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More shocking and sad revelations have been revealed about Elvis Presley’s final years from “My Brother Elvis: The Final Years,” a new memoir by the late singer’s stepbrother, David E. Stanley.
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David became Elvis’ bodyguard on the road during his final years, but he says it was more like “babysitting.” According to “People,” David says in his book, “I felt more like a nursing home aide.”
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One of David’s main jobs was keeping up with Elvis’ medications, including a pack of six to 11 pills Elvis would take at one time. They included Demorol, an opioid pain medication, and Stanley’s brother, Rick, also told “People” in 1989 the packs also included uppers like Dexedrine and Black Beauties as well as Class-A Percodan, codeine as well as barbiturates like Tuinal and Seconal.
Elvis and crew would call these packs “attack,” because Elvis wanted them to “attack” him and knock him out.
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According to David, Elvis would go through up to three of these packs a day, and he’d often pass out. That caused major concern if the drugs hit while Elvis was eating.
David writes in the book, “Whomever was watching him had to make sure that the drugs didn’t kick in before he was done eating and put him to sleep, or else he risked choking to death, of which he had a couple of close calls.”
David even had to reach his hand in Elvis’ mouth to remove the food on occasion.
“On more than one occasion, I had to go in while he was choking in bed and reach down his throat and pull stuff out,” Rick writes. “Pound on his chest, And it was sad, you know. I mean, this guy’s 19 years older than me, and I’m holding him up, and I’d put my arms around him… He was just like a little bitty kid.”
Toward the end of Elvis’ life before he died in 1977, David says he relied on drugs to “numb [himself] from the outside world.”
David writes, “In the latter part of his life they started taking complete control. He couldn’t think or act straight anymore.”
Elvis was found dead on the floor of his bathroom at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennessee, on Aug. 16, 1977. David’s new memoir will be released on the 39th anniversary of Elvis’ death.
Though David details the addiction that led his stepbrother to death, he also points out that Elvis always tried to stay true to his roots.
“Beyond all the fame, fortune and hype, Elvis was a simple man who loved the Lord, his family, and his fans,” he writes. “A man who was haunted by demons and insecurities that plague us all, and eventually lost the battle of addiction, as too many often do.”
