As Elvis Presley’s drug use increased, his friends watched with concern and helplessness. While they knew it was a problem, he did not like anyone to talk about it. When they did, he responded with either condescension or anger. Even after a health scare, Elvis did not want to hear anyone discuss his drug use. He scolded one friend who tried to help him.
Elvis Presley told his friend to mind his own business
When Jerry Schilling, received a call from Elvis in the middle of the night saying he couldn’t walk, he rushed to the musician’s side. Elvis had been staying with his doctor, Elias Ghanem, but he was nowhere in sight. When he finally arrived, Schilling lashed out at him.
“I said, ‘Goddamnit, I’m going to tell you something: this man is a proud man. He’s been at your house for weeks, and I have to come pick him up off the floor — and you’re telling me you’re just doing placebos?’” Schilling said per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “I guess I really blew up at him.”The following day, Elvis seemed to be in better health. He wasn’t grateful for Schilling’s help, though. Instead, he scolded him for the way he talked to Dr. Ghanem.
“Well, I go out there the next day, and Elvis is out of bed, he’s on the exercise bike, and he is pissed,” Schilling said. “It’s just me and Charlie there, and he knows — he knew I had a temper, not that he was afraid of it, but he just keeps looking at Charlie and saying, ‘Goddamnit, when you f***ing guys get your medical degree, then you can tell my doctors what to do.’ And he — oh, man, he just went on and on. I knew not to say anything. I was just out of bed and on the bicycle and not on the floor.”
Elvis Presley reportedly fired two friends for pushing him to take less drugs
Schilling was not the only one concerned about Elvis’ drug use. His bodyguard, Red West, frequently tried to stop him from taking cocaine and prescription medication. Eventually, though, even he stopped.
“Then he asked the guys about the stuff and they finally admitted that they had been frightened by Red,” bodyguard Sonny West told Rolling Stone. “Elvis called Red and Joe Esposito into a bedroom at a hotel on tour, and he told them that there would be no more bullying tactics, no scare tactics. Finally, he looked at Red and said, ‘I’ll never forget it. I need ’em, man, I need it!’ And Red said, ‘If you need it then I won’t ever do anything else about it.’ And that was the last attempt Red made.”
Eventually, though, Elvis fired both Red and Sonny West. They believed that their warnings about his drug use had something to do with it.
“Some of the guys,” Sonny said, “said we were intimidating Elvis about too many things, [but] all of the intimidation part was only for his own good.”
Most of the people in Elvis’ life avoided talking to him about his drug use
Elvis’ reactions to people who brought up his drug use kept others from trying to talk to him about it. They worried any attempts would lead him to ostracize them from his entourage.
“People go, well why didn’t anyone do anything?” Priscilla Presley told People. “Well, that’s not true. People there in the inner group did, but you did not tell Elvis Presley what to do. You did not. I mean, you’d be out of there faster than a scratched cat. They would try and no way. He knew what he was doing.”
She said Elvis could also always tell when people hid medication from him or tried to give him a placebo.
