muscle car.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: Muscle car is American, supercar is you know, Pantera and Ferrari.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: So, but yeah, uh he whenever he wanted to go fast, he he we'd ride in that, or we he'd get in one of my cars and go for a ride.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, he would take it, he'd always want to take it for a spin just to see how fast it was.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, well, it's faster than you want to go.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_04: He'd start laughing.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: Let me let's see how fast it'll go.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I wonder what Elvis would think about all the the electric car revolution today, all the Teslas and other kinds of things.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Would he be interested in that, you think?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's gotta sound like a car.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_04: Not silent, you know, no, no, no, no.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: That well, he he it wouldn't he wouldn't mind if you know if people wanted to buy one for themselves or something like that, but he wouldn't like it when the government's trying to say no, this is what you're gonna drive.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_04: No, right no, uh-uh.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: You the government isn't supposed to tell you what you're gonna drive, what you're supposed to say, or no, no, no.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: You that you work for us, it's not the other way around.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_04: So sorry we had to dip back into the politics thing again.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's an unavoidable part of life these days.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll get back to the conversation in just a minute, but I want to take a moment to give a big thanks to today's sponsor, Vellum.
• 36:20
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• 36:29
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• 36:33
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• 36:40
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• 36:49
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• 36:53
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• 36:56
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• 37:01
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• 37:07
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• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get back to the conversation.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, next question was submitted by Thanks for that little jaunt down uh Car Lane, though.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's fun.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love that stuff.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh next question is submitted by Tracy.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: She says we've heard it that Elvis had a really good sense of humor.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: What was his favorite prank, or did he have a favorite joke?
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_04: Well, there was a lot.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'm trying to think of one that I could share.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_04: The best prank ever was it was in Vegas in 1972.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_04: And he he pulled this on J.D.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_04: Sumner and the Stamps Quartet.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I didn't know this, but when I when I first started working for Elvis, it was like the guys, some of the guys sometimes would tell us, you know, or I would hear that there was a Elvis had death threats in pretty much every city we went to when we was on tour.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he he he got a lot of death threats.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_04: And so we were in Vegas.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_04: And so uh we kind of played it up that okay, yeah, we we got a death threat, and we're gonna take we took it.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody was playing it up that we were taking serious, and we uh all had parts that we were supposed to play during this prank, and which we didn't when as uh the story unfolds, you'll hear what we all did.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_04: So it was after the second show in Vegas.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_04: So Red and Sunny mysteriously disappear.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, there's everybody standing around talking, you know, and you didn't nobody missed them.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_04: So uh the next thing we know, we hear a knock at the back door, like how the food would that's usually when the food would would come up after the second show and stuff like that, if he felt like eating.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: So we went, somebody went and answered the door, and somebody you heard this voice, where's Presley?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_04: And you hear bam, bam, two gunshots go off.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then you see these two guys come running from around, one comes running from the hallway, and the other one runs through the kitchen and comes out where the dining room is.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_04: So you got a gun pointed at you from over to the right, and you got one over on the left, and you see these guys in ski masks, and they got these guns pointed, and they start shooting.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_04: So when that starts, we all had our parts, you know.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_04: I I was sitting in a chair, Elvis was sitting on a couch here in front of me over here, and we're kind of sitting in front of the TV.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_04: I hit my chest and I kick the chair over backwards, and so I'm kind of laying there off to the side and watching as it everything unfolds.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_04: And Elvis he yells, they got me.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_04: He falls forward, and JD Sumner jumps on top of him, and we're we're kind of looking, and we see Ed Enoch is behind the bar, and he's he can't see what he's doing, but he's just throwing bottles and glasses over the bar hoping to hit somebody.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we saw that we start laughing, and JD thought Elvis was going into convulsions because he was laughing.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_04: Finally, the laughter overtook everybody's fear, and they uh they were all looking at each other like in red, and suddenly pulled the mask off, and they just JD and that D, oh my god, Elvis, you almost killed me with a heart attack on.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: We're laughing so hard.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_04: It was, I mean, for 30 minutes we sit there and laughed for 30 minutes solid, just with that what we saw, everybody, you know, Donny Sumner, you know, Bill Black, all these guys, what they were doing when all this was playing out, it was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_04: I just Elvis, I mean, that was that was probably the best prank I've ever seen in my life, right there.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's amazing.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: Because we all we we all had our parts, and everybody that was working for Elvis, we played it like we, yeah, we got shot.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody was falling, you know, and it was it was perfect.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, love that.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, next question is from Angel.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now you you and I have had some a couple of discussions about this topic, and I'm curious about this too.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she says, I heard that you and David are working on a new film project.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know when that will be out?
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'll kind of follow that up with uh what do you what do you think about some film projects related to the book?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you guys working on some stuff, or what what's the status of all that?
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or what can you say about it?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_04: David doesn't tell me everything that's going on with that, you know.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, just kind of like it, and I I'm just I'm at the point where okay, if it happens, let me know, and I'll I'll you know, I'll be glad to help.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: Would I love to see a movie made of uh you know the faith of Elvis?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because I mean it would be the first movie that ever really showed the real Elvis, because nothing that's ever been done has really showed the real Elvis.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's I mean, everything has been everything that I've seen, and I've pretty much seen them all, you know, especially you know, the Priscilla, the first one she did, and then you know, this Baz movie, and then I saw Elvis and the Beauty Queen, which was from Linda, and you know, the one with Kurt Russell in it, Elvis, or I I don't really remember what it was, you know, and everybody raves over that movie, but none of them showed the character that was revealed in uh The Faith of Elvis.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_04: They they only show the historical stuff, and what I mean by that is okay, he played this concert and this date, and he he he went in and recorded this date and at Sun Records, and then he became I mean, the stuff everybody already knows about.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, let's let's do a movie based on what you didn't see, the guy that I knew.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I would like, you know.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I would love for the fans to see is the I mean, give them a perspective, see it from my perspective is okay.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_04: You're growing up with this guy right here, the king of rock and roll, the greatest entertainer in the whole world is your older brother.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_04: Let's show that guy.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_04: The fun, I mean, like that story I just shared with you know, the the prank.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_04: There's plenty of those are just riding around Memphis and out of the conversations we had, you know.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, going to Elvis when you're growing up as a teenager, and you, you know, you know, what do you do when you you know when you take a girl out on a date and stuff like that?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_04: He tells you, you know.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's the kind of stuff the fans want to hear about.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_04: They don't want to hear about other stuff.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_04: They already know that.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_04: They've seen they've seen the guy that's in the movies and done the records.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_04: They don't they want to see the guy that's off the stage.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, the the answer to the question is We'll we'll know something whenever you know something, maybe.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: If some everybody's yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, but you know, I don't see anybody knocking on my door or calling me up and saying, Hey, let's do a movie.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I wish they would.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'd be more than happy to sit down with them and say, Okay, well, I'll show you an elbow that nobody's ever seen before.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and also I I would also add that you know, with movies and film projects or documentaries or streaming series, I mean, that that world is so is so complex and there's so many people involved that it's yeah, I'm surprised anything ever gets off the ground in that world.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: Well, uh just in some of the conversations I've had, and you know, I mean, I I've had a few myself, and the big the biggest thing that comes back is well, the market's saturated.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the Elvis market is saturated.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_04: I went saturated with I can't say, you know, a bunch of uh saturated with what?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh that's not the real Elvis, though.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean that you know, but she see you can't tell these people that because you know they they think they're experts.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_04: You you may be an expert filmmaker, but you're not an expert on Elvis.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_04: Let me just say that.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I don't even I don't even consider myself an Elvis expert.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, there was only one expert really, and that was Elvis and his mom.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Next question is from Lori.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: She says, Hey Billy, I know how much you boys loved Elvis, but did you ever have a big disagreement or a fight?
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm curious.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm I'm sure there's lots of good stories here, but it was not we never we never no, we never fought.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I mean, I listened.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_04: Elvis was probably the first person I ever really listened to.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_04: And when he when I say that, I mean, I when he told me to do something, I did it.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't ask questions or anything like that.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_04: But the only time there was any hint of a disagreement was this when I turned 18 years old, and I went to fill out my draft form.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_04: And Vernon went with me, and we're sitting there, and I'm filling it out.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_04: And me being a Christian, I you know, I didn't believe in killing.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_04: I said, How do you spell conscientious objector?
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_04: So me and him figured it out.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_04: I wrote that on there, turned it in.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: Two days later, I'm sitting in Graceland, and somebody says, Uh, Elvis wants to see you upstairs.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_04: I jump up and run upstairs.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_04: I get to the top of the stairs, and he's standing there.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_04: He's got this black crushed velvet suit on with a cape.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_04: He's got his cane.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_04: He's got, you know, uh, he's got this uh American flag on his lapel right here that's diamonds and rubies, and I don't know what the bluestones were.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I just as I'm about to get to the top step, he puts that cane right in my chest, you know, stops me.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_04: I go, What?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_04: What?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_04: He said, What's this?
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_04: I hear about you writing conscience objector on your draft notice.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Elvis, I just put that on there to let them know my thoughts on, you know, I I'm not, I don't believe in killing.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Well, that's good.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_04: He said, but if they he said, Do you think you're better than those guys that's over there serving right now?
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_04: I said, No, no, no, Elvis.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_04: Evidently he got the wrong idea.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_04: And so he he kept pushing me.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Elvis, no, wait a minute.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_04: You uh let me explain this.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_04: I said, if they draft me, I will go.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_04: I gladly, I will I would never do anything to dishonor my uh my family or my country.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_04: I would never do that.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: And he said, Well, uh, it's good to hear, he said, because I'm seeing all these hippie protesters on TV and stuff like that, and they're burning their draft cards and moving to Canada.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Elvis, I would never do that.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: I said, You served your country.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_04: My dad was a war hero.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: I would never do that.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I only put that on there just as to let them know my beliefs.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: If they draft me, I will go.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_04: And if if it comes down to me going and me dying for my country, I'm gonna do it with pride, Elvis.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_04: I promise you that.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: And when I started explaining that to him, he's he eased up a little bit and said, Okay.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_04: He said, I he said, I'm just I was just afraid, Billy, that you know, I I know your hair is long, like all these people I see out there.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Yeah, I said, but Elvis, who helped who also raised me?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I pointed to him like that.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_04: He said, I didn't think of it like that.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I would never do anything to dishonor you, Elvis.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_04: I would, I would never do that.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_04: Or my country.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Okay, what were you doing?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_04: Uh before I called you up.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I'm just downstairs watching TV.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_04: He says, Well, go on back down and watch TV.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I turned around, he kicked me in the butt.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_04: I would turn around, look like, okay, yeah, he's I just want to make sure.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Okay, whatever, Elvis.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_04: And that was it.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: That was the only disagreement we ever really had.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_04: And it wasn't really, I mean, it was just a misunderstanding, is all it was.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_04: He didn't know why I I'd wrote written conscientious of gender.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, next question is from Sue.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: She says, during all of your long discussions about life with Elvis, what was the discussion that stands out the most for you?
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_04: I remember when I was I was about 18, 19 years old.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, this was early 70s, and you know, it wasn't as bad as it is today, but I mean, we were going through a lot of stuff back in the 70s.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_04: Vietnam was slowly coming to an end and all this stuff.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, there was assassinations and stuff like this.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I I just I said, Can I talk to you for a minute?
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_04: I he said, Yeah.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Can we talk alone?
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Yeah, he said, Come on, let's go up and try my room.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_04: So we went up to his room.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Elvis, you know, with the way the world is today, I said, it's it it seems like it's crazy, and you know.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Ah, he said, um, let me let me give you a little word of advice.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_04: He said, I call this uh uh I forgot, I'll think of it here in just a minute.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_04: But what he said was, Billy, it's the call the universal law of insanity, is what it was what he called it.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_04: Once you really said, once you realize that you're crazy and so is everybody in the whole world, he said, then you'll be able to get along with everybody.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_04: I went, wow, okay.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_04: He said, because he said, trust me, he said, you've never had a there's not a thought that's gone through your head that somebody else hadn't thought it also.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_04: He said that he said, I know a lot of young people think that you know they're the only ones going through certain situations when they're not.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_04: He said, you know, everybody's got the crazy thoughts and everything like that.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_04: He said, but at the end of the day, if you if you go go about your life with this, if you love everybody like you would your brothers and sisters, like they are your brothers and sisters, the world will become a better place for you.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_04: And when he told me that, that's when a little light came on in my head, and I went, you know what, that's that's the attitude I'm gonna take.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I did, and you know, you know, now sometimes you might want to shake that person that you're sitting there trying to get your point across to, but no, if you just look at them and just talk to them like you would a brother and sister, brother or sister, you know, you can always work out the differences that way, you know, instead of having to fight over it.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I yeah, that's a beautiful perspective.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I I I just adopted that attitude, and when he did when I when I did that, it did become a lot easier for me.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I mean, sure, do I get frustrated and sure everybody does, but you just have to, I mean, this is where you have to draw on that inner strength that he always told me that everybody has inside of it.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_04: May all you have to bring bring up that courage to say no or don't say anything at all or whatever, or just walk away.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it you know, it takes a bigger man to do that than it does to stand there and fight somebody, fight somebody over something stupid.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_04: So, okay, let's agree to disagree and just move on, forget it, you know.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_04: So once I once I adopted that, you know, life did become a lot easier for me.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a question that I uh this is the only person who submitted a question on this topic.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm surprised because uh you actually had a couple of things in the book about this.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Rocky asks, I know that Elvis really loved his guns as I do.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear some good gun stories about Elvis.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_04: Well Yeah, we would he would he would love to do target shooting at at Graceland.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_04: Now when people go through Graceland now, the one thing you don't see is like when you if you're standing in the backyard and you're looking at toward Vernon's office, you'll see two doors to the right side of that.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_04: Well, on the right side of that, on on the inside of the fence, there used to be this, I forgot how many gallons.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_04: It was it stood about maybe four foot tall and maybe ten foot long, but it was a gas pump, and that's what they would use to gas up the tractors and everything else to mow the yard in and around Graceland.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Vernon was always scared that you know somebody accidentally hit that.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_04: He said, We're gonna blow up everybody on this hill.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_04: It's this house, and everybody on it will be gone if you do that.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: But one time we were out there shooting, and Elvis wanted to shoot his Thompson submachine gun.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_04: Go get it for me, Billy.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_04: So I ran up to his room, brought it back down.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_04: I couldn't believe he was gonna shoot this thing, but he did.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he only shot like four or five rounds, and that thing going off, it sounded like it can't.
• 53:49
  unknown: Imagine.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_04: And it's kind of started rearing up on him.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_04: And when he when it did, he let he let go of the trigger real quick.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_04: Because luckily he knew enough about guns.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_04: Once that thing starts going, it's just gonna keep going if you hold your finger.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_04: And he had it on full auto, it wasn't single shot.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_04: He had it that push that switch down and he had the big old drum clip on it.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_04: Five rounds came out of it that I mean that fast, and it was like good grit burning come running out of the office.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna kill us off, you know, because you can't really aim.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you can point it in a direction, but you're not really aiming at anything, you're just kind of it was meant to just you come up on trench warfare back in World War I where you just kind of spray down in the trench, that's all it was for.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_04: So you wasn't really doing any aiming.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_04: And that's why when I when I take people through Graceland now, we we they you walk through and then you come out the door.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_04: And if you turn around, you know, they got the targets inside the the doorway, which that's not the way it was.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_04: We had them on the door because if you stand out in the middle of the yard and you look back at it, you go, You can't see the target because it's inside.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_04: So, but we had it on the door.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I point out these big chunks of brick that are.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, they've painted over it, but you can still see the holes for those those 45 rounds, 45 caliber rounds hit those bricks.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, there's big holes right there.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I always point, I said, see that right there, and see that right there.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_04: There, there's three of them.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_04: I I point out, there's about three or four of them right there, and I point them out and said, That's where he shot the Thompson submachine gun.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_04: And Vernon, his biggest fear was that that 45.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_04: If it would have hit that gas drum over there, it would have, like I said, it'd have just blown that house and everybody else, it'd have been gone.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the only time when you know, when we was actually shooting that the police actually did show up at Graceland.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_04: We got a call, maybe about 20 or 30 minutes later.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_04: Somebody came out and said, The police are down to the front.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_04: Tell them come on back.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_04: So they got they were in the car, they drove up to the backyard and said, Uh, sorry to bother you, Mr.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_04: Presley, but uh, we got a complaint.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Oh, we were shooting the guns.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_04: He said, But I pulled out my Thompson.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Go get it, Billy.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_04: I I went and got it, showed it to him.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_04: They was wow, you got a submachine gun.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Yeah, you want to you're here, you might as well shoot a couple rounds.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's okay.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Well, I promise I'm not gonna shoot anymore, guys.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_04: He said, I but I just had to test fire it one time just to see what it was like.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_04: And they just said, Wow, it's a great gun, but please don't do it anymore.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_04: He said, I promise we won't.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_04: See, we never he we never got any complaints with you know shooting the pistols and stuff.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's just that Thompson, like I said, it sounded like a cannon going off when that when you fired that thing.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_04: And it was, oh my god.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_04: It was something to see.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we got a few a handful of more questions here.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sorry we can't get to all the questions.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: We'd be here for six hours if we did.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this question is about his movie career.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Ruth asked, was there a movie that he did that he didn't that he didn't like?
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: I guess is there was probably more than one, but uh any particular ones that he went to?
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_04: Every one of them.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_04: The only one that he actually watched, and I watched it with him, was um Elvis on Tour.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't watch his other movies, like like he literally never saw no no no.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_04: I mean he had every one of his movies were at Graceland shortly uh probably about a month or so after he finished filming it, we they would uh mail him a six a copy of 16 millimeter uh film.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_04: It had two reels, and as you go down the stairs, when you're going to the basement, you that's the one where you see the uh the mirrors on both sides.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_04: When you get to the bottom of the stairs, if you look forward, and most of the people that's been through Grayson can attest that what they see there is that they'll see a uh like a security person or somebody sitting there, but they see this open room behind them.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_04: That was the projection room, that's where all the Elvis' movies were stored, and there was a 16 millimeter projection projector in there where when you sit sit and look at the bar, you see this little window.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_04: Looks like one of the old uh uh movie theater windows.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_04: It was just a little small one because that's all it needed, was just that.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_04: So, and if you look, then you look at the three TV screens, there's a big screen that you could pull down, and you when you pull that down, then you could watch the movies.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, when we was growing up, uh most of our birthdays, me, Ricky, and David, we when we'd have birthdays, we would have some of our friends come over from school and we'd go to Graceland and we'd watch the movie, you know, watch one of the newest Elvis movies.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_04: So that was how we celebrated our birthdays.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_04: But now he because I asked him, I said, You don't watch any of no.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_04: He said, uh, you know, uh, I don't like them.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, like, especially in he was really looking forward to doing the movie Cyro because it was gonna be kind of like a a spin-off on uh the spaghetti westerns that uh uh Clint Eastwood was doing because he wanted to do one like that.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's because there wasn't any going to be any singing in this movie, and he was all right, he's gonna get to do some acting here.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_04: But what what disappointed Elvis the most was he said he now he would tell us about the movies when he would come home, and after he filmed this one, he he was he was looking forward to it before he left, but then when he came back, he was telling us why he was disappointed.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_04: He was disappointed in instead of shooting the bad guy in the movie.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_04: Elvis Colonel Parker said, No, you can't do that, just give him a dirty look.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_04: So in the movie, you see Elvis, he'll reach for his gun, but all he does is give the guy a dirty look, and he's it just that upset him so bad.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_04: It was just it was like it drained the life out of it.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's pretty much what it did, those movies.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_04: And the uh then he did that 68 uh singer special.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_04: I I can't say comeback special because uh there's a story that goes with that one.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_04: There was Elvis signing autographs down at the gate.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_04: And this lady said, I loved your 68 Comeback Special.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Comeback, sweetie.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_04: I never left.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Well, I didn't go anywhere, you know.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_04: So it that's why I can't say comeback special because uh he he was right.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_04: He never he never went anywhere, he's been there the whole time.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's just you know, he finally got out of those movie contract, you know, which Colonel Parker and his infinite wisdom when he came out of the army said, Okay, we're gonna to get him back out there in front of all the the fans again, we're gonna sign a three movie, uh, three movies a year deal for seven years and a soundtrack that goes with it.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_04: Now, you know, and he just he got disappointed in, you know, he was glad to be back working again and everything, but his true love was being there in front of the fans performing live.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so when when the contract movie contract deal was up, that was it.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's why they did the the the singer special in 1968 to see if there was even still any interest in Elvis because you know the Beatles and everybody else were going, right?
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_04: They they wanted to kind of test the waters, and so he did that, and then he did uh Vegas in 1969, and I was there, and it was like wow, you know.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_04: I'd I'd seen Elvis before.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I the first time I saw him for Forum Live was in 1961, it was at the Ellis Auditorium.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_04: I was eight years old at the time, and I was too young to understand what was going on.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was all quiet, and we was up in this theater seating, and I'm I'm looking down from the balcony, and I see all these people.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_04: My brothers and I were just kind of looking around at all the people.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_04: As soon as he hit that stage, everybody just started screaming, and the women just ran toward the stage, and I couldn't hear anything afterwards.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_04: And I kind of looked back at Vernon, and he just kind of gave me a wink that yeah, that's that's what they're supposed to do.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_04: So I just kind of sit there and I was, you know, trying to move a little bit to the music, but I couldn't really hear it.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_04: But uh in 1969, when he came back for the first time, I saw that that show, and I because I wanted to go to Woodstock, you know, Elvis is gonna be a bunch of old people and this and that.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so before the show starts, I'm looking around, I'm seeing all these entertainers, and all age groups were there.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_04: I I thought it was just gonna be old people, but I mean, from kids, I mean, teenagers and even younger, all the way up to senior citizens.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_04: I thought, okay, this might be all right.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_04: He came out, and I mean, I think I took one breath during his whole show.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_04: When he hit that stage, I was my brothers and I just kind of looked at each other and went, who is this guy?
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_04: I never met him before.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: We don't recognize him.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh he looks just like our brother, but man, who is he?
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and I mean, I was just right then and there is when I really realized who Elvis really was then.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_04: That's what the first time I really it it dawned on me who this guy really was.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_04: And by that time, I mean, you know, I'd been there nine years and it's uh it was still Elvis, you know, but I'd never seen him like that.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, I've been to a lot of concerts before you know during that time and since that time, but I've never seen any show like this before in my whole life.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_04: I was just wow, now I know why they call him the king.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_04: I was just like I said, I took one breath maybe during that whole show.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_04: My my jaw was on the on the table, you know.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just sitting what my mouth wide open like an idiot.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh who is this?
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it was it was great.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, love that.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, speaking of performing, uh, this is sort of a related question to that.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: Joan asked a really great, a great question.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think Elvis would think of all those trying to perform like him?
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she she emphasizes I did say trying, I think that probably should be in quotes.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious, Billy, what did Elvis think of all the the the tribute artists and people who are you know performing as Elvis and whatnot?
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's funny you said that.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_04: There's there's a series of photos that's kind of like on Facebook.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I was I just started working for Elvis in 1972 and we were in LA.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_04: We we stayed, we stayed there for a little bit, and then before we went to Vegas, and I happened to be outside one when this one day, and I saw this guy that was trying to dress like him, had his home hair combed and had the glasses and all this stuff.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Man, Elvis gotta see this.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_04: I walked in, I said, Elvis, you won't believe this, but there's some guy at the gate, and he's he's doing his best to try to look like you.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay, I gotta see this.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_04: He takes his pistol and tucks in his back, back of his pants.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_04: So we're walking up there, and there's the one picture you see of Elvis, he's walking, and he's got his hand behind his back, and he's got his cigar on the other, and people say, Well, he's just smoking a cigar.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, he his gun was back there.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_04: So as he and I are walking together, he he's a couple of steps ahead of me, and he kind of motions for me to come take the gun.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_04: So I walk up behind him real quick and take it and stick it behind my pants.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_04: And we were standing there.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_04: He talks to the guy for probably about 10 or 15 minutes.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I wasn't paying attention to what they were saying.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_04: I was just kind of watching all the other fans standing there, you know, making sure everybody's behaving themselves, not trying to do any harm to him.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_04: And so as we're walking away, I said, What do you think about that?
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Billy, uh that famous saying, he said, What is it?
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_04: The uh the serious form of uh Oh, what is it now?
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know so something about the uh the biggest compliment is the form a form of flattery or something like that.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, somebody somebody's trying to imitate you.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_04: The most sincere form of flattery, he said, as long as he's doing it for the right reason for the fans, he said, I got no problem with it.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_04: He said, But when they start thinking they're me or carry it any further than that, I said, Yeah, don't have to tell me almost I know, you know.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_04: So no, he he wouldn't mind as long as it's like I said, as long as everybody's doing it for the right reason.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, I mean, I've seen a few that they weren't doing it for the right reason.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I that's I I mean, I've seen a f like I said, I've seen a few, and but it it's hard for me to to see these guys to to go to their shows, and I've I've I've been to a couple, you know, just out of you know, being you know courteous to the per the entertainer and stuff like that.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_04: I I went to the show and but it it's hard for me because it brings back a lot of great memories and stuff like that.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, but they're never as close as what the real thing was.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, they never will be.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_04: I don't care who they think what they've done.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I've heard of some of these guys having surgery and this and that.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_04: I even heard about one that's had his name changed and had his wife's name changed to Priscilla.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, when I saw that one, I said, You might want to read a little bit more about Elvis and uh him him and Priscilla, what happened with that deal.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you want to go with that.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he didn't know his history very well.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, maybe not.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean I you know, if the fans like it, that's fine.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that that's that's good, you know.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_04: More power to him.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_04: But I I mean, I like I said, I've seen a few that were pretty good, you know.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh more power to him.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I've got uh I think three three or four more questions here.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um a couple of these are are not from anybody, these are just kind of conversation points I wanted to throw in there that I thought would be of interest to Elvis fans.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: So one was that you and I have talked offline about uh I had made a note to myself that the Dr.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nick story about you know prescription drugs and uh possible cover-up and how you know you guys did a deposition.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could share that story, I think that would be interesting for people who are curious about about all that.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_04: Shortly after Elvis passed away, I would this was when Vernon was still alive.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, before it it did end up going to a federal grand jury, but uh me, Rick, and David were summons to give a deposition on uh what you know what had happened.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I mean, I guess the police or there was some kind some type of investigation going on.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_04: I I really wasn't clear.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_04: All I know is they said, you gotta be there to give a deposition.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_04: I went, yes, sir.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, I mean, they this wasn't Vernon because Vernon and my mom, they'd already gone through a divorce by that time.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_04: But they they summons us to go to, we had to go to the courthouse.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so me, Rick, and David, the night before we were supposed to give our depositions, we kind of sit and said, Okay, what are we gonna do?
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_04: And we all three agreed we're gonna lay out everything we know about Dr.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_04: Nick and Dr.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_04: Gonham, and there's others that you know, Dr.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_04: Newman, all these other people.
• 1:09:23
  SPEAKER_04: We was just gonna lay it out there and say, This is what we saw.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_04: So we got the three of us get there at the same time, and we we're we see the elevator, and the doors are starting to close, and we we just you know, we yell, hey, hey, hey, you know, and then we see a hand and they stop it.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_04: We get on the elevator, it happened to be Vernon and his attorney.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_04: And so Vernon is kind of shocked.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_04: He said, What are you boys doing here?
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_04: And well, we were told we were supposed to be here, you know, and we're supposed to be giving depositions.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_04: He said, What are you gonna say?
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_04: And that's when I said, We're gonna tell them everything we know.
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's when Vernon stops talking, and this attorney starts and says, You're not gonna give any information at all.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_04: You're just gonna answer yes or no, and you don't volunteer any information.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_04: Do you understand that?
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_04: And me, Rick, and David kind of look at each other, and we look at Vernon, and Vernon wouldn't even look at us.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_04: He's just kind of turned his head a little bit like that.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_04: We're going, Oh man, what is this?
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_04: So we get in there and they start asking questions.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, there were several times when they had asked me, Rick, or David.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we all three had to testify, and we all had to sit in there while we was doing this, and we'd kind of look over at Vernon, and he wouldn't look at us.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_04: But the attorney would look at us and just kind of shake his head a little bit, like, and we just we couldn't give any information because I mean, if we would have told what we knew and what we were going to do, he would never been practicing medicine ever again.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_04: Now, I heard later in life that you know he he got caught for doing the same pretty much the same thing with uh Jerry Lee Lewis or something like that.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I didn't keep up with Dr.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_04: Nick after almost passed away.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_04: To me, all you know, all that stuff was gone.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I so I don't really don't know what happened after that, but I just know that that this instance right here was something that and I only came up with this.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_04: I was at work about two months ago, and one of my friends at work asked me some stuff, just asked kind of this, and I hey, I'd forgotten all about this stuff until he said this.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I was sitting there and I went, you know, of all the reg, you know, I've got I've got regrets in my life.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_04: This is probably one of them.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, there was two, and I'll mention the set the second one at the first one after this.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_04: I should have gone in there and done what I would we what the three of us planned to do to begin with, and not paying attention to what this attorney was saying to us.
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_04: And it it may have stopped a lot of things that happened.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_04: Here again, I don't know what all the things that happened afterwards, but I know this case about Dr.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_04: Nick, I mean, you know, I I don't have any grudges or anything like this, but you know, this man helped put Elvis where in that grave.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I I I regret not sitting there and open up and telling everything I, you know, but I I guess out of the respect from Vernon that I still had for him, because I mean it was I grew up with this man as my father, and I pretty much did what he didn't say it, but the attorney said it.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_04: So I pretty much just had to sit there and bite my tongue the whole time, and I regret doing that.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_04: The first one was at Elvis's funeral when Colonel Parker, my brothers and I, after we'd put Elvis in the mausoleum, we were everybody was standing around Grayson, and we just happened to be standing around front at the front steps.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know why.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_04: He comes walking up, he's got his cigar in his mouth and his stupid cap that he always wore, like Hawaiian shirt.
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_04: He said, If any guys, if you any boys get any contracts, anything like that, don't sign anything until I look at it.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_04: The show must go on.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_04: I came that close to punching him out right then.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_04: I almost decked him.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, I that's my first regret right there.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_04: I wish I would have, but I said, This is Elvis's funeral.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_04: You can't do this right here, Billy.
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_04: But I wish I would have now.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_04: So those are the two regrets that you know come to mind when I think about my my life with Elvis.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_04: That I wish I would have gone ahead and acted on those impulses.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, it's interesting.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking before we hit record about how this whole thing with prescription drugs seems to be an epidemic with you know with celebrities.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you have Prince, Michael Jackson, Witt Houston, probably a lot of others.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_00: That they're being prescribed these things that ultimately lead to their death.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, these are the only ones we know about.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure there's others that they passed away and they just simply pass it off as a drug overdose or something like that.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_04: You know, these these entertainers, I mean, just like they're like anybody else.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I used to have that kind of faith in doctors too, but you know, after three shoulder surgeries on this one right here, I've I finally figured it out that doctors at best are just nothing but shade tree mechanics.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know your body better than they do.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't sit there and blindly listen to what it well, take this and no, I'm not taking anything else, doc.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, no.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh uh.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, I I've been down that road before.
• 1:14:38
  SPEAKER_04: My trust in doctors is not the highest I've you know in the world, you know.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_04: But I do listen to my heart, doctor, and I mean he's not a quack, so you know.
• 1:14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to ask about a book that just came out.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking about this before a little bit before I hit record.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I know that you have not read uh the new book by Lisa Marie and her daughter Riley.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, can you explain?
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think people would be interested to hear why you don't have an interest in reading that book and your thoughts on that in general.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_04: But the the easy way for me to explain this thing is first is that was that was my niece.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's a pit there's a picture of me, Rick and David holding her the first day she came back when she came back from the hospital to Graceland for the first time.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_04: That was Elvis's daughter.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_04: And that little girl mean means the world to me.
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_04: And for me, you know, from what I'm hearing from the fans, what she's written, what her life was like without Elvis, it just it crushes, it breaks my heart to know that you know that her mom probably told her all these stories about Elvis and all this, and she probably made up a lot of them and lied about lied about her dad.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_04: Because I mean, the little girl was seemed so confused about who her dad really was.
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, she only got she didn't get the privilege that me, Rick, and David had, you know, spending the 17 years with him.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_04: She only had nine years, and I mean, she was just getting that relationship going.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because in all reality, she wasn't with him every day, you know.
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, but me, Rick, and David weren't either, but you know, at least we were there when he came home from making movies and stuff like that.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_04: She didn't have that privilege.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I hear all this this stuff that the fans are talking about on Facebook and what she's saying and everything, and this Michael Edwards guy.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's my niece.
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_04: I would, you know, I would destroy this guy if I ever saw him face to face.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's my knee.
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's not not only my knee, that's Elvis's daughter.
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_04: You oh no, you don't do that.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-uh.
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_04: I'll rip your head off for that.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, I was talking with David, and I said, you know, David, I said, you was Elvis' bodyguard.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_04: He said, yeah, he said, and I would do this for free.
• 1:17:00
  SPEAKER_04: Michael payment required Michael Edwards would not be around if I ever get around him.
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_04: I promise.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_04: I said the same here, David.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I would destroy this man.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I mean, that was his whole Elvis' whole world was in that little girl right there.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, it I you know, it breaks my heart.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's why you can hear me.
• 1:17:19
  SPEAKER_04: My voice gets a little cracky here because I get emotional thinking about the life that she led, and I'm going, you know, how much better it would have been if Elvis would have been alive.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he raised me, Rick, and David, and we turned out pretty good, I think.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_04: You know, yeah, there's a lot of things the fans probably disagree with, but but you know, he he pretty much raised us, and I mean, you know, she would have known the Lord, and that's that's one thing for sure.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, she all I know is she Priscilla just dumps her off in some Scientology, and oh, you you you're gonna take care of her and you're gonna raise her.
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_04: No, what what kind of parental guidance is that right there?
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, are you kidding me?
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_04: I just I you know I can't read that because first off, you know, I have a have a serious problem with blood pressure.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I'm sure my blood pressure goes through the roof.
• 1:18:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'd probably end up in a hospital if I did.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_04: But just knowing that the heartbreak that she had to endure and stuff like that, and there was nothing that Uncle Billy could do to help.
• 1:18:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I would have done anything for that little girl.
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_04: All she had to do was call.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_04: And and I'd have been there in a heartbeat.
• 1:18:31
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, I had a hitchhike to get there, but I'd have got there somehow to get her and protect her.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I haven't read much of the book, but uh my wife Melanie has she listened to the audiobook and she said it's one of the best audiobooks she's ever listened to.
• 1:18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So good.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_00: She said it was just incredibly moving.
• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I I again I haven't read very much of it, but all indications seem to be that it it's a really, really moving story.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I bet it is, you know.
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I I you know it's like I said on Facebook, probably all the fears that I had when Elvis passed away, and when I saw her just riding around in a golf cart by herself, and I mean, I guess that's my third regret is when because she came riding up to me when I got to Grayson when Elvis passed away.
• 1:19:17
  SPEAKER_04: And Rick and David were standing in the backyard, and I walked up to him and I could see her in the distance riding her golf cart.
• 1:19:23
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Does she know?
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_04: And they said, Yeah, they she saw when they was taking her dad out, taking Elvis out, and I went, Oh my god.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_04: And she pulls up on her golf cart.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_04: You wanna go for a ride, Uncle Billy?
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_04: No, not right now, sweetie.
• 1:19:38
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I will a little bit later.
• 1:19:40
  SPEAKER_04: I said, but you know, right now I want to talk to Uncle Rick and Uncle David.
• 1:19:44
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I'll be back.
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_04: And I I wish I'd have gone with her, you know.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, when when Priscilla took her away from Memphis, you know, she took her away from everybody that really loved her.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, she had family here, you know, she had me, Rick and David, and you know, she had, you know, Billy and Joe Smith and Danny and I mean Billy and Joe's kids, and you know, Elvis's family was here.
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_04: And so when uh when Priscilla took her, that was it.
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_04: All the ties that was with Elvis were gone.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_04: There was nobody there to talk, you know, share the good and funny stories and tell her how great her dad really was.
• 1:20:29
  SPEAKER_04: She she wasn't allowed to talk to anybody like that.
• 1:20:33
  SPEAKER_04: So that that's why I can't read it.
• 1:20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it totally makes sense.
• 1:20:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'm emotional just even thinking about it, you know.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, but if if I read it and heard her own words, it would it would crush me.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_00: I want to wrap up with this final question that uh I mean so yeah, go ahead.
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that that ties in really well with uh this final question.
• 1:20:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is from Joan, which I think is a perfect wrap-up to this conversation.
• 1:21:03
  SPEAKER_00: She says, Do you think Elvis had any idea how much the entire world loved him?
• 1:21:13
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure in the back of his mind he it may have crossed it, but he no, not like not not the way it is today.
• 1:21:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, could I mean when I see the fans at Graceland and you know during Elvis week and on his birthday, the celebrations, and I see the celebrations people are having on Facebook, and now he he would now he would just be amazed by it.
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_04: But I'd like to close by just saying this that you know he probably knew how much you loved him, but what you don't know is how much he loved you, and that's the you know, that's one of the things that we tried to get across in the book, The Faith of Elvis, is how much he loved those fans.
• 1:21:56
  SPEAKER_04: That was his whole reason for living.
• 1:21:58
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, people were they you know they say hindsight's 2020, and everybody goes, you know, maybe he worked himself a little bit too hard, you know, which he did, but he could not stand the thought of turning away.
• 1:22:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he could not turn his fans away, even if he was on his deathbed, he would still get up and perform, and that's pretty much what he did.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_04: So, uh, but he could not turn those fans away.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's how much he loved him.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_04: So, and God bless his fans.
• 1:22:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, you know, I I hear all this stuff that so-and-so saved Graceland and did this and did that.
• 1:22:35
  SPEAKER_04: No, you nope, nobody saved Graceland.
• 1:22:38
  SPEAKER_04: The fans did.
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_04: They, you, the people listening to this right here, the the Elvis fans is what saved Elvis.
• 1:22:46
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, saved Graceland and everything else.
• 1:22:48
  SPEAKER_04: He's the big he's as big today as he was when he was still alive because of you, your love, and thank God for you.
• 1:22:56
  SPEAKER_04: That's all I can say.
• 1:22:58
  SPEAKER_04: God bless you all.
• 1:23:00
  SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful message.
• 1:23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, and a great way to wrap up this conversation.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Billy, it has been a privilege talking with you, as it always is, and it was also a privilege collaborating on this book.
• 1:23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that if people are listening to this but they haven't read the book, they will go grab a copy at their local bookstore or at Barnes Noble or Amazon or or wherever.
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, thanks for taking my book.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_04: I need more now.
• 1:23:25
  SPEAKER_00: They can get it anywhere.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's interesting when I read the reviews on, and I know you can leave reviews on all kinds of sites, but whenever I look at the Amazon reviews in particular, um the love people have for your stories in this book, uh, it's overwhelming, you know.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and people have told me, just like they've told you so many times, that they just really, really love this book.
• 1:23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had somebody tell me that just the other day who I didn't realize had even read the book.
• 1:23:50
  SPEAKER_00: They said, I just really enjoyed that book.
• 1:23:52
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for making your stories available, and thanks for allowing me to be a small part of that process.
• 1:23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I consider it a huge honor.
• 1:23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 1:23:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh you know, I'm glad that you know it it took me several attempts to get the finally get the right writer for this thing.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_04: But when you came up, it was when we first talked, I said, okay, this is it right here.
• 1:24:11
  SPEAKER_04: This guy right here, he's got it.
• 1:24:14
  SPEAKER_04: He he gets the whole picture right here.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_04: So well, I'm I'm glad you felt that way.
• 1:24:19
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't even like working for me.
• 1:24:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm sitting here, okay.
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_04: But it was just like I'm talking to a friend, and that's how it comes across, you know, in the book.
• 1:24:27
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the way it should be, you know, when you're working with a writer.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_04: If that person is if you're working with a writer and that person is not your friend, it's not it's gonna come across that way in the in the book, too.
• 1:24:38
  SPEAKER_04: So that people can see between the lines in our book what we did.
• 1:24:41
  SPEAKER_00: So well, I don't know if I ever told you this, but but I almost said no to this project because I had several other projects going on at the same time.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I told my wife, I said, Man, this would be a really fun book to work on.
• 1:24:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a dream come true, but I literally don't know how I'm gonna fit it in.
• 1:24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, if you don't do this book, you're an idiot.
• 1:25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And she may have used stronger words than that.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember, but but she was right, and I just thought, I've got it, I've got to do this.
• 1:25:07
  SPEAKER_00: How how can I pass up on an opportunity to talk to Billy and to write about Elvis?
• 1:25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that I did.
• 1:25:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was an absolute blast.
• 1:25:13
  SPEAKER_04: Me too.
• 1:25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for joining me for this episode of The Profitable Writer.
• 1:25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hope that you enjoyed that QA session with Billy Stanley.
• 1:25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know I had a blast doing it, and hope that you learned a few things as well.
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Looking forward to the next episode, which features a conversation with three authors who collaborate on maps, otherwise known as multi-author projects.
• 1:25:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're in for a real treat as you hear about an innovative and fascinating way to collaborate with other writers within the world of fiction.
• 1:25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to you joining us then.