ELVIS Presley’s stepbrother has recalled Lisa Marie Presley’s heartbreaking words after finding out her dad had died from heart failure.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, David E Stanley told how he was at Graceland on the day of his brother’s death on August 16, 1977, when little Lisa Marie came to find him.
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David recalls how he was playing pool with a pal when Lisa Marie, then aged nine, and the niece of Elvis’s girlfriend Ginger came running to him with the heartbreaking words: “Daddy is sick… we cannot wake him up.”
The author and filmmaker, who worked as Elvis’s bodyguard and tour manager from 16, said Elvis collapsed on the toilet at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee just hours before he was due to set off on a new tour kicking off in Portland, Oregon.
David shared his heart-wrenching memories ahead of a new movie about the King’s life – starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler out this week.
David said: “I was at Graceland in the basement playing pool with a buddy of mine before things got busy as we were heading out on tour.
“A girl named Amber, Ginger’s niece walked in with Lisa Marie and she said: ‘David, Daddy is sick.’
“I replied: ‘What is wrong with him?’, and she said: ‘We cannot wake him up.’
“And that was not a shock. I’d seen it happen many times before and I didn’t panic.
“She told me people were with him, so I told my friend I’d run him home, because I suspected we may have to cancel a tour or make some arrangements.
“Anyway after dropping him off nearby, as I drove back into the gates of Graceland, an ambulance pulled in before me.
“They went to the front of the house and I drove to the back, and I started getting nervous. I didn’t panic because I’d pulled him out of a dozen overdose situations.
“I ran up the steps, into his room, the bathroom where Elvis was laying in the fetal position…I saw his face buried in the carpet.”
David E Stanley, Elvis’s stepbrother
“I ran up the steps, into his room, the bathroom where Elvis was laying in the fetal position. Vernon was at his feet moaning: ‘My son is dead’.
“I saw his face buried in the carpet. I don’t know whether he fell off the toilet when he had his heart attack.”
Paramedics then rushed Elvis to hospital but doctors were unable to save him.
‘I WAS A WRECK’
In previous interviews, Lisa Marie has revealed how her dad kissed her and put her to bed the night before he died, then she woke up and realized something was wrong.
In a TV interview, Lisa Marie recalled: “I knew something was wrong, because I was in my room which was right next to his bathroom.
“So I knew that something was very wrong. All the commotion and everything. I was a wreck.”
She added: “I was a mess, but I was also confused because I was so upset.”
Elvis had a well-known drug addiction before he died and was known to take sleeping pills, Demerol injections, amphetamines, codeine, morphine, diazepam and Placidyl.
DEPTHS OF ADDICTION
Post-mortem tests showed Elvis’s blood contained 10 different types of drugs and he was suffering from advanced cardiovascular disease, emphysema and bowel disorders.
It was later discovered that the King was prescribed a massive 8,805 pills and injectable drugs in the months before his death.
David said he recalls how Elvis descended into addiction after his manager Colonel Tom Parker, played by Hanks in the new movie Elvis, forced him to work a grueling schedule and dashed his dreams of starring in Hollywood movies and touring Europe.
While David is clear not to blame Parker for his brother’s death, he does feel he contributed to Elvis’s downward spiral.
David said: “One of the reasons that Elvis passed away when he did was that he wasn’t challenged anymore. He needed a new challenge.
HOLLYWOOD DREAMS
“There was a guy in the Middle East who offered him a million cash for Elvis to do one show and an Australian promoter offered millions for shows there. But Parker turned them down.
“Elvis was approached about working with Barbra Streisand on the Star Is Born film in the mid-70s.
“He wants to do it, to show he could cut his teeth with the best of Hollywood.
Elvis got stuck doing these revolving US tours, where sure we were making a lot of money, but they were holding him back.
David E Stanley, Elvis’s stepbrother
“He loved the challenge, the script and the thought of working alongside Barbra. But Parker nixed that too.
“Elvis would have done a great job too. He had the potential to be a major film star – no doubt about it.
“He needed a goal and creative project like that to get him going.
“Instead Elvis got stuck doing these revolving US tours, where sure we were making a lot of money, but they were holding him back.
“Colonel kept Elvis from developing. It restricted him and made him feel like he was stuck in this never-ever cycle of US tours.
“As a kid, I voiced my opinions but nothing changed.
“The bigger question is what did he have on Elvis to make him to succumb to his wishes. There had to be something. I don’t know what that was. Still to this day, I cannot figure out.”
David wrote a book about his life with Elvis entitled My Brother Elvis: The Final Years.
He is also re-releasing a film he made called Protecting the King, which examines Elvis’s last five years alive.
The Sun contacted the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation at Graceland for comment.
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