Elvis Presley’s secret life: obsession with guns, violence, rage. The king of rock & roll “shot everything in sight”.

Elvis Presley was very eccentric, from his flamboyant sense of dress to his eating habits, but he also liked guns.

In the fall of 1970, Elvis began to increase his personal security, so he obsessively bought guns and visited police forces around the country. He even presented President Richard Nixon with a commemorative Colt when he visited the Oval Office in the White House.

Elvis’ cousin Billy Smith’s son Danny said on his YouTube channel: “As far as we’re concerned, all the kids and Lisa, he wasn’t violent with us. We saw pistols and guns on Elvis, a Thompson gun and a rifle. But he either showed them, used them or carried them with him. We were safe and he wouldn’t do anything like that – leave a loaded gun around the house.”

Elvis Presley was unpredictable, violent, thirsty for constant attention

However, when he was in a mood swing, the King would sometimes take him out to the TV or the toilet. His last girlfriend, Ginger Alden, recalled the star’s love of guns, a “dangerous combination”.

Ginger said, “We were reading together and there was a noise in the toilet. Elvis got up and left the room, came back with a machine gun and started shooting into the toilet.”

Furthermore, according to Ginger’s testimony, the star fired his gun while she was asleep because she wouldn’t give him yogurt.

“I looked up and what did I see? Elvis was standing with his Magnum 57 pistol in his hand by the bed. I dared to look away and saw the hole he had made in the headboard. By way of explanation, Elvis said he had shot at me because he wanted yogurt and I didn’t offer it. He had a great need for attention and that’s how he chose to express it,” Ginger recounted.

Priscilla Presley, the singer’s ex-wife, has revealed that she got a black eye when she said she didn’t like one of his songs. On another occasion, he threw a chair at her for the same reason.

On more than one occasion, Elvis fired a gun at what he was watching on television, either for fun or because he didn’t like what he saw. The one from the Palm Springs house, with a bullet hole through the screen, is on display at Graceland to this day.

Elvis once nearly shot his privates off in a terrifying accident. Billy recalled how they once took a rest stop on their motorcycle at a small service station when Elvis had to go to the bathroom. The King’s cousin heard a loud noise from inside the bathroom and asked if he was okay. Apparently his gun had fallen out of its holster and hit the floor with a loud bang. Elvis came out and said, “Well, I’m lucky it didn’t destroy my privates!”.

The singer even took guns to his dates at times, with ex-girlfriend Mindi Miller recalling how he would ride in his limousine and stand with the top down and hold a shotgun in his hand on the street.

Like James Bond, Elvis always had a gun by his bed for protection, keeping it on his nightstand. And when he had guests in his upstairs bedroom at Graceland, he would occasionally jokingly threaten to “get him” if anyone disagreed with his opinion.

Thus, dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll” and considered one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century, Elvis had a violent and unpredictable demeanor. He also had a drug problem and led a controversial life. Yet Presley remains the best-selling solo artist, according to Guinness World Records, with sales estimated by various sources at between $500 million and $1 billion.