The world wept when the legendary King of Rock and Roll left this earthly realm. An overwhelming crowd of more than eighty thousand devastated people packed into Memphis to witness his massive funeral, sobbing uncontrollably as the white limousines and hearse crawled slowly toward the cemetery. Eventually, he was moved to his absolute final resting place in the Meditation Garden at Graceland, where he now lies buried between his beloved mother Gladys and his father Vernon. For years, millions of fanatical followers from every corner of the planet stood frozen outside those famous iron gates for hours, desperately hoping for just a tiny glimpse of the reclusive icon who lived hidden within those fortified walls.
But what truly happened behind those heavily guarded doors? For the first time ever, Priscilla Presley cracks open the vault to expose the unbelievable reality of the poor country boy from a tiny shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, who grew up to buy a Southern mansion for a staggering one hundred thousand dollars in pure cash before he was even twenty-five years old. The sheer scale of his wealth led to bizarre habits and untamed eccentricities that will leave you absolutely breathless.
Did you know about the secret war games that turned his backyard into a deadly zone? During the holidays, the King would blow through a jaw-dropping thousands of dollars on massive boxes of fireworks. He would force his inner circle to suit up in heavy leather jackets, motorcycle helmets, and safety goggles, dividing them into rival teams to launch highly explosive Roman candles directly at each other in terrifying, blinding battles. One night, a stray projectile shot directly into a massive pile of live ammunition, triggering a colossal explosion that looked exactly like an atomic bomb going off right on the property.
His spending habits were completely out of control. When the King wanted a snack, he didn’t just look in the fridge. In the dead of night, he suddenly ordered his crew to fire up his massive, customized commercial jet airliner—the Lisa Marie, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and modify. The flight plan was locked in, and the plane soared through the dark skies from Memphis all the way to Denver for the sole purpose of picking up giant silver trays of elite peanut butter sandwiches.
Inside the house, the madness only escalated. The basement features a bizarre TV room inspired by President Lyndon B. Johnson, packed with multiple television sets running simultaneously so the King could watch every single network news broadcast or football game at the exact same moment. Nearby sits the infamous Jungle Room, a wildly decorated den boasting aggressive green shag carpet attached directly to the ceiling to deaden the sound for midnight recording sessions. He filled the estate with a literal zoo of exotic animals, including an unpredictable chimpanzee named Scatter who loved nothing more than terrorizing and chasing female guests around the property.
The King lived fast, spent wildly, and broke every single rule of society. This is the untamed, raw, and spectacular truth of the man behind the gold records.
Watch the full, mind-blowing footage of the mansion and hear the shocking stories directly from Priscilla Presley herself in the video below: