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

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When Jerry left to pursue a career he wasn’t shut out the group like other former MM and Elvis actively encouraged and supported him. In 1964, Elvis invited Jerry to work for him as part of his "Memphis Mafia," and Jerry soon found himself living with Elvis full-time in a Bel Air mansion and, later, in his own room at Graceland. To a lot of people Elvis Presley was nothing more than white trash playing black music… The general feeling of of conservative old school Memphis was that the city should be more embarrassed by Elvis than proud of him. I feel that the Colonel prevented him from exercising those attributes and contributed to his drug abuse and death. The book is an easy read with lots of interesting dates times and events that Jerry had with Elvis Presley.

Jerry recognized that what he had with Elvis was precious, and so he didn’t just lose the King of Rock and Roll on August 16, 1977 like most of the rest of the world -- he lost his best friend. Jerry Schilling has spent forty years in the entertainment industry as an actor, a film editor, producer, and a manager for such acts as the Beach Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis and Billy Joel.Its clear that Jerry Schilling was an Elvis insider and witness to so much day-to-day history and hysteria from being around the world's most famous man. On a lazy Sunday in 1954, twelve-year-old Jerry Schilling wandered into a Memphis touch football game, only to discover that his team was quarterbacked by a nineteen-year-old Elvis Presley, the local teenager whose first record, That's All Right, had just debuted on Memphis radio. A shock for the Bible Belt and many might bristle at the thought of the man who could sing "How Great Thou Art" with such conviction and passion, and also "be into" numerology (Cheiro's Book of Numbers). He flew back to Memphis with other people from Elvis' group of people, and Priscilla to work on funeral arrangements and to be there with the family and friends of Elvis through the funeral and the days beyond.

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. Me and a Guy Named Elvis looks at Presley from a friend’s perspective, offering readers the man rather than the icon — including insights into the creative frustrations that lead to Elvis’s abuse of prescription medicine and his tragic death. He was there when Elvis's mother died, when he was drafted into the Army, when he met Priscilla, and when he became a father. For all the kids who first got excited about the sound of rock and roll, there were twice as many who thought it sounded just horrible. So and so had a horrible childhood, fell in with the wrong crowd, found music (and drugs), made it big, fell to abysmal depths, then (hopefully), cleaned up and discovered life in a more meaningful way.Jerry offers never-before-told stories about life inside Elvis’s inner circle and an emotional recounting of the great times, hard times, and unique times he and Elvis shared.

I especially wanted to read this from one of the guys who was part of the inner circle and who continues to be so involved with the legacy to see how he might spin it and if he would have anything new to tell us. His stage jumpsuits had originally been designed to accommodate his intensely physical performances.Jerry offers never-before-told stories about life inside Elvis' inner circle and an emotional recounting of the great times, hard times, and unique times he and Elvis shared.