Elvis’ Backup Singer Said There Was an ‘Underlying Nervousness’ to Talking to Him Because of His Looming Entourage
Like many other celebrities, Elvis Presley had an entourage. They toured with him, lived with him, and served as dedicated employees. According to the other people in Elvis’ life, they were a little too devoted to the musician. One of Elvis’ backup singers said there was always a level of tension in the room when Elvis’ entourage was around. It wasn’t always clear if Elvis was aware of this.
Elvis’ entourage guarded him closely
Elvis’ piano player, Glen D. Hardin, described the entourage as a “silly boys’ club … Just one big party.” Others viewed it differently, though. Many members of the entourage had known Elvis for years and were willing to defend him by any means necessary. As a result, the musician began receiving assault and battery charges.
Though Elvis wanted them to protect him against assassination attempts, they also kept people in Elvis’ band away from him. Elvis often complained that his band didn’t visit his suite after concerts. Even if they wanted to, his entourage made it difficult.
“It just seemed like there were always too many people making decisions,” Elvis’ backup singer Joe Moscheo said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “Joe Esposito would say, ‘He’s tired tonight, we don’t want any visitors in the dressing room.’ Lamar and Charlie are out in the hall, and they want to be the big shots — they’re saying, ‘Don’t even think about coming in.’ I always felt like I was two or three times removed.”
While Moscheo liked Elvis, he always felt tense around him. The presence of his entourage felt like a threat.
“The little bit of time you had with him, he always treated you so good,” he said. “But there was always an underlying nervousness: you never knew when it was okay to talk to him and when it wasn’t; there was always somebody telling you what you could and couldn’t do. [And you sometimes got the feeling that] Elvis didn’t even know it.”
Elvis instituted a tour rule to ensure he only spent time with his entourage
Moscheo believed Elvis wasn’t always aware of his entourage’s exclusionary intimidation techniques. The musician did everything in his power to ensure that he was only around his entourage, though. When he began touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he decided to institute a “no wives” rule.
“We talked constantly of being together more, but he knew that if he let me join him, he couldn’t refuse the requests from regulars whose marriages had been feeling the strain of long separations,” Priscilla wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “For a while a group of us would fly in from time to time, but this didn’t last long. Elvis noticed that his employees were lax in discharging their duties to him when spouses were present, and he established a new policy: no wives on the road.”
This allowed Elvis and his entourage to lean into the “boys’ club” experience that they enjoyed.
Priscilla Presley realized she had married a group of people
The “no wives” rule began to wear on many marriages. For Priscilla Presley, the constant presence of the entourage began to make her feel defeated. While she liked these men, she realized she would never have Elvis all to herself. This realization, among other things, led to the end of her marriage.
“It took every bit of strength that I could conjure up to leave because I still loved him, you know?” she said on Larry King Live. “It wasn’t about not liking, it wasn’t about not loving. It was a lifestyle. I was having a daughter. It was not being able to raise a daughter and a lifestyle of bachelors and not only that, they were married — some were married and there was a lot of unethical relationships going to.”
The couple’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, also spoke about her problems with the entourage when she grew up.
