Anyone who has followed music history knows who Elvis Presley is. Even people who do not listen to him religiously know his complicated place in rock-n-roll history and the way he remains an A-list star over 40 years after his death.
Still, many questions about his death remain a mystery to fans and casual observers alike. In the end, it’s not so much a mystery as it is a look at people who refuse to let the late star go.
Where is Presley buried?
While rumors of Presley faking his own death have circulated since the moment that he died, the singer is dead and buried in Graceland despite some attempts to extract his body for money. However, he’s not alone there. According to Express, his mother was buried on the property, and Presley’s father and, more recently, grandson, were also buried there. Graceland is now a tourist attraction.
After all, it became Presley’s own private castle. It’s not just the place where Presley died. It’s where he spent many of his most successful years. Few celebrities have the staying power that Presley has. 44 years after his death, the singer is still one of the most iconic singers. Now, thousands of fans flock to his former home every year not only to see the famed abode but pay respect to the singer’s grave.
It’s a testament to his staying power years after his death, yet despite 44 Elvisless years, rumors of his death, his body, and whether either is the truth remain. However, fans who buy into reality can still pay tribute to their favorite rock star, as Graceland remains open to the public as one of the south’s biggest tourist draws.
The death of Elvis Presley
When many people picture Presley, they picture the fit young man with swiveling hips and a carefree attitude that made him equal parts famous and infamous. Grunge notes how in his later years, the singer was an overweight drug addict who, thanks to an army of Yes-Men around him, lived life the way he wanted to do so.
Presley’s later years were spent in drug-addled stupors, gluttonous dieting, and a relationship that catered to his desires over what he actually needed. Despite performing until the end, his weight and lifestyle were too much for the formerly in-shape performer to handle. Presley died at his beloved Graceland in 1977 at just 42 years old.
While the cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest, most attribute to a late-life struggle with prescription drugs and overall excess. He was found unconscious in his bathroom and died at a Memphis hospital not long after. To this day, it’s one of the biggest celebrity deaths in history.
Hitting close to home
Many assumed that Elvis would be with us until the end of time. After all, he wasn’t just a rock star. He was an icon. To those closest to the “Burning Love” singer, however, he was just Elvis. Ex-wife and lifelong muse, Priscilla, looked back at her late ex-husband’s death in 2020. The most vivid memory was not of her or their daughter but the singer’s father.
“I still remember, vividly, picking up the phone, the reaction of not believing it,” she told the Express in a recent interview. “There was no way I could comprehend … Going back to Graceland and hearing his father wailing, crying, crying out his name, it was probably the most heartbreaking sound I’d ever heard. That was, of course, when reality hit.”
When Presley’s father died several years later, however, he was reunited with his son in death, as the Presley estate allowed him to be buried next to his son.
