Elvis Presley could have flown anywhere on earth. Private planes, first-class seats, whatever he wanted was a phone call away. So here is the surprising part. When it was time to get from Hollywood back home to Memphis, Elvis often skipped the plane and drove instead. And he did the driving himself.
In the fall of 1965, he had just wrapped another movie, Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Instead of catching a quick flight home, he loaded up his friends and pointed the vehicle east for the long haul across the country.
That vehicle was a 1962 Dodge motorhome he had turned into a rolling home away from home. Inside there was a couch, a table, air conditioning, a kitchen and even a double bed and bunks so the guys could sleep in shifts. It was built for one reason, to make all those empty miles feel less like travel and more like hanging out with your friends.
That is really what these trips were about. For a man who could not walk into a diner without causing a scene, the open road was a rare kind of freedom. Out there, with his closest friends packed in beside him and the highway rolling by, Elvis got to just be one of the guys.
The group that traveled with him even had a name, and the stories from inside that little world are wilder and funnier than most people ever realize.
Here is the inside story of the men who rode with him:
Elvis and the Memphis Mafia
A drive like this one ran close to eighteen hundred miles. Days on the road, small towns rolling past the windows, late-night stops and hours of music, jokes and talk. That time mattered to Elvis. The friends in that motorhome were not staff to him. They were family, and the road was one of the few places he got to keep them all to himself.
He loved machines, too. Cars, bikes and just about anything with an engine. Over the years he collected some of the most beautiful vehicles money could buy, and a lot of them are still on display today.
Take a look at the kind of rides the King actually drove:
Inside Elvis Presley’s Car Collection at Graceland
Think about that for a second. One of the most famous people who ever lived, behind the wheel of his own motorhome, driving his best friends home across the country simply because he wanted to. Of everything Elvis could buy, that kind of freedom might have been his favorite thing of all. Press play and ride along.