Elvis Presley’s father responded to claims the king was ‘gun crazy’: he ‘had a permit’
Elvis Presley is known as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but the star had many other interests. One of those interests involved firearms, and many have accused him of being “gun crazy.” However, his father, Vernon Presley, denied these allegations shortly after his son’s death and shared his feelings regarding the situation.
Elvis Presley’s love of guns worried some
Elvis was a firearms fan and usually carried at least three pistols with him. The members of his entourage (“The Memphis Mafia”) as well as his wife Priscilla Priscilla also carried guns. The singer even carried his guns on stage for fear that someone would attack him.
In a 1978 letter to Good Housekeeping, Vernon shared his grief at the death of his son, some stories of Elvis’ rise to fame and his thoughts on the rock star’s gunplay.
“Elvis had a license to carry a gun,” he said. “I’ve seen him sometimes pretend to draw it to scare someone, but he wasn’t crazy about guns by any means. The theme of Elvis carrying a gun reflects the danger he often found himself in.”
The time when Vernon Presley was “most afraid” for Elvis’ safety
Vernon described this danger by saying:
“The biggest fear I’ve ever had for his safety was early in his career in Jacksonville, Florida. He had performed on a pickup truck and when he tried to get to his dressing room trailer the crowd just swept over him. Fans rocked his trailer so hard he tried to get back on stage.
But again the crowd swept over him and tugged at him until he had nothing on but his pants. He had bleeding scratches under his arms where his shirt had been removed. I had never seen anything like it. I thought Elvis would be killed instantly.”
While the Florida show may have been Vernon’s biggest fear, he shared that a Las Vegas concert was Elvis’ scariest part:
“We got a call [at the Las Vegas Hilton] from Los Angeles that a man was on his way to shoot him on stage. The caller said he would tell us who the man was and how to intercept him for $50,000.
The FBI took the threat pretty seriously, and so did I, so seriously that I told the agents to tell the caller we were going to pay. But somehow we lost touch and on the night of the Elvis premiere we thought there might actually be a killer in the audience.”
“The hotel asked Elvis not to continue and so did I,” he said. “There’s no denying he was scared, but he insisted on doing that show and the rest of the engagement. And as you know, nothing happened.”
Did Elvis Presley really shoot his TV?
While Vernon dispelled much of the talk about Elvis as “gun crazy,” he did admit that one story was true: the time the King shot his own TV.
“The story that Elvis shot the TV is true,” revealed Vernon. “But he was in his own house and he shot up his own TV and when he was done with that he could afford to buy a new one.”
“I bet there’s nobody reading this story who doesn’t get so frustrated at times watching some TV show that they wouldn’t want to throw their shoe on the set or shoot at it or something,” his father concluded.
RELATED: Elvis Presley’s cousin’s wife said the singer always slept with a gun next to his bed
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/elvis-presley-father-responded-claims-king-gun-crazypermit.html/ Elvis Presley’s father responded to claims the king was ‘gun crazy’: he ‘had a permit’
