The Daily Zeitgeist - Icons #6: Elvis w/ Chris Crofton

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Hello, The Internet!™, and welcome to this spinoff episode of The Daily Zeitgeist we’re calling The Iconograph: a show about icons. In this episode, Jack and Miles are joined by comedian/musician/podcaster Chris Crofton to talk about the (usurper) king of rock & roll/shooting televisions: Elvis Presley They'll examine his upbringing, his rise to stardom, and what he's got going on down there!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this spin-off episode of DER daily zeitgeist. Spin-off? Which we're calling the iconograph, instead of looking at the zeitgeist through current events. On Monday mornings, we're looking at the zeitgeist through the powerful, pop-cultural whor cruxes that are our icons. We use these historical figures and famous characters to create meaning, to build identity,

to make our teens faint with sheer abject horniness to test the human body's capacity to withstand taking enough pills to fill a large ball pit to create a more definitive way to object to something on TV because why change the channel when you can shoot the TV

as our icon today did on multiple occasions. Our first episode of the new year. Yeah. I thought, wow, okay. You shot the TV all the time. That was just a thing this motherfucker did. he didn't have a job he didn't really he also recorded some of his later tracks in the jungle room in his tv room and you can like hear it sounds like shit oh no we're talking elvis baby a whole uh elvis presley a pop culture icon who became an almost religious figure in the u.s after being the first person to invent the idea that a white person could have charisma and kind of go like oh oh my

with their voice. And everyone's like, holy fucking shit. Where'd he get that idea? Not from white people. We'll talk about it. No. I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray. Oh, my God.

I'm just kind of reeling from the last thing you said. Don't tell me that Elvis Presley wasn't getting all of his inspiration from the white Christian Jesus. Just came up, came up with it whole cloth. This guy's just came up with the, songs. In our third seat, Miles, a hilarious stand-up comedian, actor and musician.

You can listen to his podcast. Cole Brew got me like anywhere. He's got an album that received a 7.4 on Pitchfork. Hello. Which is better than two of three Elvis albums that Pitchfork has reviewed.

Okay. The three. Pitchfork has reviewed three Elvis albums. Two of them, sub-crofton. He's got a new one called I'm Your Man available on band camp The poetry window is open because it's Chris Mother fucking Crofton

What's up? My question is If I have a record higher ranked than Elvis You're better than I? Where is my jungle room? I have one room I have an everything room Yeah Yeah

That's my room I have a room All of the different ecosystems Yeah It's a desert room and then cold medicine. Right, right, right, right. Mountedles of tissue.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't even have a, I don't even have a TV to shoot. A projector, I guess. I could shoot my, I could shoot my phone. Yeah, don't, don't do that. Don't do that. That would be one of the things I wouldn't recommend from L.

Basically everything else, he was pretty spot. Pretty, pretty on point. Let's get into it. What was your first? experience with Elvis Miles. I'm going to start with you. I don't know. I mean, like, ambiently, it's like a thing that you

I can't give a good answer. It's like ambient all around you. The one time I do vividly, my first real vivid Elvis memory was when he died, I remember we put our cat in like a boarding thing because we went out of town and then my cat died

at that boarding thing on the anniversary of Elvis's like death. I remember. Oh. Yeah. That's not good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what was this? He died in 77. So this is 97.

This is the 20th anniversary. The anniversary of Elvis's death. 20th anniversary. My cat is in a boarding thing because we went out of town. And then the fucking cat, my cat was like 19 at the time. So it was kind of like, bro, if you leave me, I'm a die. And so I forever will always just think of Elvis and my wonderful cat, Casey, being dead. And then my dad always, he did a lot of, like, he was experimenting with a lot of art pieces, like,

painting Elvis black and doing stuff like doing using early Photoshop to make black Elvis was like a commentary on you know the cultural exchange I can't I've done this research and I can't imagine what that would be a comment yeah so those are mine yeah I think my first was like old fat Elvis as a signifier of like tag like I remember the first thing I saw of Elvis I think was a commemorative plate commercial when I was a kid of like be you know them selling old shitty looking like gold plated plates with like, that'd be like multiple Elvis that you had the young Elvis and then old kind of chunky Elvis and I remember hearing the phrase 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong and just

it was like sort of at a distance like observing the phenomenon of Elvis fandom more than it was like any direct experience with Elvis. But Chris, you are a musician. a troubadour, an Elvis in your own. What was your experience with Elvis? I got a story for you. So, 1977, I'm eight, you know. And I am watching the whole world go crazy that Elvis has passed. Yeah.

And up until then, my parents probably thought I was maybe kind of normal. Like maybe they didn't know that I needed a lot of attention or maybe not. Maybe they didn't know I needed this much attention. But I decided that I was like, oh my God, like I'm taking this. Elvis has always meant so much to me. I couldn't. I wanted a piece of the action. So I was like, I've always loved Elvis.

Except that was eight. So my family was like, no, you have it. You did none. What are you talking about? How could you not? And I was like, no, name one song you can't. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Yeah.

I'm fucking up, guy. Chunker. Like, what the fuck is Chris talking about? And I was relent. I did not give up. I was like, I've always loved him. This is the hardest thing for me. And then I was like, oh, so everybody's got to get me Elvis albums as fast as possible.

Let's go. Right, right. So when people come over, I have to be able to back this up. You guys know I'm crazy. But not everybody else has to know. So let's get some Elvis albums in this house on the double. Right. Why am I wearing all black?

Because I'm still in mourning over Elvis Presley. So I fucking, all my friends gave me Elvis albums. my birthday and then I became a huge Elvis fan in reverse. Yeah, yeah. Right. And I think that's how a lot of people are with, like, you, you notice the like artists, like streams of artists once they die, like explode. I feel like there's something in us that is just like, yeah, we'll wait until they're gone

and then we'll truly like appreciate them. Yeah. Yeah. But now you can do that. You can just, I mean, as an adult, it's not as easy to find out if someone. really, you know what I mean? Someone could say like, oh, I've always loved the band television or whatever, and you have to take their word for it. I mean, you can't really. But my, as an eight-year-old with no car and, you know, no internet or anything, and you damn well, I, you know, I wasn't,

I didn't have any big relationship with Elvis, but I didn't care. Yeah. Because I just was not going to miss this opportunity to get in on the action. Yeah. So that was my first, and it reminds me of like that same period when I was at some girl's house, you know, visiting, just, you know, whatever, just going. Visiting with a friend. Hang out. Yeah, like, hang out with this third grade or third grade or something. And like, like, she had horses.

And like my mom came to pick me up. And the lady, her mother said, like, when my mom pulled up, she was like, oh, I didn't know Chris Road. Oh. Like, I didn't know Chris rides. Okay. And my mom was like, oh, he doesn't. Yeah, like I said I had a horse.

Your mom blew you up like that? Oh, yeah. Oh, my mom was ruthless. She was like in the car. Like, what the hell is it matter with you? You don't have a horse. He doesn't have a horse. And he also doesn't like Elvis.

I know he probably told you that too. He still got the tags on his Elvis shirt. There's nothing that makes me sadder than when I'm riding at night. And I think of Elvis in the moonlight. By the light of lantern. It just crushes me. Another early thing. And this was like real big in the 90s.

but was Elvis impersonators, which I do think in retrospect, like I think in 100 years, if I, like, looked at everything that has happened in pop culture with fresh eyes, that would be something that I'd be like, what the fuck?

Wait, why are there, like, why are there, why is there a cottage industry? Coming up on 50 years after his death, why is there a cottage industry full of people who, like, dress up like him and pretend to be him

and treat it as like a borderline religious calling. My brain had just accepted that because I was like one of the first pop culture references. You know, it was just like a thing that people would be like there's an episode. The first time I ever saw Quentin Tarantino, by the way, I didn't realize it at the time. A Golden Girls episode where Sophia's wedding, there's like a mix up in the invites and Sophia's wedding is like inundated with Elvis impersonators and he's one of the Elvis impersonators.

but it's just a weird like I think I just was like yeah that's something people do with famous people and then doing the research for this I was like no they don't do that yeah yeah they do that for Elvis and Santa and that's true I feel like the people that otherwise they're like Michael Jackson impersonators

Marilyn Monroe Michael Jackson and him are like so linked in so many weird ways but yeah there were impersonators when he was alive but much like a Chris Crofton it really really their affinity really exploded once he passed away. And everyone was just like, this is my shit now. This is my whole shit.

I mean, it's kind of like sort of like how you, if you want to be like an annoying kid in the 90s and you had like an Ace Ventura impression, like you said to be able to do like a Jim Carrey thing for like Elvis like, can you get your lip to come up like this? Yeah, yeah. And you're like, thank you very much. I'm on Elvis and person later.

And you had a fucking gig. Elvis almost seems like, because it is a voice that he did. We're going to talk. about like how he was discovered and like became eldest and he was doing a bit he was like doing a voice when he like he he had two straight days of the head of um sun records being like this fucking sucks i thought this guy was gonna be good and then he started fucking around and doing a voice and they were like that and it was like it was exactly like the scene and like walk the line

where uh or the uh the bones are their money scene from i think you should leave where like the guys on the guitar just like immediately like come in behind him as he's like starts he goes from like being his normal and and like he thinks he's doing a bit and they're like that keep doing that that's great that must have fucked him up i didn't know that i did not know that i know a lot about elvis i did not know i thought you're his biggest fan chris oh man i did not no i didn't know he was like got elvis press three fucking expert over here who doesn't even know i got I got more interested in just like his, like, drug use. You know, and the guys, his entourage and all that. I want to hear more about the Memphis Mafia.

But yeah, I did not know that he was like, that he stumbled into some character in front of, what's his name old Sam Phillips. Yeah, Sam Phillips. It was almost like the Lauren, you know how Lauren Michaels has that theory of like the re-

Sam Phillips is a Lauren Michaels in 195 or whatever. I don't know if he did this on purpose, but I mean, he probably did because he like, had them trying to record for like two days. Sorry, who is Sam Phillips? Sam Phillips is the head of Sun records.

Okay, okay, got it. Explicitly was like, I'm making all these records with black artists. What if I had a white artist do that instead? And like, that was explicitly what he was doing when he went after Elvis.

He was like, could you do some of these records that are very popular and black artists do them? But what if he was white? What if you make it accessible? But anyways. What if he was hot? What if he's hot as shit? He is so hot.

That was another thing. Like I hadn't fully appreciated it. Like I watched for the first time, like some of the early, uh, recordings, his first appearances on television. And it is really striking, uh, first of all, like every, like he's introduced by these talk show hosts who are like these 50 year old like grotesques who are like, on next we have Elvis. And like they're just like frozen and like not able to like do anything with their.

And then Elvis comes out and it's just like he's both very, like, charismatic and able to dance and move. Like, he's backed by white backup singers who are, like, doing, like, little side-to-side things, like, you know, dancing like shit. And then he is actually, you know, he just looks fucking awesome. But he, the other thing you're struck by is he's so fucking hot. It's crazy how hot he is. Yeah. God. I mean, he showed up on TV.

He's probably the hottest man ever shown. on television and that by itself was like I guess yeah up to that point like who was bringing it like in terms of the white guys on TV that was it damn oh they were supposed to look more like yeah like Edward G. Robinson or something right yeah exactly like everybody was supposed to look like a union boss

or something back then and out of nowhere out of nowhere out of this out of the lipped cutie because the rock stars of the early 20th century were union unionizers and stuff and like listen to me go. I said a big chugged.

I just had a big sip of coffee. So anyway, yeah, so like, you know, like that was the aesthetic. Like, you know,

like the hottest, even, well, even fucking, yeah, hottest dock worker or whatever. And now, now Elvis is like,

yeah, like, and his parents aren't that hot. Like, he was just like a freak of fucking nature. Absolutely freak of nature. Like, what if he had a regular job?

Imagine if he was like, he couldn't. There's no way he could be as hot as Elvis and just work at a store because someone would come and say, we got to teach you to dance or something because he's even money. I'm looking at a baby picture of him and he's,

he's got so much aura as a little baby. Yes. He has insane aura. He has Ryan Gosling look like a wart. Yes. He truly does. But I will say just the thing, getting back to him doing it as a bit and like this voice of like the hood and like just the whole Elvis vibe.

Like I think that it's almost like we talked on our hollas. Halloween episode with Jack Wagner about like this idea of like, like, I don't believe in ghosts necessarily, but like there's like this energy that can just like get released into the collective unconscious and like suddenly like that thing takes over. I feel like Elvis, like the character of Elvis is kind of like that. Like people, it's almost like a mental illness that you can't shake. Like Kurt Russell played Elvis when he was young in a movie and then like couldn't shake it and like forced it into this disastrous movie called 3,000 Miles Grace Land.

Oh, yeah. Austin Butler did his press tour, like, you know, a month after wrapping the Elvis movie and, like, just did the whole thing in an Elvis accent. Like, it feels like Nick Cage had it. Like, everybody, Urkel, when he gets super intelligence, one of our past icons, Urkel, in Family Matters, when he gets super intelligence, they're like, this is Einstein Urkel, but he is doing an Elvis impression. Andy Kaufman.

Andy Kaufman did it while Elvis was alive. It's not hard to do. That's the thing. Yeah, it's not hard and it's like fun and it's just this like character that is just, I don't know, infectious and people just can't not do it. Yeah. Meanwhile, I was out here acting like the mask and shit. Yeah. Well, I think Jim Carrey is similar, but he wasn't like incredibly hot and he didn't die like at the perfect moment for it to. Like he gave like an easy thing for people to tap into and be like, you're doing the thing.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, it was like a meme back then. I mean, like, impersonating Elvis, this is pre-internet. So it was like kind of like saying, where's the beef or like, I don't know what kids say today. You know, Brat Summer or whatever. It was like, oh, here comes Elvis, whatever. You know, like, oh, what's going on? It's boring. Somebody say Brat Summer. They haven't invented that. How about somebody goes, hey, Elvis, I'm Elvis. Everybody goes, yay, we're having a good day. So producer Victor says that in Fallout New Vegas, people, like, it's a post-apocalyptic Vegas and everyone assumes Elvis was a god and would dress up like him. And I don't, I don't think that's far from the truth of the situate. Like, there's this whole controversy in the Lower East Side where a chalk bust of Elvis got stolen and everyone treated it like it was the theft of the crown jewels. Like it really is like. When was that recently? That was like a few years back. Yeah. It ended up being like the person who had bought it years before and it ended up being like this whole controversy of like gentrification and stuff like that. But it just does feel like if you don't know who Elvis is and you just came down and like looked at the culture fresh, you'd be like, oh, this is like a powerful religious figure that everybody is not admitting is a powerful religious figure. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. And we're back. Let's get into his biography. born in 1935, I think an important part of who he is and his appeal by the time he came around to me as he was like this like tacky joke is that they were very poor. Like he, they lived in a two room shack that was built by his dad.

He'd taken out a loan for $180 to buy the materials for the house. And it was like repossessed three years later. And I feel like there's some element where he resonated hard with. sort of low culture, like that that's like part of his appeal was that, you know, pop culture just rigorously and consistently ignores people who aren't rich. And then having this person who was poor and also like his taste was kind of like tacky, you know, and like not that like high culture bullshit. Right.

That people are used to seeing like really helped him resonate in a way that. he wouldn't have otherwise. Was he open about being poor? I really don't know. I think he was a big part. Yeah, that was a big part of his story originally was like, at first,

like he's this like rags to riches guy who like came from the middle of the south and like made good. Right. And he wasn't pretentious. He was, um, he went straight to things. Yeah,

like I'm going to get a push button phone. Like, you know what I mean? Like ahead of everybody. And that's going to be my, you know, like I'm not, I want the fucking.

a new blender with the extra button on it. All these sort of things that were not, yeah, not classy, but I think other people could relate other people who didn't have that stuff. Like me growing up without a refrigerator that has the ice come out of the front. Right. You know what I mean? You're like, holy shit. Like we had cars, used cars when I grew up and we didn't have a third brake light

well into when cars started having a third brake light, you know. And I was like, if I get rich, I was like 16, you know, I'm going to have a third brake light, you know, and that would sound insane. And I'm going to wear a seat belt. Yeah. it's cute and it's kind of fun you know like i want all the new stuff and he was like like the way saying not pretentious like he would have eldest impersonators like come up on stage with him like he thought they were cool you know he was just like down for whatever he was he didn't really

give a fuck about that stuff other things from his early childhood that uh were important according to biographers he had a twin brother who uh was still born and it's it's it's weird they're they're like Like he was like powered by his twin, like he had like dreams throughout his life about his twin brother. It was like this mystical connection where it doesn't really make sense. They were probably wise to like edit this out of the biopic. But like it doesn't matter how goofy the central personal myth is to us. Like he fucking believed that he was like powered by the ghost of the dead baby that was in his mom's womb with him. Like, you really...

Like, did he say, like, you would articulate that idea, like, a lot? Wow. Like, that's giving him an edge or he's like, I draw upon the power of my brother, my twin brother. Yeah. And his mom was like, you survived for a reason and you're, like, doing this for Jesse. He had a really weird relationship with his mom. They baby talked to each other, like, up through adulthood. He had, like, pet names.

They had pet names. Yeah, he loved her feet. He called her feet something. He had, like, a nickname for her feet, like, little... Really weird shit. Some shit like that. Like there's this one guy. Rudy Tooties.

Like early on the research, he was talking about like how at school like everybody called him a mama's boy. And I was like, that's kind of a weirdly specific thing to stand in the way of like this preternaturally like hot guys.

They didn't know about the stillborn baby in his backpack. Right. And, but I regret to report the school bullies were, we're exactly right. That was weird.

Well, he was unabashedly, like, in love with his mother. Yes. And she, like, wouldn't let him go anywhere without him. And then, like, people think that it had a lot to do. Like, she died pretty young. And it was, like, once he got famous and she couldn't be around him all the time, it, like, really fucked her up. And she was like, I knew he was going to be famous,

but I didn't know it would involve him leaving the house all the damn time. Wow. One detail from the early. So he got his first guitar. in 1946 cost 1295. He had wanted a bicycle, but his parents couldn't afford it. But 1295 of that time was $220 today.

How fucking expensive were bicycles back then? Jesus. It cost what a car did. But anyways, one of the reasons we have Elvis is because bicycle stick. Yeah, if they got him a bike, he could have been.

He would have jumped that fucking river or whatever, that one YouTube video, Chris, you showed us. Oh, yeah, yeah. He would have been the hottest. the gorge. Hottest, like, whatever, bike race or whatever.

One thing that I think always gets cut out of the origin stories of these, you know, icons is, like, all the other people and all the contributing factors. And we're going to get into, like, the obvious, like, musical inspirations, in quotes. A lot of his early songs were covers of black artists that had, like, already charted with this, but, like, weren't on the pop charts. But it was also like a time, like he started practicing guitar with this guy who lived on his street. And like him and two other guys were like practicing with this guitar teacher. And one of those other guys ended up becoming like a major rockabilly pioneer or like two of them. So like there's this teacher who's just like creating people who are in like the rockabilly Hall of Fame. Who was the other one?

So the teacher's name was Lee. Denson and then there was Johnny and Dorsey Burnett I guess but also at the same, he came out of Memphis at the exact same time as Johnny Cash so there's just like something happening in the area with like influences

and you know that that isn't the hot spot for music at the time necessarily but you know things were we prefer the great man theory of things but they are you know two of these iconic musicians are coming out of the same town right at the same time.

Johnny Cash also had a mystical connection to a brother who died when he was younger, which is you might have seen in his biopic walk the line. All right. Let's get to the Sun Records, the thing I was talking about earlier, because I do think that's one of the most interesting parts of the story. So the owner of Sun Records and Sun Studio is this guy, Sam Phillips, and he scouted blues acts from the Mississippi Delta and is credited with recording arguably

the first rock and roll songs, Rocket 88 by Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm and that was two years earlier than what was. That's a good song, Rocket 88 for real. Yeah, it was really good. Still is. Also at the time rock around the clock was charting. So as this is happening, like there are rock songs.

Rock around the clock. That was like a pop song. Elvis. out invented this. It was like for white, this was the first. It was like so strange for people at the time that a white person would be making this music that after the song I'm about to like talk about the creation of the first radio station that played it. Like the people who were calling in wouldn't believe he was white until he like told them what high school he went to. And then they were like, oh, well, that is. Well, there's no way you could go there. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Sam Phillips was actively looking for. for a white artist to sing sped up blues and R&B songs in the, you know, same mode as like Rocket 88. Elvis steps into his recording studio. There's like a lot of, like, there's a story that he went in to like record a couple

songs for his mom. Um, but a thing that gets cut out a lot is like, like I said, they are not succeeding for a long time. Um, it's, I think a day and a half of like recording. and everybody being like, this is shit. And then he calls into Memphis musicians, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and on July 4th, so after a day of fucking around and not finding anything, Elvis started, quote, goofing around and broke into a fast rendition of Arthur,

Big Boy, Crot Up song, That's All right, Mama. And again, they just like fall right in and they're like, doom, doom, doom, and he's just goofing. A couple of things real quick. I bet you. in that first day and a half when he was failing, he still had sex with everybody in that building. And they were getting mad. And they were like, listen, this guy,

if he doesn't do something, we got to get him out of here. Because he's having sex with everybody. And then, and then. Fucked my wife three times. He's fucked every. I'm about to have sex with him. He fucked the elevator operator.

And he never fucks anybody, that elevator operator. And the other thing was, I wonder. If they brewed some coffee halfway through that second day. Yeah. I bet you they hadn't discovered speed at this point. So probably.

Oh, I bet they put anything. Hey, what do you call this drink here? Yeah. We go out of the drink. Expresso. All of a sudden,

I feel healthy. I feel really healthy. I feel healthy. This ain't no weed, Ray. My God. I don't feel like. I don't know. Tee, Elvis.

God, damn. I feel. He said that that moment in the Sun Tues was the first time he'd ever sung in that style, fast growling cocky. and basically invented the character as a bit. And I just, I think that we found this, like when Jalil White talks about creating Urkel,

he was like, I just went out of body, Frank Oz, he was like the thing that like crystallized Miss Piggy for him was just this thing that like, he wasn't even thinking of, but he like did a karate chop on Kermit. And then it, it's like you have to, our instincts are like, so our conscious instincts are like,

wrong that like you need something to like get them out of the way to you know we're like scared of being humiliated and you need to either be tired you need to like be like oh what if i did something this stupid right guys that's pretty silly and the people are like that's actually you just you're elvis jack are you the one keeps talking about erkel or is that in this document you're reading or is this for you is erkel the other elvis just personally was the second icon that we covered on this series. Oh, okay. He's got an Urkel brain.

Yeah, yeah. People categorize Urkel in the same. Yeah, man, they do. For once Chris is confused by the tangents the episode is taking. What the fuck's going on the air. I already know what. Okay, I got it. Chris, you can have to go back and listen to the Urkel episode.

I'm going to listen to it right after this. But he said, uh, I never sang that way in my life until I made that first record. I remember that song because I heard Arthur sing it. And I thought I would like to try it. That was it. Yeah. Wow, must be nice. Must be nice. So I figured I'd give that a try and people really liked it almost even more. It's crazy. And I don't know. This is during segregation and they just use me as a conduit to get white culture to accept black music. Yeah. I mean, they already had an industry, I think, of white artists, you know, like, I don't know if Pat Boone was already going then.

Yeah. Pat Boone would take songs performed by black artists that were. popular and he would just like white them up like he would just like remove all feeling and just boil it till there's no flavor left. Yeah just boiled ass chicken breast. But

yeah so that's what people that that was the formula up to that point. So I wonder if St. Phillips was just like no one's ever tried this with like Little Richard or you know something like Pat Boone mostly did like the top hits that were more like less you know like wild than a lot of the big

R&B hits. Like they did, maybe it was just, he was like, oh, why don't we do the R&B, the wild fucking dirty R&B shit the same way that we're doing the regular.

But I think just generally in American culture, there's always a way where white American culture finds a way to co-op black culture and subsuming. Right. And then it turns into this other thing where it's like, and then this is rock and roll. And it was like, it's rock and roll now. Okay.

But it's, I mean like, the one thing I do know is like a lot of, like, there are black artists who are, spoke highly of Elvis because they do see him. It was like, well, he was open to me, and he opened the door to him for me. And then you have other people

who are straight up like, I mean, this is just some guy doing our music. And because of Ray Charles. Yeah, because of that Ray Charles interview with Bob Costas. Have you seen that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I think he was just straight up like, oh, no, he's stealing. He won't even say he's talented. Like Bob Costas is like, we got to admit he's talented.

And Ray Charles is like, I don't know. I don't have to really admit that. I don't know. He's swaggerjacking. It's incredible. He's He's straight up like, yeah. I know so many people who are black or more talented than that guy. Right. You know, that's, yeah.

And I think that's kind of like the underpinnings of all of that too is like sort of like, oh, he was able to take this genre and because of his, the presentation of it took it somewhere else. I think that's why in a way, for me, his music isn't as iconic as his presence. Yes. If that makes sense. I think that like the thing that is left is definitely his image and iconography. more than his music, although, like, going back,

like, he has a good voice and, like, some of the songs are cool to listen to it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, and he actually had an interest in this. That's maybe the only thing. I mean, I would say that Elvis was sort of an unwitting, Elvis was, like, seriously, like a sheltered weirdo who did love black music and apparently snuck into clubs around Memphis to learn.

So he did have, I mean, I think it was more like he got sort of pimped into this by people. I mean, not, you know, I don't think he, I think his, I think he loved, from what I understand from reading about, he had black culture. He did not intend to capitalize on it in some way that was, he was not cynical. The people around him, I think were cynical. He would go into segregated, like, clubs to, like, listen to black music. He was a huge fan.

One of the most outspoken people talking about the importance of, like, black artists influencing his music was Elvis. Like, he would always give credit. But one of the big things that, I feel like gets left out of people who are like Elvis Apologists is like a lot of these artists did not make much, you know, they were in like really shitty record contracts with people who, you know, Elvis would like make millions and millions of dollars off of their songs. They would, you know, not have any access to the royalties. And like, there's a world where he's not just like, yeah, I really owe them a lot, but also is like, and I'm going to use my influence to make sure that they get paid. He was just, you know, not interested in that. I'm going to shoot some TVs.

Instead, I'm going to go over here and shoot some TVs. Yeah. Yeah, Elvis was like, he was, yeah, he was a goofy guy. He really has like some like child, like some of the same like child and an adult body type shit that Michael Jackson had. He spoke in interviews that way. I think that's another thing that endeared him to people is he was not pretentious in interviews either. He was very kind of childlike. Yeah.

like his brides which doesn't excuse yeah which doesn't excuse I mean but I think if there's anything like for me after I was like I love Elvis Presley and then had to start filling in the blanks

like he seemed like he seemed like he had a sense of humor I guess that's all I would say it seemed to me as a kid like oh this guy seems like kind of nice or something but he definitely you know he definitely was a guy

who hoarded resources yeah yeah he had about 900 golf carts incredible golf cart Lots of what rich people do is they just hoard golf cards. Yeah, one weird, specifically golf carts. I mean, we really do. We do have a recurring segment on these icon episodes. Epstein list or not?

On the Epstein list. Nope, steen list. Yeah. In which we ask the question with this person, had they been at the peak of their fame during Jeffrey Epstein's ring, been on the Epstein list? And the answer is a definitive, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a Yepstein.

It's a Yepstein on this one. I knew that he met Priscilla Boulier. I don't know how you pronounce her maiden name, but there's a lot of vowels and then a BNNL. But when she was 14 years old, when he was in the Army, and he was 24. And I didn't realize that at the time of his death

at 42 years old, spoiler alerts, his fiance was 20. So it just always. Oh, the one after Priscilla? The one after Priscilla was at her oldest during their relationship 20 years old when he was in his 40s. But his sexual energy

has kind of a weird transition, but I do just want to, so he makes these records, they take off, are selling more than anything ever, up to that point in history, just incredible chart topping. And he starts going on TV

and there becomes this massive controversy about how horny he's making. making everybody. So he makes his first appearance on the Milton Burrell show and he's like people have revised it to be that a thing where like they had to shoot him from the waist up

because if you showed his dick like everybody's heads would explode. That's not exactly true. Like when you go back and watch the clips like they're definitely like cutting away at key moments but there are parts. I mean they just like don't know what to do

with them. Like one of his first appearances is like on an aircraft carrier performing to a bunch of sailors. And every time he like does a dance move, you can hear the sailors being like, oh, like scoffing at him. Oh, I thought you meant like having orgasms. I mean, they might have been covering their orgasms by like giving dry coughs and like scoffs. That's what they used to do.

Yeah, that's what they used to do. But people, once he starts appearing on TV, as mentioned, he's like the hottest person who's everybody. been on TV and people just like fucking flip their shit. His first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show is one of the most watched events in the history of television. I think 82% of all televisions were tuned in watching it. Like in that moment, it's the moon landing.

That and the Beatles are like the three things. The three most... Oh, like when they came to America? Yeah. The three most watched like moments in the history of television. obviously Monoculture, man. Nothing beats monoculture.

Yeah. Well, also it was like, you know, it was a bad moment for those of us who aren't the hottest people in the fucking world. Because, you know, like Ed Sullivan, man, look at that guy. You think they were going to hire a host

that looks like that after Elvis? No, they realized, wait a minute. Ed Sullivan? We need to get hot people to do every job. Yeah. It is wild. watch again, like go back and watch his first Ed Sullivan appearance.

Ed Sullivan had been in a car accident and like there's this other actor on who's like hosting the show and he's just like somebody would just never ever be on television in our modern era. Right. And then Elvis just like saunteres out and starts

fucking you through the television screen and everyone just like thinking I'm looking at a clip of it. Who is this dude that's the guy introducing him basically? Yeah, the guy introducing him. He's like, these things behind me are... But that's not Ed Sullivan. No, no, Ed Sullivan had been in a car accident.

And he's like, these things are called Gold Records. And we're going to Hollywood to see him in Elvis Presley. And then Elvis comes out and look how hot the sky is. The juxtaposition of that host who was probably 50 given the era of. Yeah, he's like a less hot Alfred Hitchcock. He looks like Mr. Potato Head. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then you have old pomade with a drinking

sex freak come out. Elvis just like rides his dick out onto stage and then Right. Just. And at that moment, they were like, after they saw the ratings, they were like, we're not given any more like furnace operators hosting jobs. Right. On TV.

Like, we're going to have everybody on TV be hot because why not? We got to start. Maxing. Even if the music's bad, it's better to have a hot person playing bad music than an ugly person playing good music. I really feel like that was the beginning. and you can trace it directly to Gavin Rostale and now do a lippa.

But I do just want to talk about how much America losses. Like the New York Times TV critic wrote, Mr. Presley's one specialty is an accented movement of the body that heretofore had been primarily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells

or the burlesque runway. The generation never had anything to do with the world of popular music and still doesn't. Mark my words. Right. Boy, boy, did that guy lose? Just imagine that guy turned on the TV now. I know. That's not the popular opinion.

A juvenile court judge presented Elvis with an unside warrants for his arrest on charges of impairing the morals of minors. Man, talk about a hater. And specifically said that Elvis could wiggle side to side, but no back and forth motions. Oh, no pumping. No pumping. Just wiggling. Yeah, don't be pumping now.

That's because every person who didn't know how to dance knew they were out of business at that moment, too. Every dude who had just gotten away with being ugly and wearing some press slacks and getting laid was out of business. Now you need to add a new skill? And that's why they were like, we have to outlaw people wiggling immediately. That's too much swag. Man, I don't have to wiggle. The host that day was British actor Charles Lott.

Charles Lotton. That was that furnace operator? Yeah, yeah, yeah. God damn. That poor unfortunate man to have to be juxtaposed. it's jarring truly like especially in the context of what you're talking about because it really does feel like the the bar was raised for being like if you you must be this hot to appear in public right yes like hoot and holler at you i remember though like looking back at uh serial commercials in the 70s like back my time it cracked and noticing like it's been a subtle like they they did not learn that lesson all at once there's a raisin brand commercial where like a group of actors played raisins and it was just like a bunch of like guys who would only be on TV to play butchers.

Right. You know, like it today, they would only be on to in like a weight loss commercial. That would be there only, but they were just there because they were part of an acting troop. Like it did take them a while and into into that world steps Elvis Presley. So Ed Sullivan refused to have mom for a long. time. He watched his performance on the Milton Burl Show and was specifically started like watching his dick. And I'm just going to read this is from the Wikipedia page. Watching clips of the Alan and

Burl show, Sullivan had opined that Presley quote, got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants. So when he moves his legs back and forth, you can see the outline of his cock. I think it's a Coke bottle. We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show. as for his gyrations the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots oh my he has some kind of a device is so funny yeah a device like a device that like showed off his dick like a device in addition to like somehow he had a device down there so unfamiliar with like gyrating and just like dancing with a dick that they're like i don't know what the fuck this is or having a big dick or whatever yeah the flavor most flavorless shit dude he got some kind of device when i went you can't see my dick, so he must have some sort of Coke bottle propping it up. What's some kind of... Is his cock a Coke a Coke bottle or something? He must have a bunch of pulleys attached to his ass.

Hold on my... I just love the arcane technology. Like, he's got a pulley system. No, I think maybe he just has a decent size dick, Ed, and he's wiggling. And he's like good at dancing. That can't be what I'm looking at right now. It has to be a device. That looks like a damn file cabinet dangling down there.

I'll say somebody who refused is to date anyone who's not a teenager. Probably didn't have a huge dick, but I have no idea. I didn't get into any, didn't find any research one way or the other. Well, maybe it was a Coke bottle then.

It could be. Jack says it was. Jack's like, you know what? I think, you guys have seen some weird Coke bottles. And Sullivan's right. It was some kind of contraption.

I think so. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. And we're back. All right. I didn't realize at 22 years old, so he sold all those records.

is when he buys Grace Land. And from then, this is always an interesting moment. I feel like it's usually a bad thing for the long-term sanity of an artist when they get their own like Disneyland that they live inside of. And it's like only them and people who are hired by them. Take it from me. I was, you know, I lived at Cold Brew Acres for many years. And yeah, it was, it got out of hand.

He went a little crazy. One of the things that's on display at Graceland is a TV that he shot out, and I just want to read a story from PBS about that. The story goes that as he watched singer Robert Goulet performing on television one night, he shot out the screen of his 25-inch RCA TV. There's nothing Elvis had against Robert Goulet. They were friends, Kevin Kern, a spokesman for Presley's home and museum, Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, told the Associated Press.

but Elvis just shot out things on a random basis. Just shot out things on a random basis. Do we have any other things that have been shot by Elvis? Just, because what, did he always just have a gun on him? He really liked guns. But I mean,

like to shoot it in your home, like you have to quite literally have that bang on you while you're watching TV, right? Yeah, he kept that thing on him all the time. He developed a lot of problems, Miles. Oh, man. This is not good trip.

I'm learning a lot about, look, I've always viewed Elvis at a distance. I knew that he was taking black music. I knew that he met Priscilla Pressing. He was 14. Other than that, I'm like, and I think he shot some shit. Yeah. But my God.

Shot a lot of things. I only know because there was this book about the Memphis Mafia that I read or skimmed or whatever, but then I got deep into Memphis Mafia stuff, which is his entourage. And they just told, like, his life became completely pathetic. I mean, he just had no, he had no job. He couldn't go tour Europe because Colonel Tom Parker was afraid he was going to get deported

because Colonel Tom Parker didn't have citizenship. So he never wanted Elvis. So Elvis never toured outside of America. Yeah. And Elvis was sad. Oh, really? He had nothing to do. So he was just in Memphis taking karate classes and he was on all these massive pill doses

and it all became very, it's very funny and interesting to see a man do karate on pills and stuff. but uh it's pretty great yeah it's kind of great we're gonna get to his karate stuff yeah but yeah he was he became like he was heavily armed in his bedroom on pills watching two TVs at once he had like a couple TVs you know he would have like three TVs going at once because he heard the president did that and so he could ring a bell and get a peanut butter sandwich you know what I mean yeah but i just love you just shot out things on a random basis is such a great line diminishing what is objectively terrifyingly psychotic behavior. Yeah, shooting was on a random basis.

It was just a king, man. That's just funny because I only learned that reference from the Simpsons. Yeah, I think a lot of what I know about all this is from the Simpsons. Yeah, he lost the controller. I know, that's what he had instead of a remote control back then. You just shot the TV to not even like be mad at Robert Goulet and just shoot the TV because he don't like his performance. He probably thought it was an intruder coming in the movie.

window. Elvis just out the window. What are you doing here, Goulet? He just shot Robert Goulet. That wasn't the window. Around this time, he gets drafted into the army. Colonel Tom Parker steps in and says, like, he's not allowed to perform while he's over there because I think he just didn't want to,

like, have a bunch of free Elvis records floating around out there. But Colonel Tom Parker is a crazy, like, interesting figure that he was able to, like, the You think the army didn't want to use, like, Elvis performances, you know, during the Cold War. Oh, sure. But, like, just, like, drove a Jeep while he was over there. That's when he discovers amphetamines. That's one of the crazy details of his relationship with Priscilla is, like, he immediately, like, she comes to live with him in Memphis, and he's, like, just giving her all the pills that he takes. At one point, she sleeps for, like, two days straight, which I'm sure that's a good thing.

good. It is why, like the movie, the Sophia Copa movie, Priscilla, just kind of, they portray it as like her having strict parents, but like that she was 16 and they let her live in Memphis with Elvis while they lived, like, what the fuck was her mom doing that was so important in Germany that she wouldn't come live there. But anyways, different time, man. Yeah, I guess so. But slept two days on his tranquilizers. she ends up having an affair with a karate instructor. Bill Super Fort Wallace. Yes.

Mike Stone, I think, is the guy who maybe multiple karate. I know she had an affair with Bill Super Fort Wallace. I know it. But it's funny because his like weird childlike obsession with karate comes in like boomerangs. And she like to get his attention starts learning karate. Like at one point when she's pregnant,

he like is like I think we need to separate baby having having some second thoughts because he just like didn't like pregnant women he also like wouldn't have sex with her after she had their child because he quote had never been able to make love to a woman who had a child so good husband that's just wild that motherfuckers were saying shit like that yeah putting that on wax yeah he had a whole entourage like nodding their head when he said it too. A lot like Trump. He was right, about that, man. That's right, King. It's right, King.

Very similar to Trump. There's a lot of similar. Trump did that thing. He tweeted a picture of him side by side with Elvis. It was like, huh? What do you think? And I do, there's like a lot. First of all, Elvis, like late Elvis looks like a human being designed by Trump's interior decorating

sensibility. Right, right, right. But there's a lot of times during this that I thought about Trump, like, and just being cocooned in. a weird place that is just full of yes men. Yeah, Mar-a-Lago. It's just an echo chamber of all of your ideas and people saying how smart they are.

And just the idea that like the crazy shit that Elvis got up to, like that's who's running the fucking country at this point. Yeah. So, okay, tell me about the martial arts shit because I'm always fascinated when I see this guy like wearing his fucking aviators in like a full glee.

It was a fad back then. It was a fad. He got, real into it. He told everyone he was a seventh degree black belt. The way he became a seventh degree black belt was that he was into numerology as all like famous crazy people get to be at a certain point and was like seven's a perfect number man. I got to be a seventh degree black belt. And his sense was like, I'm only a sixth. And he's like, make it happen, man. And so they like created some weird system where he got to be an eighth degree black belt so that Elvis could get bumped up to

a seventh degree black belt. He wore a cowboy boots to the dojo. For self-defense drills, he insisted on using real firearms, not prop guns. Like loaded firearms? Yeah. No, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's bigger.

Okay. In June, 97, a few months before his death, he was in Madison, Wisconsin for a concert, and he ordered his limo to stop because he saw out a gas station. Two teenagers had pinned the attendant to the ground. and we're punching and kicking him. This is according to him. Elvis hopped out of the limousine and started kicking and punching the air. Like it was a karate demonstration and then like struck a badass pose and was like,

I'll take you on. And the teens were just like, holy shit, it's Elvis. And they just started laughing and shook his hand. And he was like, is everything settled down? And they were like, yeah, man. We're good. Dude, what the fuck, Elvis? Yeah.

He's like, that's right. They saw my karate chop. but he yeah he was just the strangest um yeah he was he was a child he was obsessed with karate says imagine witnessing this from the attendance getting your ass kicked Elvis comes out like you wait a minute I could have sworn I just got rescued by Elvis Presley right right right a lot of his late career shit like seems like a hallucination to me the Elvis impersonators like all all of the karate stuff, all of his performances

just feel like weird, like fever dreams. This is another karate story. Alice Cooper was invited to Elvis's Las Vegas penthouse. He showed up with Liza Minnelli and Linda Loveless, and Elvis immediately handed him

a loaded revolver and told him to put it to his head. And then he did a flying karate kick, knocked the gun out of Cooper's hand, tripped Cooper, pinned him to the ground by his neck. So that's how you stop a man with a gun. Oh my God.

Right. And if you look at the old Miles, if you are interested, and I can point you to a little site that I'm aware of called YouTube. Hell yeah, brother. On YouTube, you can see the footage of Elvis doing his karate moves and like sycophants, like, you know, he touches them on the nose and they do four flips and fall through the, you know, go through the wall. Oh, he was doing his corrupt. You can see his corrupt karate because they were like, we got to give this guy an eighth degree black belt. so he's on pills. What the full? Hold on. By the way, that man right there.

That man with the beard is my friend's dad. Who's your friend? The beard is my friend's dad. Who is that guy? Brandis Holcomb. He used to be in my band. That's his dad. Wow.

And he was a karate. He was like a Tennessee karate man. He was also a karate instructor for Elvis. He was also Clint Eastwood's bodyguard. Look at the back of Elvis's ghee. That orientalist alphabet. It's an EP and Orientalist font. Wow.

Dude. This is. he really is it. His dad's name. His dad's name was Holcomb is his last name but I can't remember his first name.

Anyway, shout out to Brandis. But it's true it does look like a child doing a karate demonstration. Right. Because they had to give him. Oh my gosh.

This is not, bro. This is bullshit. Man, fuck bro. Elvis is taking both my motherfucking cultures black and Japanese.

Bro, you ain't no fucking karate, man. You fuck. That was also 2 a.m. He used to go. Wait, this is at 2 a.m.?

Yes. He would get, everybody had to go on his schedule. So he often. would be like, we're going to the dojo and they'd be like, everybody's asleep. And he would make them all get up and then do his little moves and they'd all have to like

act like they just got, you know, sent through the you know, they'd all have to go flying when he just like, you know, it was all, I just think the idea of a corrupt like black belt system for him is really funny. The Steven Segal thing where he's doing a karate demonstration that people are like jumping out of the way and acting like he just like flipped them over. Oh, wait, that's Brandis's dad. That's Brandis's dad.

I had it wrong. That's Brandis's dad right there. That's him. That guy's doing real karate. I think it's the same guy. He doesn't have a beard. I think it's the same guy. These are different videos. This is,

I think this is only when Elvis was a third degree black belt. Holy shit, dude. It is wild, though, that Priscilla then is like, do you want me to do karate? I could do karate. And then that he's just like so pathetic. He really becomes like such a pathetic character. Yeah.

It's funny because this is actually so much more fascinating than like the heyday. It's sort of like this. weird spiraling of like peak fame and having sycophants around and unlimited resources and like just creating like a simulacrum of like this thing where you're like a karate master and baller wow wow the 40 watt club in memphis is it the 40 watt or high tone sorry the high tone in in Memphis which moved locations but i did perform there once was the location of that dojo oh wow yeah the high tone move but that was that dojo was in like a strip mall right right you say what you want about amphetamines, their proponents

and people who don't think they're great, but like you really can just see like a dividing line of his career. He has this like stratospheric rise, goes away to the army for two years, comes back, and everything's just, he starts doing like all those movies that like

people think suck shit and like has, doesn't really, he has some good later stuff for sure, some of the recordings, but a lot of it is just you're like, oh, he recorded this like on his back in a lounge chair. But famous things about the Elvis sandwich, people say the only thing in life he got any enjoyment out of was eating in his 20s.

He could eat eight cheeseburgers, two BLTs, and three milkshakes in a single sitting. And then his favorite sandwich was fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. And sometimes there would be bacon thrown in. And then at one point, while they were performing in Colorado, they went to this restaurant where they were introduced to the fool's gold loaf, which is an entire loaf of Italian bread hollowed out and stuffed full of jars of peanut butter and jelly plus a pound of bacon

and he would be able to take one of those down by himself. And one time they just like flew there. They were like bored and we're like, let's fly out there. They were always bored. Yeah. This is the most American shit ever. Wow. Holy shit.

You guys know about the Nixon photo where he's, showed up to the White House with a revolver and was basically like, I want to be your drug czar. He was on drugs and, yeah, he was flying out of his mind.

He was made an honorary DEA agent while he was on drugs. And you get to bring a gun into the White House too. Like, I don't know, it's Elvis, bro. Priscilla claims that Elvis wasn't really applying to become a narque.

He wanted a badge from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which is the predecessor of the ATFs of it. he could legally enter any country, both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished. The way he went about it, not great. He was like, I'm gonna, I'll fucking spy on,

I don't give a fuck, I'll spy on the Beatles, I'll spy on the Black Panthers. Dude, just, just get me in there. And you're back to being in your shithead era, Elvis. I just like, that's just so funny. It's so transparent, like, well, I need to get this bad so I can keep a gun on me in drugs. And then you pull up sweating to the white house,

and like, hey, bro, I got to put the fucking drugs. man, yeah. Giant purple cape. Like the most famous version of the picture is black and white. But he was like that outfit was purple. His bright purple cape. Part of this was written off by Elvis. Like people wrote, people were like Elvis because he was not educated, he thought truly that he

was not on drugs because they were prescribed by doctor. Like he truly the whole time he was doing those drugs thought they were not drugs, even though he was like doing karate at 2 o'clock in the morning. Trump parallel, yeah. And like shooting TVs, he was still like, it can't be the drugs because these are legal drugs I'm on. Right. So that picture also, he like still looks all right, you know,

like he's not full swollen Elvis. So that meeting happened in 1970. By 1977, the Jimmy Carter administration, Carter said that Elvis called the White House a lot during the last years of his life. He only spoke to him once and described Presley as totally stoned and almost incoherent. But he would just call the White House a lot. White House.

So think about that. 1970, he was like 38 years old. Right. Something. No less. No less. He was 35. He was 35.

Yeah. Looks like he looks like he's 55. Yeah, he looked horrible. All right. Let's talk about his death. You know, he got into amphetamines in the Army, then opioids in the 60s, found this guy, Dr. Nick, who gets a lot of, you know, the attention for having prescribed him with insane.

amounts of drugs. He traveled with three suitcases full of drugs for himself in his entourage. Dr. Nick described the drug regimen that Elvis followed a week before a concert, which included 680 pills, 20 cubic centimeters of central nervous system, depressants, stimulants, and pain killers. Twice during 1973, this is four years before he died. He overdosed on barbiturates, spent three days in a coma in his hotel suite at one point. Wow. And, you know, just like standard famous people shit, but like the people around him were both like,

fuck, we don't want this to come out, but also like you push back on him at all. And he's like, well, then you're fired. And they're like, oh, I'm just kidding, man. During that overdose, Colonel Tom Parker just had them fucking dunking his head in ice water and saying he had to be on stage by Tuesday or whatever. It was like, they did, especially Colonel Tom Parker did not give a shit, whether he was well.

He just... You know, Colonel Tom Parker did not like music. He did not like what Elvis did. He said he had no idea whether it was good or bad. He just knew from the reaction when he first met him

that he had to get involved. Right. Which stunned me. He just looked at the audience. Yeah, he actually said, I have no idea whether what he does is good or bad. I just saw the potential for a draw.

I just blew me away. His career does, like, go, wildly off the rails once you know he gets back from the army and is on drugs and like Colonel Tom Parker by the way not a colonel in any sense of the way he just like was given a Southern

States will give you that that moniker and he was just like I kind of like that I'm going to sign my my name is that but also that Dr. Nick from the Simpsons is named after. Oh shit I never thought of that. I just looked that up because after the Elvis shooting the TV

I'm like man this ain't no good and now Dr. Nick, I was like, Dr. Nick, Simpson's Elvis, they're like, yes, he, yep, it's after George Nickapolis, Dr. Nick. So he eventually, Dr. Nick, after Elvis died, was put on trial, prosecutors showed that Dr. Nick had prescribed Elvis more than 19,000 doses of narcotics,

sedatives, and stimulants in the two year, two and a half years before he died in 1977. And also worth noting, he wasn't his only supplier. Like the day before he died, he like went to the dentist with a toothache. Classic. So his last 24 hours alive because Chris you mentioned earlier that like he would do karate demonstrations at 2 in the morning.

I just want to read a couple of things. Dr. Nick drops off just like a hockey bag full of drugs. He goes to the dentist to get more drugs from the dentist. At 4 a.m., he called his cousin and his cousin's wife come play racquetball with him. Yeah. They played racquetball from 4 a.m. to like, 5 a.m. at 7 a.m.

he and his 20-year-old fiance go to bed. At 9.30, he gets up to go to the bathroom. And then at 2 p.m., she finally wakes up and finds him face down in the shag carpet in his bathroom, which is fucking gross. There's a carpet.

Shag carpet in his bathroom. That's not near the toilet, is it? Yeah, you shouldn't have carpet in your bathroom. Shag carpet. Shag carpet, no less. Just ruffly towel for her. I think one of the first things I knew about him was like that he died on the toilet. Right, right.

So is that true? So that is true. The theory went that he just died of a heart attack. Then once people found out how many drugs he was on, they were like he died of a drug overdose. There was also a theory that like the dentist had given him codeine, I think. And he was like allergic to that. So that might have happened.

But I think the medical consensus at this point is that he died of a heart attack due to basically, have you ever seen one of those commercials for like the drugs they give people on opioids to be able to shit? Like it'll show somebody like looking at like a soft serve machine with envy. Opioids yeah cause constipation. Wait, there's a commercial for this?

Yeah, there's a commercial. I just remember being like, why are there suddenly all these commercials for like constipation? It was like during the opioid crisis. And it was, it's because opioids cause massive constipation. And so he had been abusing opioids for years and years and years and years. So the assumption is he had like just savage constipation and he was on the toilet straining so hard that it put pressure on his heart and aorta and triggered the heart attack that killed him. So he did, which is, I think, back to what I originally had heard.

The first version was that like he strained too hard while he's taking a shit. that is, you know, it was related to years and years of drug abuse, but that he was so constipated that he died. We need fiber, folks. Yeah, you know, you need fiber and not to be on. Don't push too hard. I push too hard. Fucking, you'll end up in the shag.

Pools of opioids for years and years and years. You'll end up in the shag. Don't want to end up in the shag. Don't push too hard. No, no. And then just in death, I think this is another thing that is true of other celebrities, but like nobody as much as Elvis is just that like they're not allowed to stay dead. Like everybody was immediately like, no, he's not dead.

There became like a cottage industry of people coming up with conspiracy theories about him basically still being alive. There was a woman who like created a recording career for this guy, Orion. Oh yeah. There's a documentary about Orion. And then like he released an album on the same day that she. released a, you know, conspiracy, conspiracy theory book about, like, Elvis still being alive. And people kind of point out that, again, this is another way that, like, Elvis is connected to MAGA in, like, the whole Q&ON thing where they just, like, wouldn't let, where they would be

like, JFK Jr. is coming back. And, like, they were kind of obsessed with that. It does all, like, seem to be linked in a weird way. Right, right. I love how people are like, I don't know, dude, I just saw him seeing Unchained Melody and he seemed pretty good. Because that's like the one thing, that's like the one Elvis performance I have looked at because I remember even my dad was like, that was some wild shit. Like the last Elvis performance

of Unchained Melody. Yeah, where he's just drenched in sweat singing Unchained melody. And like kind of swan songy in a way where you're like, oh, like you're, I don't know in this weird way. When I saw it even not really knowing anything about it, I'm like, oh, this feels like someone's final performance.

Right. Like in this weird way where it's like it seemed tragic, but also, like, he was giving it everything. Yeah, he looked like psychotic. And I mean, he was, he was singing so hard. I mean, I think Elvis was like, you know, he was doing his best in some horrible, you know, things have gone completely off the rails, but he considered like his performance to be his thing. Like he was still tried to. Yeah, he still gave it as all.

He would like still perform as he was like dying. Yeah, he felt like he was trying to give people their money's worth. He didn't have anything else. You know what I mean? It was like that was the only thing. left for him like that was like a traceable thing for him probably of his self-worth. I mean, he's like, why is this happening? It's like the only thing I used, it's connected to singing, I guess. So that last performance, he's just going off like in a way where it's like you're not

supposed to even be getting that much meaning. Even a good singer doesn't go off. You know what mean? Like he was just like trying to get as much meaning out of unchained melody. Yeah. Too much. Yeah. Right. Too much. Tried. Too much. Too much. close to the song of Unchained melody. He looked so sad. Yeah, he looked so sad and desperate. I'm just reading a quote from like in a documentary, Priscilla Presley said that, quote, those last shows were not the most memorable as far as performance. Sometimes he didn't get through a song.

I think the last year he was pretty much over. I don't even know why he went on stage. They're just hard to watch. Sometimes I think it was maybe better if they just canceled it. There's a recording of the song. Have you ever been to Spain? Which is actually a Hoyt Axton song. But Hoyd Axton wrote Joy to the World.

that Jeremiah was a bullfrog song for Three Dog Night. He wrote a bunch of hits for Three Dog Night and Three Dog Night had a hit with, I'd Never Been to Spain, but Elvis's version of I Never Been to Spain, which is on like all the streaming services, shows that, you know, he had a great band and stuff and there were moments where I think he had some artistic value. Yeah, I mean, the suspicious mind's song is fucking good,

and that's from like after, it's from like kind of the later part of his career. It was just like... Ossanova baby, I recommend. Yeah, there's some good stuff from later in the career. He had a really great voice, but he was also just like, you know, didn't really have anyone overall, like, taking care of, like, the vision for his career at that point, other than Colonel Tom Parker, who was, yeah. Colonel Tom Parker, man, he was like, I was looking at these interviews on YouTube of his entourage talking about Colonel Tom Parker. And they're very sad because the entourage, as much as they knew he was going to die.

sort of. They all loved him. I mean, they lived 24 hours a day with him. They got up out of bed when he wanted to do karate. They rode around in his stupid golf cart. I mean, of course, they were all like, just basically sex criminals around for the, that's why they were there. That's why they were there. But they were so sad when he went away for a bunch of reasons, including no more sex for them. But they said, Colonel Tom Parker, they just talk about how, what a nightmare person he was all around. And one of the things that they say that's so fucking funny, which I know isn't Elvis, but I just, when I was thinking about this show and you guys asked me to do the show, I was like, got to tell his stories. It's so fucking funny.

Carl Tom Parker was addicted to gambling. Right. Dicted. He gambled. All he did was he basically just put Elvis on stage. As soon as he got the money, he would just go directly to the gaming table. So that's why he liked him performing in Las Vegas too. He didn't like him to tour because he wanted to be in Las Vegas. Colonel Tom Parker lived to gamble.

And so one of the entourage guys was like, the thing with Tom Parker is, I just got to tell you guys. And I don't know if I've ever told anybody this, but I don't think he understood how to even gamble. He's like, I would go downstairs. I didn't know the rules. No, so he's like, I went downstairs. It's two in the morning. He's got, he's at the wheel of fortune. He's like, which first of all is the worst odds in the whole casino.

And that was Colonel Tom Parker's favorite game. But he had a bet on every number. Wait. And then he would win and he would celebrate. And I was like, I don't like, but you lost every other bet. And he was like, I don't think he even understood how to gamble. And it was all he did. Oh, so he would just spread it out across every possibility on the table.

He's like, he didn't understand that you didn't win if you have money on every number of the whole thing. He's like, roulette table, red and black. Yeah, it was just incredible because he's like, you know, he kind of told every story about Colonel Tom Parker and then he was just like, oh, and I forgot one thing. That guy lived to gamble and he didn't even know how. Yeah. I just thought that was incredible. I mean, there was no limit to how much they hated Tom Parker because he gambled the way all his money and he also, you know, he didn't give a shit if Elvis. was alive or dead, really.

Right. He wanted him alive for money, but he didn't care about personally about Elvis at all. I will say, but I said that he wasn't in the military. He did have a short stint in the military, Colonel Tom Parker briefly went AWOL and was thrown into prison and spent time in Walter Reed Medical Center under psychiatric care for being a quote, psychopath. Oh. Yeah.

Yeah, he was from Norway. He allegedly killed the person in his hometown and, like, fled to America. And that's why he was. Yeah, Dutch. Yeah, one of those. say it was from Norway? We can't have this episode be so American. What is he from Norland? Listen, that's, I take

responsibility for that. I'm the American. I feel like that is a thing you see with like genuinely talented people then like have one certifiable psycho around them to like cut through the business side of things. But

then you know, they end up fucking fucking up entire careers. And last thing one mile from me. One mile from me right now up Gallatin Road in Nashville, Tennessee is a car wash that sits on the site of Colonel Tom Parker's house. Wow. Which was this, like, very middle class looking house right on this like major thoroughfare in East Nashville in Madison, Tennessee, actually, but just right up up the road. And anyway, he ran, he created the Elvis Empire out of a finished basement below that house with a phone.

him, a Rolodex, and he ran the merch out of a shed in the backyard. And that building's gone now. It got torn down like 10 years ago. And some guy tore out the whole basement to try and build a museum out of it, like out of the paneling. But I haven't heard word on that. But I'll get back to you guys. Check back in. For the reporting.

I'm not kidding either. Some guy like bought the basement. He's like, you guys are tearing down Colonel Tom Barker's house. That basement is historic. That's why he made all the phone calls. All right. He took all the... But then I haven't heard where he's put the basement.

I think it's probably just in a pile. You know, everybody makes plans. Yeah. It's at his psychopath altar that he's created. Yeah, his wife's like, what the fuck is this? A pile of shit. That's Colonel Tom Parker's basement paneling. This is Wood.

This is Goodwood panelling, babe. I'm getting a divorce. Get the fuck out of my house. Take your... Whatever that is with you. Oh, great. I got all the material I need to build a new house. Yeah, it doesn't matter.

I'll live in this museum. Also, just going back to the last episode that we recorded together, one of the most famous Elvis is still alive rumors, was that he appeared in the background of home alone. There's a guy in the background when she's like fighting to get on a plane. There's a guy in a turtleneck who looks kind of like an older Elvis. And everyone was like, see, he's got to still be alive. It's that in Orson Wells-ish.

I don't know who that is. But yeah, okay. They did that with Jim. Morrison too. Remember Jim Morrison was supposed to have gone to Africa? Oh yeah. Wait, there's pictures of Jim Morrison. Like they found some guy like, it's Jim Morrison. They just said he faked his death and he was living in Africa. Like, and they're just saying that. That was like a whole, there was just a big industry and then they'd sell paperback books off of it. So I went to this place called McKays in Nashville to look for Christmas presents.

And they have all those old paperbacks. And one of them was the Elvis tapes. And it was this paperback book that you could buy at the supermarket that was like, Like we have a tape that Elvis, like it was a book that transcribed the tape. That's what you could sell. A transcription of an audio tape that was allegedly of Elvis. You could sell that as a book. And that's why I'm broke because you can't do shit like that anymore. I know. And I wanted to buy that book, the Elvis tapes for somebody, but I realized nobody wants that.

Was it like supposed to be a recording of Elvis after his death? Yes. Yes, that was called the Elvis tapes. There was a transcription of it. You couldn't even see it was a real tape. You like see some of the early, like, post. truth shit in the elvassing. Like, Geraldo Rivera did a 2020 called the Elvis cover-up,

but it was just about the cover-up of all the prescription drugs that he was abusing. But the people who were still making money off the Elvis Lips industry started claiming that that show was about evidence that his death was faked and covered up. And it's just like this infuriating, like, Geraldo Rivera would like have them on a show later and was like, what the fucking talk? Like, it's clearly not about that. But they just kept getting on. on like Oprah and Larry King.

And yeah. That shit used to be cute before it was about stolen elections. Right. Well, I miss those cute conspiracy theories. God, I miss them, don't we?

That's been Elvis, guys. Anything, anything to add? I don't know. I mean, dude, I just found,

thank you, Chris. I found a fucking 50-minute video of Elvis doing karate in 1974. And I am going to watch the fuck out of this. Because it's, you're welcome. So my apologies to your wife.

Such a great thing to have on just like in the background. It's freaking me out, dude. If you want a 1970s divorce, I can help you. The screaming? And the scream is what we call a key off. It's a way of generating more power. Just hearing these voices tell me about fucking karate. Elvis standing there in a stupor while this guy fake punches him.

And Elvis is like, I'm in perfect. Like Elvis's stomach is like the hardest thing. Yeah, totally. Probably was hard from all this. shit that was in there. It would eventually kill him. God. Elvis is so lucky at that gas station that those guys were impressed because if he actually

had to fight, he would have had a rude awakening. Could you imagine? Like, that would have been so amazing if he ever got into a fight with someone. Wait a minute. The hell? Why isn't this working? And then he goes home and he's like, have you guys been fucking lying to me? I tried all that shit and no one went flying.

Everyone just stood there. I said, Chi-I-Cop the gas pump and I put my fucking hand. And it actually hurt. fucking hurt. I was like, this guy's got fucking brass knuckles on her. I was karate chopping the fence to try and break off a piece to attack them with and I broke my fucking hand right away.

How do I break the fences at Graceland so easily? Well? They're made of crackers, King. Well? Chris Croft is such a pleasure having you as always. Can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? I'm going to get things

restarted on Cole Brew got me like I really have had. I'm sorry you guys. I've had a rough fall. I really have. And I just got overwhelmed. So I just took a break. I had to. I just couldn't do it. So we've had a couple months off. But we'll be back. And you can, in the meantime, you can read my advice king column at Nashvilleseen.com. Or you can just follow my Instagram or whatever. You know, it's follow my Instagram. That's where I put most of my stuff. Tennessee's very own. Thank you. Thank you. Miles, where can people find you? daily zeitgeist ain't it footy or 20 day fiancee those the other podcasts check those out all right that is gonna do it uh i will be back after this with some final thoughts and my no no no no no notebook dump and i will talk to you all in a minute bye all right that was my conversation with miles and chris crofton about elvis presley uh thanks to dave ruse for the research on this one.

And here's some stuff I miss. This is my no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Book. Don't. We mentioned Priscilla's affair with her karate instructor, Mike Stone,

which I should be clear, by the way, Elvis was constantly having affairs during their relationship, affairs that were written about in the papers, and she was just stuck

back at Graceland, just like reading about all these famous women. He was fucking, essentially. So she took karate because she saw it was impressive

to this, like man child and eventually found herself impressed by her instructor who could presumably actually do karate. Again, go back and look at some of the videos about Elvis's karate displays and you might see a contrast with that concept. But there's a story from around this time that I really wish I hadn't forgotten to tell Miles and Chris about when Elvis was on stage, out of his mind, lost in the haws sauce and some fans rushed the stage and he became convinced that those fans were contracted hitmen sent by mike stone elvis was up for like three days straight just in a rage to the point that one of his entourage one of the memphis mafia eventually looked into putting out a

hit on Mike Stone and came to him and was like, all right, I found the guy. But by the time he got to that stage, Elvis had like kind of calmed down and said, maybe it's a little heavy. Let us sit for a while. Which that part kind of reminded me of the person, the Graceland Museum curator saying he shot out things on a random basis. He wasn't like, it turns out. It turns out. It Turns out I was wrong about those fans who rushed the stage being ninja assassins. He was just like, I don't know if it's exactly my vibe to strike back against those ninja assassins who came after me. So just amazing, amazing testament to just this weird psychological experiment of being the most famous person on Earth and never interacting with anybody who wasn't, you know, part of your entourage for. like years and years and years.

On the Nixon encounter, there's this joke by Jack Handy that I think a good gift for the president would be a chocolate revolver. And since he's so busy, you'd probably have to run up real quick and hand it to him. And that's essentially what Elvis did. But with a real gun and he got away with it while wearing a big purple cape. The Ray Charles interview that Chris brought up is great. worth watching Ray Charles and Bob Costa is talking about Elvis. Ray Charles points out that, you know, black artists had been doing the dancing and the type of music Elvis had been doing

for years. And I will say Elvis came by the influences honestly. He grew up so poor that he grew up around black families. He went to integrated churches. But I think that double standard also applies to the sexual charisma we spent a lot of time talking about especially applies to the sexual charisma even. I don't know that Ray Charles was in the

best position to appreciate just how hot Elvis was being blind, but in the interview he points out, Ray Charles points out that he was like Elvis made people swoon and so did Nat King Cole and they kicked him out of Alabama

for making women swoon. And I think that was an important part of, like, Elvis being able to get away with what he got away with. I was watching a performance by Little Richard that I think was before Elvis broke, where Little Richard's like playing the piano and dancing. There's a bunch of goofy white teenagers dancing like absolute shit behind him. But Little Richard at one point puts his leg up on his piano and is like playing the piano. well, just like showing off his stroke game. And I feel like white people must have seen that,

seen a black artist displaying unrestrained sexuality and just been like, all right, well, we'll let a white one do it. You know, like I don't think it was a plan, but it was just the dynamic that Elvis, by default, took advantage of. Like, he was dangerous, but he was a safer version of dangerous for a white supremacists leave it to beaver ass country, safer as long as you weren't a girl in ninth grade, I guess. And then just with all the echoes of Trump in this episode, it did make me kind of wish

that the white working class version of masculinity had incorporated more of the early Elvis, because, like, I don't know, you compare that to their current got Donald Trump. where, you know, the stereotypical Trump supporter is this sort of depressing, depressed, in-cell-type person. Not all Trump supporters, but, you know, that's kind of what the general vibe is there. And it's kind of surreal to see this off-ramp where they could have gotten over themselves and just, like, learned to dance with some goddamn honey in their hips, to quote Miles. Anyways, an interesting episode. That's going to be it.

We're off next week, but the following Monday, we're going from Elvis, someone who, by the way, was blonde and dyed his hair, Jet Black, to someone who was a brunette and turned themselves into the quintessential blonde. We're looking at the amazing life, mysterious death of Maryland on wood. And we will talk to y'all in a couple weeks.

Bye. This isn't IHeart. Podcasts. Guaranteed human.