Book Description

"On a lazy summer Sunday in Memphis in 1954, twelve-year-old Jerry Schilling wandered into a pickup football game in a local park, little realizing that his life was about to change forever. The quarterback that day was a charismatic seventeen-year-old whose first recording, "That's All Right", had debuted earlier that week and was burning up the local airwaves - Elvis Presley." "Elvis and Jerry would strike up a friendship that would grow over the many weekly football games that followed, even as Elvis became the world's biggest star. Jerry soon became a regular at Elvis's raucous all-night parties at Graceland, and after he graduated from college in 1964, Elvis asked him to join his "Memphis Mafia" entourage in Hollywood. Over the next thirteen years Jerry would work for Elvis in various capacities - from bodyguard to photo double to personal trainer to co-executive producer on a karate film. But more than anything else he was Elvis's close friend and confident. Jerry had rooms in Elvis's Bel Air mansion and at Graceland, and became the envoy between Elvis and Colonel Parker when Elvis was performing in Las Vegas. Elvis trusted Jerry with protecting his life when he received death threats, he had Jerry drive him and Priscilla to the hospital the day Lisa Marie was born, and he asked Jerry to accompany him on his famous "lost weekend" trip to meet President Nixon at the White House." "Me and a Guy Named Elvis looks at Elvis from the unique perspective of a close friend, presenting the man rather than the icon. The Elvis Presley Jerry Schilling knew was fiercely intelligent and passionate about his art, a loving and generous man at home with his family and friends, and a fiery and determined spiritual seeker who became a master of martial arts and a self-taught student of philosophy. Jerry reveals Elvis as a relentless prankster and fun-loving man who never truly grew up. He does not shy away from the darker side of Elvis's life, and offers an account of the career frustrations that led to Elvis's abuse of prescription medications that precipitated his early, tragic death."--BOOK JACKET.