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Presley's decline continued. A journalist recalled: "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature
of his sleek, energetic former self... he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."
In Alexandria, Louisiana, the singer was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand".
In Baton Rouge, Presley failed to appear. He was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour
was cancelled. In Rapid City, "he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk... He was undoubtedly
painfully aware of how he looked, and he knew that in his condition, he could not perform any significant
movement. He looked, moved, and gestured like an overweight old man with crippling arthritis." A cousin,
Billy Smith, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat, recounting things like his favourite Monty
Python sketches and past japes, but "mostly there was a grim obsessiveness... a paranoia about people,
germs... future events," that reminded Smith of Howard Hughes. A book was published—the first expose
to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. Written with input from three of Presley's "Memphis Mafia," the
book was the authors' revenge for them being sacked and a plea to get Presley to face up to reality.
The singer "was devastated by the book. Here were his close friends who had written serious stuff that
would affect his life. He felt betrayed." Presley's final performance was in Indianapolis at the Market
Square Arena, on June 26, 1977. Another tour was scheduled to begin August 17, 1977, but at Gracel
and the day before, Presley was found on the floor of his bathroom by fiancee, Ginger Alden. According
to the medical investigator, Presley had "stumbled or crawled several feet before he died." He was
officially pronounced dead at 3:30 pm at the Baptist Memorial Hospital. Presley was buried at Forest
Hill Cemetery, Memphis, next to his mother. After an attempt to steal the body, his—and his
mother's—remains were reburied at Graceland in the Meditation Gardens. |
