A mystery is not easily trapped. And Elvis was a mystery. His life baffled even him. Coming in off a short tour, once Elvis said:
“Charlie you know how much money we made for working all of 12 hours on stage?”
We headed out the back door of Graceland toward the barn to check the horses.
“How much?” I said.
“For 12 hours of music, after paying off all our expenses, we brought home a little over $800,000!” he said.
I went upstairs to his bedroom one night at Graceland. The room was as cold as a snowfield in the
Rockies. Elvis loved the air that way. One of the guys used to tell people, “It’s so cold that you could
hang meat in there.”
I sat down on the couch by Elvis bed and tried to keep from shivering.
Had to go in his huge closet and pull down one of his robes. Wrapped it around me. lt was one of those soft blue ones Elvis liked. With the hood you can pull over your head and that’s just what I did with it. l sat back down on the end of the couch, crossed my legs like a mediating Eskimo, and smiled. He watched me.
“Charlie.” he said.
“Yea, Elvis?”
He punched the big pillow and leaned back on it.
“Did you ever stop to think what one little boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, and another little boy from Decatur, Alabama, have done?” he asked.
‘What’s that, Elvis?”
“We entertained the whole world.” he said. I nodded.
“Yea.”
We had done more than 2,000 shows together Elvis looked up at the ceiling. He stayed that way along time. His smile turned, slowly as twilight falling, into a faint look of puzzlement. There
was a wrinkle of concentration between his eyes. I noticed a touch of gray at his temples. I had seen that look many times before.
He shook his head.
“It never ceases to amaze me.”
(Me ‘n Elvis – Charlie Hodge)
