Elvis Presley Constantly Played a ‘Pathetic Macho Game’
In the 1970s, Elvis Presley was so bored with his career that he began to invent problems for himself. According to Priscilla Presley, he grew obsessed with the idea of cleaning up the streets, even going so far as to offer to “take care” of anyone who bothered her. Elvis himself rarely ventured into dangerous situations. Instead, he sent his bodyguards out to deal with his problems. One of his bodyguards spoke out against this behavior.
Elvis Presley put people in danger to seem ‘macho’
In 1976, Elvis welcomed his bodyguard Red West into his bedroom. Here, West found guns spread all over the floor and a list of people Elvis saw as a threat to the public.
“He had it all planned,” West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “He wanted myself and Dave Hebler and Dick Grob, the former cop, to go out and lure them, and he said he was going to kill them.”
Of course, they never did this. Elvis talked a big game and his bodyguards were willing to do a lot for him, but they wouldn’t take it this far. Dave Hebler said it was all a game to Elvis, and one he should have grown out of years before.
“It really was a pathetic macho game,” Hebler said. “It was Batman and Robin time. The thing is that we all played these games when we were six, but Elvis is still playing them . . . and with real guns that go bang.”
Hebler believed Elvis wanted to live out The French Connection.
Elvis Presley rarely put himself in danger
While Elvis wanted to be the hero in these raids, he rarely actually put himself in danger. Occasionally, he joined the police on raids, but he typically sent his bodyguards out when he wanted something “taken care of.” Red West recalled a time when this nearly got him killed.
Elvis’ step-brothers got into a fight because they owed people money. When Elvis heard this, he sent members of his entourage out to confront his brothers’ attackers. They arrived at the house, where one of the men inside pointed a gun directly at West’s stomach.
“I didn’t feel too good with that thing pointing at my belly,” West said. “If he had pulled that trigger, it would have blown a hole in me a mile wide.”
Luckily, they were able to defuse the situation. When reflecting, West said he thought Elvis should have dealt with his own problems.
“It was a damn fool thing to get into, but it just goes to show you how we would react to Elvis’s orders,” he said. “I always figured if he wanted to be the avenger, he should go out and do this stuff himself. It’s too easy to get killed. And for what? Just because you are taking orders. No, sir.”
He made up stories about his heroics
Elvis didn’t involve himself in the danger he ordered his bodyguards to put themselves in. He acted as if he did, though. While on a ski trip, he invented a story about helping the police on a drug raid in Denver.
“He said that they had these drug runners trapped and surrounded. Elvis was sneaking up on this one guy who was crouched behind a bush holding a sawed-off shotgun … one of the bad guys,” Hebler said. “He got real close when the guy heard him … pointed the shotgun at him … Whereupon, Elvis, with all his skill and agility, brushed the weapon aside, threw a horrendous karate chop and broke his neck with the blow.”
When Hebler asked Dick Grob, who had accompanied Elvis to Denver, the story fell apart.
“I asked Dick what he did the night before with Elvis,” Hebler said. “He told me that they bought some cars, had a sandwich and came back. I asked him whether Elvis or he had been on a drug raid, and he looked at me like I was out of my skull.”
