Priscilla Reveals Tender, Vulnerable Side To Elvis Few Have Ever Seen

Published Jan 10, 2018 By Manly Bryant

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This fresh interview opens up a whole new set of doors to Elvis’ life and reveals the truth behind who he was as an artist.

As part of a new HBO documentary titled Elvis Presley: The Searcher, director Thom Zimny dug deep to unearth some of the hardest-hitting and unanswered questions about The King. Going to the person who was closest to him for many years, Zimny interviewed his ex-wife Priscilla Presley to help shed some light on his life.

“I realized she hadn’t had these kinds of questions thrown at her before,” says Zimny. “And she was excited to share the details of Elvis the artist.”

In addition to the documentary, Priscilla spoke with Billboard about her involvement in making this film and even called it “the definitive story” of Elvis as an artist.

Priscilla opened up about topics ranging from her early years and courtship with Elvis, her parent’s objections, Colonel Parker, their divorce and continued relationship, and what The King would have thought of her own acting career.

From the beginning, she explains that her parents didn’t understand her relationship with Elvis, calling it “too big” for them. They courted for two years, she says, and she finally gave her parents an ultimatum, “You’re ruining my life; you have to let me go.”

But there was more to their connection than just young love, their bond was deep and after being married for over half a decade, they still remained as close as ever.

“Even though we were divorced, we remained very close,” Priscilla told Billboard. “We had very long conversations at night. He wanted to perform, to get out. He had nervous energy. In fact, he wanted to go all over the world. He wanted to explore.”

While Elvis passed away before Priscilla dove head-first into an acting career, she admitted that she doesn’t think he would have liked her being in the films, adding, “I don’t think he would have wanted to share [me] with anyone.”

Touching briefly on Elvis’ relationship with his manager, Colonel Parker, Priscilla explains the bright side to the relationship many have criticized in the past.

“[Elvis] was so grateful Colonel Parker took him where he wanted to go. The hardest thing was realizing that Parker was a great promoter but didn’t know anything about music, or about his subject, Elvis Presley.”

Watch the video below of an interview Priscilla Presley gave Australia’s Sunday Night about her life with Elvis and look forward to HBO’s new documentary later in 2018.