Elvis Had a Dream That Left Him in Such a ‘Rage’ That He Almost Ruined Christmas
Elvis Presley spent Christmas 1975 at Graceland. On Christmas Day, he took his friends and family up on his private jet, but he remained isolated for most of Christmas Eve. He told his nurse that he woke up from a dream so realistic that it made him want to steer clear of his entourage. All this did was make them feel frustrated with him.
Elvis Presley had a dream about his entourage on Christmas
On Christmas Eve, Elvis woke up from a dream so realistic that he told his nurse, Marion Cocke, he was “in a rage.”
“He had dreamed that no one who worked for him cared anything about him other than for their salary checks,” Cocke said in the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “He had dreamed that he had gone broke, and when he needed them they walked out on him. In his dream during this turmoil, he said that I walked in and said, ‘Babe, everything’s okay.’ With that he laughed and we just sat there and visited.”
Though Cocke believed she broke through Elvis’ bad mood, he still asked her what she thought of each of his friends. He stayed up in the room with Cocke until around three in the morning. By that time, he was ready to go downstairs to greet his friends and family. They had grown frustrated with him, though.
“[Elvis] was up there punching buttons and watching what we were doing [on the television monitors],” his friend Lamar Fike said. “I was f***in’ mad.”
Christmas Day was not much better for Elvis
The following day, Elvis’s aunt touched on the same fears he dreamt about. When he took his friends and family up in his private plane, she began insulting his entourage.
“She was drunk,” his friend Marty Lacker said. “All of a sudden, Delta looked at me and she said, ‘You’re a sonofab****. I don’t like you. You ain’t no damn friend of his. And I got a good mind to take this .38 I got in my purse and shoot you dead.'”
After directing her fury at Lacker, she turned to the rest of the entourage, telling them they just wanted Elvis’ “damn money.”
Even hours later, Elvis was still so angry that he threatened to kick Delta out of his home.
“He was just screaming,” Elvis’ cousin Billy Smith said. “‘How dare she do something like that?'”
He eventually calmed down
Though Elvis spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a state of fury, Smith was able to talk him down.
“I said, ‘Elvis, let’s sit down and talk this thing out. This is an old woman you’re talking about. You know how she is when she gets to drinking.'”
Though Elvis said Delta had ruined his Christmas, Smith convinced him not to throw her out. Elvis agreed that he wouldn’t, even though he was still angry.
“But then he broke down and started crying,” Smith said. “He said, ‘She had no right to do that. Those are my friends. I love her, too, but she’s got no right to make me look like that.'”
