Elvis Became a ‘Seething Cauldron of Hate’ in Las Vegas

Elvis Presley began performing residencies in Las Vegas in 1969. These shows saved his sagging career and reignited his love of performing. Before long, though, they began to bore him to tears. This boredom transformed Elvis, twisting his initial excitement into something spiteful and defensive. His friend shared how unpleasant things became while Elvis and his entourage were in Las Vegas.

Elvis’ boredom caused him to lash out while in Las Vegas

By the early 1970s, Elvis had tired of his Vegas shows. He played two shows a day for weeks at a time, leaving him exhausted and irritable. He also played the same show over and over. 

“Going in about the third year, there was no challenge,” Elvis’ friend Jerry Schilling said in the book The Colonel by Alanna Nash. “It was the same songs, and the same audience, and we stayed up all night, and slept all day. We didn’t see sunlight for a couple months. What was once exciting and fun became dark and angry.”

Elvis had a contractual obligation to perform the shows, and the feeling of being trapped in a loop of performances began to alter his behavior. He grew angry and spiteful.

“Elvis was mad,” his friend Lamar Fike said. “He didn’t want to do it anymore. He said, ‘I want out of this place. I don’t want to come back.’ As a result, this seething cauldron of hate built up in Las Vegas.” 

Elvis’ Las Vegas residencies initially revitalized his career

Elvis’ hatred of his Las Vegas shows was disheartening to his entourage because the singer initially loved them. Before his first show in 1969, Elvis was so full of nervous, excited energy that he could hardly keep still. His performance went so well that critics announced he would be back in full force during the upcoming decade.

After his first performance, Elvis told Frank Lieberman of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner that the show gave him “a new life. I was human again. There was hope for the future … I was able to give some feeling, put some expression into my work” (via Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick).

He signed a five-year contract with the International Hotel after just one performance. The contract made his future feel full of promise, but it would eventually become a thorn in his side.

Priscilla Presley said he created problems when his career bored him

By the mid-1970s, Elvis’ frustration was noticeable in his shows. He forgot lyrics, went on rambling asides between songs, and, sometimes, canceled shows altogether. He could no longer find fulfillment in his professional career, so he sought it elsewhere. According to Priscilla Presley, he often invented problems as a way to distract himself. 

“In the absence of any significant professional challenge, Elvis created his own real-life dramas,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “His fascination with guns was now an obsession. He became paranoid over death threats, and from his association with the Memphis local police, he had access to a list of drug pushers. He felt he personally should get them off the streets. Phoning me late one evening, he said, ‘Cilla, you have anyone you want taken care of? Strictly top secret.’”

Elvis played shows in Las Vegas through the end of 1976.