Gauging Elvis Presley’s Shakespearean destiny from an outsider’s perspective

A thorough interview with definitive Steve McQueen chronicler Marshall Terrill uncovers an unambiguous admiration for Elvis Presley. Anecdotes abound regarding Colonel Tom Parker’s debilitating penchant for gambling, the Beatles vs. Elvis fan mentality, founding Memphis Mafia member Sonny West and his controversial “Elvis: What Happened?” expose, Los Angeles hairstylist-guru Larry Geller, rejecting radio deejay George Klein’s memoir, the memoirs of effervescent near-wife Linda Thompson and final girlfriend Ginger Alden, how Elvis’s inspired performances often hinged on his level of instrumental commitment, why Elvis didn’t compose more material, how lifestyle choices gradually diminished his recording career, and loads more. With perfectly coiffed hair, the King of Rock ’n’ Roll portrays dashing riverboat gambler Johnny in an elegant still from “Frankie and Johnny,” distributed to cinemas on March 31, 1966. Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Elvis Photo Shoot Sessions

“I’ve always tried to approach the Elvis Presley story from an outsider’s perspective with a lot of common sense and no excuses,” asserts ink slinger Marshall Terrill in a thorough, exclusive interview debuting below.

“Many people in the Elvis World come to the subject matter with their minds made up, lines drawn in the sand, and have pegged everyone as either a hero or villain. Everybody who was in Elvis’s life was there for a reason — because he allowed them there in the first place.”

Terrill was only nine years old when his family moved by green Ford LTD to Montgomery, Alabama, in the late summer of 1972. Coincidentally, “Burning Love” was shuttling up the charts on its way to criminally stalling at No. 2 — Elvis’s last Top Ten on Billboard.

During the excruciatingly long trek from central California, a Deep South deejay spun the record. Terrill’s father, a distinguished Airman, was spellbound. Instead of going to their home destination immediately upon arrival, the family was pretty much forced to visit a record store so the military officer could snag a copy of the propulsive single. The inquisitive kid never forgot that trip.

Elvis’s untimely downfall occurred five fleeting years later smack dab during the gaudy glam disco heat wave…