Elvis Hit His Doctor and Narrowly Missed His Father When He Fired a Gun Out of Boredom
At all times, Elvis Presley could be counted on to have his medication and a gun close to him. He relied heavily on both, especially in the later years of his life. Members of his entourage recalled the singer firing a gun into the television when he saw something he didn’t like, or pointing it at them when he felt even the slightest annoyance. Once, he fired it at the TV out of boredom and accidentally hit his doctor. Luckily, he walked away without injury.
Elvis could have caused a tragedy when he fired a gun indoors
While preparing for a show at a hotel in North Carolina, Elvis shot at his TV. Nobody in the room could remember why he did this, but they could recall the aftermath quite well.
“I can’t remember exactly what brought it on, but just before the show, Elvis just whipped out a revolver that was tucked in his belt and blew out a damn television set in the main room,” his bodyguard Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “Now this time the bullet — I guess it was a .22 — whizzed around in that TV set inside, bounced off and came out again. It whistled past Vernon [Presley’s] head and hit Dr. Nick right under the heart.”
Miraculously, Dr. Nick, or Dr. George Nichopoulos, walked away without so much as a scratch.
“Thank God that by the time the thing reached Dr. Nick it was completely spent,” Sonny West said, “and it just bounced off his suit and plopped on the floor.”
A bodyguard talked his way out of the situation
While everyone was unharmed, the venue’s security, who had been outside the door, was immediately on high alert. They banged on the door as Sonny West switched the broken television with another one in the suite. Obviously, security wanted to know why they had just heard a gun go off. Another one of Elvis’ bodyguards, Dick Grob, smoothed things over.
“He just told them some kind of a story, but they went away satisfied,” says Sonny. “It’s not every day you hear a gun go off when you’re supposed to be there protecting the a** of a superstar. Later on Elvis gave the chief of security a gold watch.”
Elvis’ bodyguard admitted they indulged him when he pulled out his gun
While this incident was frightening, Elvis’ entourage typically laughed it off when he surprised them by firing his gun.
“Talking about it now, around normal people, I realize how weird that kind of stuff was,” bodyguard Red West said. “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. 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.”
Luckily, the only person Elvis ever hit walked away unharmed.
