Elvis Presley died of a heart attack at just 42 when using the ensuite bathroom next to his elaborate bedroom.
Since that fateful day on August 16, 1977, the King of Rock and Roll’s private sanctuary has been perfectly preserved as he left it, on the request of his only child Lisa Marie Presley.
According to Graceland archivist Angie Marchese, it’s like he just got up and left, with a styrofoam cup sitting on a shelf and the last vinyl he played on the record player.
In the decades since, and before her untimely death at 54 last year, the icon’s daughter would often spend time alone or with family in his bedroom.
According to her posthumous memoir, when living in Nashville in the depth of addicton, Lisa Marie would to drive the 200 miles to Graceland just to sleep in her father’s bed.
Elvis’ granddaughter Riley Keough claims in her segments of From Here to the Great Unknown: “It seemed like the only place where she found any comfort… desparate to connect with her father…she would lie in his bed, lie on his floor. Anything to feel some comfort.”
Lisa Marie and her children would sometimes all sleep together in Elvis’ massive custom bed that was around 7 by 9, according to his cousin Billy Smith. But if they hadn’t vacated the room by the time tours began in the morning, they would be stuck upstairs until 5pm.
It turns out that staff members would bring the Presley family meals (usually McDonald) and they would just end up hanging out “trapped” in Elvis’ bedroom. But there was always plently to keep them occupied.
Priscilla Presley’s hairdryer is still there, so they’d sit under it and pretend they were in a salon. Meanwhile, Lisa Marie would obsessively go through mountains of Elvis’ spiritual books in an attempt to understand her father better.
Titles included Understanding Who You Are, Sacred Science of Numbers, How to Be Happy, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet and Ram Dass’ Be Here Now. There was also a ton of Bibles and Elvis would underline phases and write things like “Amen!’ next to them.
Riley believes her mother and grandfather shared a fundamentally broken feeling, one in which he was always searching to fix himself; seeking out some deeper meaning. Lisa Marie would desparately go line by line, reading into everything Elvis had underlined; “grasping at straws”. That was until security came up and brought them all sausage and biscuits.
Riley noted: “You can still feel him in that room, his spirit is imprinted in there.”
From Here to the Great Unknown is out now.
