Elvis’ Bodyguards Felt ‘Stupid’ for Being Willing to Take a Bullet for Him on Their Salary
Elvis Presley’s bodyguards lived in a near-constant state of worry about the singer’s safety. He received a number of threats on his life and feared an assassination attempt. His bodyguards would have done anything to prevent this, including taking a bullet for Elvis. Once they left the job, though, they didn’t feel they were being paid enough to die on the job.
Elvis’ bodyguards weren’t sure they should have been willing to take a bullet for him
In 1972, Elvis’ bodyguards received word that there was potentially a woman in the audience who wanted to shoot Elvis. Immediately, his bodyguards jumped into action.
“When we got the message, Red [West] and I stood up in front on the stage as a block to Elvis,” bodyguard Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? “Elvis moved to the back of the stage and sang in a sideways stance to make himself a smaller target.”
Red and Sonny West both admitted they were terrified, but they were still willing to protect Elvis.
“Man, I know I was shaking,” Red said. “I was ready to hear that pop of a gun and feel a doggone bullet go right through my heart. And I was thinking about my wife and kids. I was scared.”
In 1972, Elvis was reportedly paying his bodyguards $425 a week. While this was considerably higher than the average salary at the time, both admitted they felt “stupid” for being willing to die for this amount. It was how all his bodyguards felt at the time, though.
“If anyone was going to hurt him, they would have had to kill us to get to him,” bodyguard Dave Hebler said. “That was the relationship.”
Elvis boasted that his bodyguards would do anything for him
Elvis was not one to verbally thank the people who worked for him, preferring to give them elaborate gifts out of the blue instead. Both Red and Sonny West found it a bit disappointing that Elvis boasted about their dedication to him instead of thanking them for it. He used their loyalty as a way to lift himself up, not them.
“If a guy gets up with a knife, they take the knife for me,” Elvis would tell people. “If it’s a gun, they take the bullet for me. That’s the kind of loyalty I can get.”
Priscilla Presley said Elvis made it worth it to work for him
Priscilla Presley acknowledged that Elvis’ entourage may have preferred higher salaries. Still, she thought Elvis more than made up for this with his generosity.
“By today’s standards the boys’ salaries were not high — the average paycheck was $250 a week — but if the boys ever felt the pinch by the end of the month, they would go to Elvis,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “They’d ask him if he could help them out with a down payment on a house or the first and last months’ payments on an apartment. Elvis always came through for them, lending them the one thousand or five thousand or ten thousand dollars they asked for. He was rarely if ever paid back.”
