Priscilla Presley’s ‘Elvis and Me’ Biography Inspired This Smash 1980s Synthpop Song
Priscilla Presley’s honesty regarding her life with Elvis Presley in her biography titled Elvis and Me stunned longtime fans of the King of Rock and Roll. The 1985 book depicted Priscilla’s life with the entertainer with candor and grace. It also inspired its readers to interpret Priscilla’s message in their way, including the members of a wildly popular Synthpop band, who based one of their biggest hits off the book’s contents.
Which band interpreted Priscilla Presley’s words into a hit 1989 song?
The band Depeche Mode found lots of inspiration in Priscilla Presley’s words within the pages of Elvis and Me so much so that Martin Gore wrote the song “Personal Jesus” about his interpretation of Priscilla and Elvis’ relationship.
Depeche Mode member Dave Ganan shared his thoughts regarding the inspiration behind the song with Entertainment Weekly: “I do think that particular phrase was inspired by something Martin read in [Priscilla’s] book, where she talked about Elvis being ‘her own personal Jesus.'”
“I think that struck a chord with him. It’s a great line! It’s got humor in it, too, and there’s always this weird dark humor within a lot of Depeche Mode songs that people miss, tongue-in-cheek and also very British, but it was in that song for sure,” he continued.
Gore told Spin Magazine of the song, “It’s a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It’s about how Elvis was her man and mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; everybody’s heart is like a god somehow.”
He continued, “We play these god-like parts for people. But no one is perfect, and that’s not a balanced view of someone, right?”
The song was released on Aug. 29, 1989. It later appeared on the Depeche Mode album Violator in March 1990.
One of Elvis Presley’s friends covered the song over a decade later
Elvis Presley’s friend, Johnny Cash, loved the Depeche Mode song so much that he included his version of “Personal Jesus” on his 2002 and final album, American IV, The Man Comes Around. While their paths would cross for years, the man in black and the king of rock and roll weren’t extraordinarily close.
However, in an interview for Mojo in 2013, Cash said he interpreted the song differently from its Synthpop beginnings. Per Far Out Magazine, Cash once called it “probably the most evangelical gospel song I ever recorded.”
Gahn later said of Cash’s interpretation of the song, “I was in the studio recording a solo album, Hourglass, and Martin rang me because he’d heard the news that Johnny Cash wanted to cover it.”
He continued, “He was kind of umming and ahhing about whether to give permission, and I was like, ‘What are you, crazy? That’s like Elvis asking, of course, you let him do it!’ And he was like [mumbles] ‘Oh yes, well, I guess,’ in his very Martin sort of way.”
Priscilla Presley explains why she called Elvis Presley her ‘god’ in ‘Elvis and Me’
In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Priscilla reflected on her relationship with Elvis Presley and his impact on her. She felt that after Elvis died in August 1977, she “lost everything.”
“You have to remember, he had such an impact on my life in every way. He was my mentor, and he was my confidant,” she explained.
“I wrote this in my book. He was everything. In my book, I wrote ‘my God,’ because I lived and breathed him,” Priscilla concluded.
In Elvis and Me, Priscilla wrote these infamous words describing her relationship with Elvis Presley. “Blinded by love, I saw none of his faults as weaknesses.”
She continued, “He was to become the passion of my life. He taught me everything: how to dress, how to walk, how to apply makeup and wear my hair, how to behave, how to return love – his way. Over the years, he became my father, husband, and very nearly God.”
Elvis and Priscilla Presley were a couple for 14 years, meeting for the first time in 1959. They married in 1967, welcomed one daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in 1968, and ultimately divorced in 1973.
