Linda Thompson’s Affair With the ‘Antithesis of Elvis’ Made Her Realize She Could Live Without the Singer

Though Elvis Presley did not want Priscilla Presley around him on tour, he welcomed Linda Thompson on the road with him. She traveled between cities with him and spent time with his band and entourage. All this time on tour gave her a chance to bond with these people, and soon, Thompson was in a secret relationship with Elvis’ piano player. She shared that she felt drawn to him because he was so different from Elvis. 

Linda Thompson began a relationship with a member of Elvis’ band

Though Elvis wanted Thompson on tour with him, he spent many nights taking drugs or having in-depth talks about spirituality with his barber. Bored, Thompson began playing cards with members of Elvis’ band. Through these games, she grew close with piano player David Briggs. Before long, their friendship developed into an affair. Thompson liked that Briggs was markedly different from her superstar boyfriend. 

“He was just the total antithesis of Elvis,” Thompson said in the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “I mean, he was bearded, blue-jean clad, kind of low-key, no ego, not traditionally good looking, he just really downplayed everything….”

Thompson’s relationship with Briggs taught her that Elvis may not be her be-all and end-all. A life away from him seemed increasingly possible.

“I thought, You know what?” she said. “There is life after Elvis.”

She eventually went home from the tour

Thompson and Briggs kept the relationship a secret, but other members of the band soon discovered their affair. Elvis wasn’t aware, but he had met Ginger Alden by this point and wanted Thompson to go home so she could join him on the road. 

While Thompson initially bristled against his request for her to leave, she ultimately complied. It felt that her four-year relationship with the singer was reaching its end. She was tired of watching his infidelity and drug use. 

“He was going to go ahead and slowly kill himself, no matter what I did,” she said. “I couldn’t make him happy, and I knew he wasn’t going to change. So I left.”

Linda Thompson doubted Elvis’ fidelity to her

When Elvis first told Thompson she should return to Memphis, she pushed back. Given Elvis’ track record in relationships, Thompson grew suspicious that he wanted another woman with him.

“I said, ‘You have another girl here, right? You’re bringing another girl in?’” she recalled. “‘Oh, honey,’ he said. ‘Of course not.’ And he held me really close and said, ‘I just want you to know, no matter what anybody ever tells you, no matter what you read, no matter what you hear, it’s only you that I love.’”

Thompson said she usually would have accepted this, but she couldn’t bring herself to this time. 

“I looked him right in the eye, and I said, ‘You don’t have another girl here?’ He said, ‘No, honey,’ and I said, ‘O-kay…’ — but I said it very sarcastically,” she explained. “Normally if he had said something like ‘It’s only you I love,’ I would have said something like ‘Oh, you’re so sweet,’ but this time I distanced myself and just said ‘Okay’ — like ‘Yeah. Right. Sure.’”

Elvis and Thompson ultimately broke up, and he officially began a relationship with Alden.