Elvis Presley once knocked his step brother David Stanley out cold for 20 minutes, the latter has claimed.
The King of Rock n Roll famously died aged 42 in 1977 when he had a heart attack while on the toilet, but his life has come into sharp focus once more through various recent Hollywood films.
First came the Oscar-nominated biopic Elvis starring Austin Butler, and more recently Priscilla hit screens, documenting the life of his ex-wife Priscilla Presley, who acted as executive producer on the film.
Directed by Sofia Coppola, the film is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, in which she touched on the Jailhouse Rock hitmaker’s violent and controlling tenancies.
The memoir recounted how Presley socked Priscilla in the eye in a pillow fight, and once threw a chair at the wall narrowly missing her head.
After a Vegas show in 1972, Priscilla wrote of how he invited her to his room and ‘forcefully made love to me. It was uncomfortable and unlike any other time. I wept in silence.’
Despite various accounts of emotional and physical abuse, Priscilla – who met Elvis aged 14 when he was 24 – also praised Presley’s character and dubbed him her soulmate. The pair shared a daughter, Lisa-Marie Presley, who died last year aged 54.
Priscilla opened up about their relationship in a 1985 People feature, in which she said: ‘He molded me into his woman. I wore the clothes, hairstyle and makeup of his careful choosing.’
Now, Presley’s violent tenancies have been further brought to light by his step brother David, who recalled a horrific alleged moment between the pair which he claims left him unconscious.
Alongside his musical feats, Presley also spent much time mastering karate and allegedly put his skills to the test on his little brother, who was employed as the rocker’s bodyguard during the 1970s.
He told The Mirror: ‘One time we were at this home in LA and all the karate guys came over for a workout session. I was training in the arts, but he was a master.’
He explained how Elvis asked him to demonstrate what he’d learnt in the session. After David did a back kick which floored Elvis, the singer apparently dusted himself off and asked for him to repeat the move. He did, and claims Elvis then ‘knocked [him] down and out’.
‘I was out cold for 20 minutes. That was a life changing moment and I felt that I am not going to do that again. If you or anyone fought Elvis Presley, to win you would have to kill him,’ he said.
‘Elvis had that focus and was that much of a bulldog that he would never stop. And when you fired up his temper, he would go crazy.’
He also described Priscilla’s new movie as ‘great’ and said she has a right to tell her story, which through his eyes is ‘accurate’.
Before her death last year, the only child of Elvis Lisa-Marie slammed the film’s script as ‘shockingly vengeful and contemptuous’ and said she didn’t see ‘any of [my father] in this character’.
Stanley previously apologised for comments he made about Presley’s death in the 2022 Amazon Prime Video series Elvis’ Women.
According to the Irish Mirror, Stanley claimed that Presley had ‘killed himself’ and was ‘tormented by guilt over his young lovers’.
He added that Presley’s ‘taste for young girls, aged 15 or 16’ sickened him, calling it a ‘miracle’ that the musician wasn’t ‘busted’.
‘He got away with things most people didn’t, because of his money, fortune, fame and power, charisma and magnetism. Elvis could talk the socks off you,’ Stanley reportedly added to the cameras.
Stanley later issued an apology for his ‘derogatory comments’ as he took to Instagram and said: ‘To all the Elvis Fans and associates that follow me here in Facebook and beyond [sic].
‘I am sorry for the derogatory comments I made in a documentary about Elvis that was filmed last year.
‘There is no excuse for my comments and I can fully understand why you would be angered. I love and will always love Elvis and being part of his family.
‘He is more than worthy of the love you have for him. He loved you. I love you and all I can ask of you is for you to forgive me for my irresponsible actions.’
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