Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley

Product Information

I didn’t start this book until a 5-hour road trip on January 6, 2023 and had no intention of finishing it on what would have been Elvis’ 88th birthday on January 8th. In the fall of 1964, when I first went to work for Elvis after a decade of friendship with him, I was a few practice teaching credits shy of becoming a history teacher. Frankly, you don't need me to tell you that Elvis was a great performer, that Heartbreak Hotel can still give you chills, or that If I Can Dream can still make you cry. Jerry tells his story of a young boy growing up poor with no real family before fate changed his life during one Sunday afternoon game of football-and he tells it with humility, honesty, and dignity. What I think distinguishes the book most of all, though, is its emotional honesty, the generosity of spirit with which Jerry seeks to emulate his friend and mentor.

But more than anything else he was Elvis' close friend and confidant: Elvis trusted Jerry with protecting his life when he received death threats, he asked Jerry to drive him and Priscilla to the hospital the day Lisa Marie was born and to accompany him during the famous 'lost weekend' when he traveled to meet President Nixon at the White House. But Schilling's insider roll made him a firsthand witness to many of Elvis's most notorious moments, such as his surprise visit to meet President Nixon at the White House and the birth of Lisa-Marie, Elvis's only child. I don't read many books about Elvis as they are usually written by people who had never even met him or if they have want to scandalise him.It is a slow start, to be sure, and at times the reader starts to wonder if this is a book about Jerry Schilling or Elvis Presley.

Jerry does a very admirable job of giving fans a chance to really see Elvis not as just a superstar entertainer but also as a man who had personal dreams, vulnerabilities, doubts, and challenges as a human being. But more than anything else he was Elvis's close friend and confidant: Elvis trusted Jerry with protecting his life when he received death threats, he asked Jerry to drive him and Priscilla to the hospital the day Lisa Marie was born and to accompany him during the famous "lost weekend" when he traveled to meet President Nixon at the White House. I grew-up eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches and still cannot believe I didn’t have a fried one until Graceland -- the man was a genius! More than anything, this moving and elegantly told memoir resonates with the spirit of true friendship. EDIT: Since Tom Hanks is playing him in the movie, Jerry also talks about The Colonel and I had never heard of the Colonel outside of this book.They had always been supportive of Elvis, even welcoming him into their own inner circle of police officers. Jerry Schilling first met Elvis in 1954, went to work for him in the mid-Sixties, even lived at Graceland and stayed close to him right through until 1976. One habit of Elvis' that was not a joke was his insistence that his own music never be played inside Graceland. I thought the author did a great job of describing the kind of person Elvis was, not just all of his accomplishments.