Music Legends – Elvis Special Edition

they said, as though I were a family member or something. They told me Elvis had died. I was moving to Nashville from Memphis myself when I learned Elvis was dead. I thought, “Well, I’m the last holdout. That’s one more thing that is over with for good.”

Stax was gone. American was gone. Hi was gone. Al Green wasn’t making pop records anymore. Steve Cropper had left town.

Reggie and Bobby Wood and Bobby Emmons, Chips Moman, all the people from American had left town and I was the last one.

They could have turned the lights out. It was all over. Elvis was dead. Otis was dead. It was just over. I was the last guy leaving Memphis. I thought, “What a shame. This is really the end of this era.” The man who brought it all into focus and made the world catch on fire with rock ’n’ roll was Elvis Presley. He also generated those fires in me and my friends. We all thought we could be like him. Some of us, like me, were lucky enough to get a little piece of that flame. I’ve had a good life with music. I enjoy it and have a little special feeling for what I do. You can’t learn how to do that.’

After Elvis’ death, Vernon’s second wife Dee – Elvis’ stepmother – wrote a sensational book in which she claimed that Elvis committed suicide, among other generally disregarded claims.

Esposito countered: ‘Towards the end of his life, Elvis may have been self-destructive by taking all those drugs. But no way did he consciously end his own life. I was constantly with Elvis during the last months. Sure he was fascinated by the afterlife, and he did talk about what it may be like in the spiritual world… But Elvis loved life. He lived to perform on stage. The night before he died, he was planning a concert tour. Dee Presley was no longer living in Memphis at the time. All her claims are lies and based on hearsay… Those terrible claims are coming from a very bitter and angry old woman. I wonder if she is getting back at Vernon, because he wrote her out of his will. Vernon left her nothing! Now I can understand why Elvis was always sceptical of Dee, and why Elvis did not attend their wedding… Of all the fabricated stories 58