Getting anywhere near Elvis Presley in the summer of 1969 was nearly impossible. Armed guards stood outside his suite at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, keeping the crowd away. After waiting for three days, British writer Ray Connelly finally got through the door.
Elvis had spent almost a decade stuck in Hollywood, making movie after movie without doing a single live concert, and Connelly expected to meet an arrogant superstar. Instead, he found a slim 34-year-old lying on a red couch in a karate suit, holding a soda bottle, and acting as polite as any Southern kid you’d meet on the street.
The biggest surprise came when Elvis started talking about his films. He didn’t try to pretend they were good. In fact, he admitted he felt ashamed of his movies and the silly tracks he had to record for them. Studio bosses rushed him through three movies a year, which meant he had to sing terrible material. He even laughed about how ridiculous it felt to knock a guy out in a scene and then immediately sing a love song to him. Stepping back onto a real stage wasn’t about the money for Elvis—it was about getting his pride back.
When the interviewer talked about his family, Elvis’s tone shifted to being soft right away. He got a little shy when talking about his wife, Priscilla, and mentioned how having Lisa Marie completely changed his life.
Elvis Interview August 1969 by Ray Connolly
Elvis also talked about how he never believed he was famous. He confessed that when he walked past all those gold records in his house, he felt like they belonged to someone else.
Elvis also brought up The Beatles, and he didn’t have a single bad thing to say about them. He pointed out a sweet telegram the band had sent to wish him luck on his comeback, and he even sang a line of “I Saw Her Standing There” while pretending to strum an electric guitar like John Lennon. He kept saying how much he loved his overseas fans, promising that he hoped to fly over to Britain for a tour real soon.
Later that evening, when Elvis walked out under the bright stage lights, all that backstage quietness disappeared. He tore through songs like “Suspicious Minds”, sweating through his clothes and driving the crowd completely out of their minds. By the time the show ended, Connelly realized he hadn’t just met a music icon. He had met a real, down-to-earth guy who just happened to be the biggest star in the world—and who needed the stage more than the stage needed him.