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Elvis' Best Friend and Confidant Names Those He Blames For Superstars' Death

With him from the beginning of Presleys' career right to his tragic end, Jerry Schilling was the singers’ closest confidant - and he has a legion of stories to tell

BBC 24 SEP 2023

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It is the late night chats Jerry Schilling misses the most, when he and the King of Rock ’n’ Roll would talk for hours “about everything and nothing”.

Then there were the bus trips they took together, when Elvis would take the wheel, sometimes making a three-day journey last weeks as he pulled over every few miles for a coffee, burger or quick game of American football. With him from the beginning of Elvis’ career right to his tragic end, Jerry was the singer’s closest confidant and best friend, and today the one person outside of his family who knows him best.

And, as one would expect, he has the most fascinating stories to tell. Speaking to me from his Los Angeles home, which Elvis bought for him in 1974, every memory is worthy of a place in the history books, from their antics on film sets to the time they met President Nixon to when they went shopping for horses together.

It’s why Elvis fans are in for a treat next month as Jerry will be retelling his tales of life with the musical legend as the special guest for a Royal Philharmonic UK tour, in which the world-famous orchestra will play alongside the King singing on screen.

Jerry, 81, who went on to become manager for The Beach Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie, says that while he’s not used to being in the spotlight he enjoys remembering the good times with his old friend, who died suddenly in 1977 aged just 42.

Of the experience of hearing Elvis singing to the live backing music, he says: “It’s incredible. The audience’s reactions are exactly the same as when I was on tour with Elvis. I get goosebumps, even thinking about it. Being there, it’s kind of bitter sweet. But it’s more sweet because the world still loves him and you can feel the love and the excitement from the audience. After all this time, that hasn’t changed.”

Jerry first met Elvis aged 12 when he turned up to play American football on a field near where they both lived in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1954. Elvis, then 19, had just recorded his first single that had been played on the radio for the first time two days earlier.

It was perhaps the last time the singer would be able to go out in the neighbourhood incognito, but Jerry remembers: “It was before the high collars and jumpsuits and all of that. He was just in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, but there was something different about him.

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Jerry (seated, centre) and Elvis on set of Paradise Hawaiian Style, 1965