Elvis’ Entourage Realized Life With the Singer Was ‘Weird’ When They Talked to ‘Normal People’
Elvis Presley rarely went anywhere without his entourage. They traveled with him, protected him, and kept his nocturnal schedule. They also had to put up with his ever-changing moods. Elvis sometimes flew into rages, fired his gun at the television, and made outrageous demands. All of this seemed normal to his entourage until they talked to people outside of Elvis’ circle.
Elvis’ entourage realized they were not living normal lives
Elvis typically went to bed in the early morning, slept for roughly 14 hours, and woke up in the late afternoon. When he arose, he was often groggy and irritable, which meant everyone around him had to be on high alert. If he saw something he didn’t like on television while he ate his breakfast, he was likely to fire his gun at the screen.
The members of his entourage grew used to this behavior, even teasing Elvis about it. Whenever they tried to speak about it with other people, though, they realized that it was nowhere near normal.
“Talking about it now, around normal people, I realize how weird that kind of stuff was,” his bodyguard Red West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “But at the time, I must admit, we all indulged him. Whenever he did something like that, we all laughed like crazy and made a big joke of it.”
Upon reflection, West said they should not have normalized this behavior. They were lucky Elvis didn’t hurt anyone with his outbursts.
“Whenever he did something like that, we all laughed like crazy and made a big joke of it,” he said. “I suppose when we did that it just encouraged him. But if that bullet had bounced off that television set and hit somebody, it wouldn’t have been so funny.”
Elvis’ entourage happily carried out their positions
While Elvis’ entourage realized that they should not have normalized some of Elvis’ behavior, they were extremely dedicated to him. They prepared themselves to take a bullet for Elvis if necessary.
“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.”
Priscilla Presley also realized life with him was abnormal
Towards the end of her marriage to Elvis, Priscilla Presley also realized her lifestyle was abnormal. When they began to grow apart, she spent more time with other couples. She discovered that many men treated their wives as equals, not objects.
“I was seeing myself for the first time, and it was going to take a while for me to get used to the image,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “I had a chance to observe marriages outside our inner circle, where the woman had just as much say as a man in everyday decisions and long term goals.”
The realization pushed her even further away from Elvis.
“I was confronted with the harsh realization that living the way I had for so long was very unnatural and detrimental to my wellbeing,” she wrote. “My relationship to Mike [Stone] had now developed into an affair.”
