Elvis Went ‘Out of His Mind’ With Anger After His Aunt Embarrassed Him on Christmas: ‘He Was Just Screaming’
On Christmas in 1975, Elvis Presley took his friends and family up into his private jet. He had been upset all Christmas Eve, and his mood took an even darker turn the next day. His Aunt Delta began insulting his entourage, and Elvis did not handle it well. Even hours afterward, his friend said Elvis was so angry that he wanted to kick her out of Graceland.
Elvis Presley was not happy with his aunt on Christmas
Elvis spent much of Christmas Eve isolated in his bedroom after having a bad dream. In it, he dreamt that everyone who worked for him didn’t care about him for any reason “other than for their salary checks.”
The next day, he took everyone up in his jet, the Lisa Marie, and handed out gifts to his family and entourage. Suddenly, Delta began insulting everyone in his entourage, touching on the same fears Elvis had in his dream.
“She was drunk,” his friend Marty Lacker said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “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.'”
She turned her frustration on the rest of the entourage, telling them they were just there to take Elvis’ money. Elvis was furious. He apologized to Lacker and demanded that someone kick Delta off the plane. While that initially seemed to be the end of it, Elvis was still furious hours later.
“[I heard] the damndest racket there ever was,” his cousin Billy Smith said. “I jumped up and grabbed my gun, and I run to the door. Well, it was Elvis. He had his cane and was beating the door on my trailer. His hair was messed up, and he was wild-eyed and red-faced … He was out of his mind he was so mad.”
He threatened to kill Delta and toss her out of Graceland. Smith said “he was just screaming” about how angry he was at being embarrassed.
His father agreed with Aunt Delta’s description of the entourage
Though Elvis completely blew his top at Delta for saying this, his father held the same opinion. According to Priscilla Presley in her book Elvis and Me, Vernon Presley believed Elvis’ entourage saw Graceland as “their personal club.” He continually warned his son about them, but Elvis ignored him.
“Vernon didn’t have much respect for the guys,” Priscilla wrote. “He said Elvis just gave and gave and gave, and they took and took and took. He’d say, ‘Son, we have to save.’ Elvis would answer, ‘It’s only money, Daddy. I just have to go out and make more.'”
Did Elvis Presley record any Christmas songs?
Elvis wasn’t exactly in the Christmas spirit in 1975. Years before, though, in 1957, he recorded Elvis’ Christmas Album. This included songs like “Blue Christmas.”
In 1971, Elvis released a second album of Christmas songs, Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas. This was the final Christmas album he would put out in his lifetime,
In 2017, RCA Records and Legacy Recordings released Christmas with Elvis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The compilation album included songs Elvis recorded on his past two holiday albums with new arrangements by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
