Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll. Photo: AP
Some years ago, Sonny West told what many consider to be one of the funniest stories about Elvis Presley. There is a YouTube video that suggests it and it is very popular, so why not believe it?
What happens to Presley in the anecdote isn’t a big deal, but considering it happens to the King of rock and roll himself, it is. The story allows the star’s followers to learn about a little-known aspect of the singer.
Basically, the story of Elvis’ ex-bodyguard and friend retraces a few minutes of the artist’s life during a morning when Presley wanted to go out to buy things to make a sandwich.
Sonny West, Presley’s bodyguard and friend. Photo: Ollie Atkins
West claimed that when Elvis was on the crest of the wave he could not live apart from those who surrounded and protected him. The narrative that he calls us here has served Sonny to exemplify his statement.
“Hey, where is everyone?”
On a tour in Palm Springs, California, Elvis, Sonny and their friends stopped by a huge rented house. They slept and the next day everyone except Presley went shopping.
West led the group: worried that the King would have breakfast, he went to the nearest supermarket to buy tomatoes, eggs and bacon. She wanted the singer to have a toast when he got up.
What Sonny didn’t know was that his friend had been awake for a while getting ready to go out, something totally “unheard of”.
Elvis usually didn’t order taxis.
When he woke up, Elvis called his team members. He didn’t get an answer. He went into each of his rooms. He didn’t find anyone.
“I want to order a taxi”
Surprised and hungry, Presley thought it would be best to go in person to buy the meats for breakfast. So he called a taxi.
Presley’s phone in the exhibition “Elvis at the O2, The Exhibition of his Life” in 2014. Photo: EFE
“I wasn’t used to doing it. He would leave everything to his own people, ”West says.
First Elvis contacted an operator and ordered a taxi directly from her. “I don’t, sir,” the woman told him. Elvis, confused, asked him: “And what are you doing?”. The operator replied: “I help with person-to-person calls. You need information to get a taxi number.
The voice behind the phone told Elvis how to do it and Presley followed suit. He called a new number. He answered a new woman.
“I need a taxi number,” the singer asked. “What kind of taxi?” the woman asked, offering him all kinds of transfer services. Elvis didn’t care, so he said, “A yellow one, like everyone else.” Get in touch to call a third person: a freight forwarder.
The first thing this person asked Elvis was the address to which he should send the taxi, information the singer did not remember. “Do you need a taxi and you don’t know where you are?” shouted the operator, thinking now that the customer was joking with her.
The woman finished confirming her suspicions when the King wanted to clarify things: “No, my name is Elvis and I’m renting a house”.
Completely played, the switchboard operator agreed to send him the taxi, but not before having ordered him: “Of course, when it arrives it will be better to get off and on”.
This Thursday a film about the life of the singer arrives in theaters.
“I can not go out”
Question that the taxi has arrived (Elvis might!) At their destination. The driver got out, rang the bell and confirmed through the intercom: “I’ve arrived”.
Elvis heard him from inside the villa and ran out while he replied to the taxi driver that in seconds he would be without knowing that the other was not listening. Technology two, Elvis zero.
The last three to zero came after a new duel, this time between Puerta and Presley. When Elvis went out to meet the taxi driver, he bumped into a huge door and gate that didn’t allow him to see who was on the other side. I didn’t have the key to open it. “My name is Elvis. I’ll be there if I make it, “he yelled.
The story ends here, with Elvis failing to complete three core tasks in the lives of many human beings: order a taxi, leave the house and go buy something.
Just then, Sonny came home from grocery shopping, saw the taxi driver standing in front of the door, asked him what was going on and then, inside, he ran into Elvis, who asked him where he was.
Eventually, Presley ordered West to give the driver $ 100 and the driver left happy with a good story to tell.
Source: Clarin