Elvis’ Bodyguard Said the Singer Had a ‘Child’s Face’ That ‘Asks for Help’
Elvis Presley met his longtime bodyguard, Red West, when they were both in high school. Elvis and West were not friends in school, but West stepped up to protect Elvis from bullying. He continued doing this for years after they both graduated. West said Elvis had a quality about him that he felt he needed to protect.
Elvis’ bodyguard shared why he felt like he needed to protect the singer
In high school, West walked into the bathroom and found some of his football teammates threatening to cut Elvis’ hair. West was fairly certain they wouldn’t have done anything to actually hurt Elvis. Still, he felt a pressing need to protect him.
“The guys who were giving Elvis a hard time were not really bad guys, just a bit noisy and stuff. But when I saw Elvis’s face, it just triggered something inside of me,” West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “I mean we were just kids and they weren’t gonna kill him or anything, but there was that look of real fear on his face. He was looking like a frightened little animal and I just couldn’t stand seeing it.”
West said he couldn’t have left the bathroom without stepping in to help Elvis.
“When you’re very poor, you tend to let everyone look after their own troubles, but that face of Elvis’s, I can see it to this day,” West said. “And I saw that face like that many times later, and it always had the same effect on me. Just churned something up inside of me. It’s a child’s face and it asks for help.”
Elvis’ bodyguard said the singer never forgot what he did for him
While Elvis rarely verbally thanked people for helping him, West said he never forgot someone’s kindness. He said that because of the times he stood up for him in high school, Elvis began to look to him as a protector. He remained in this role for two decades.
“In later years, he remembered those two incidents, although he never mentioned them,” West said. “Elvis never forgets a damned thing; he has a memory like an elephant. Somehow, you know, that year 1952 put me in a role as Elvis’s protector. It wasn’t a role I looked for, it just happened that way.”
Red West’s desire to protect Elvis eventually got him in trouble
Once Elvis became famous, West began acting as a bodyguard for him. He had a short-fuse temper, which made him particularly intimidating.
“[W]ith Red, if someone hassles him, he gives you the two-minute warning,” fellow bodyguard Dave Hebler said. “If you don’t get the message pretty quick, boom, it’s all over.”
This trait eventually became a problem for Elvis. He told his bodyguards to do whatever it took to protect him, which West took to heart.
“Sonny and Red lived in so much tension these days that they were constantly frenzied,” Priscilla Presley wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “Suspicious in crowds of overzealous fans, they were quick to respond to any sign of danger. Compared to Sonny’s diplomacy, Red’s reputation was to act first and ask questions later. Eventually, numerous assault-and-battery charges started piling up against Elvis.”
Elvis had to ask West to learn to control his temper.
