"Elvis and red west telephone conversation,october 1976."

Not only did Elvis' drug abuse prematurely end his life

Elvis took himself serious.

Again, not sure why you can't differentiate a person taking himself seriously and having a drug problem. So sad that you can't get past that mental block. Good luck.

People, he didn't get ****** up on medication to hurt you or any of the fans. He was addicted, yes, but "nothing but a junkie" is not right. It is hurtful towards any person who's ever been addicted to something in his/her life, including gambling, sex, violence, drugs, alcohol, power.. He was a person, first and foremost, and a very sensitive and talented one at that. Being addicted is no crime. Unless one physically hurts somebody. The only people that could blame Elvis were his direct family, his daughter first and foremost. To say he purposely hurt millions of fans, is to throw a rock into one's own face. Everybody is a sinner.

"Nothing but a junkie" - how can such a comment ever be justified? In my opinion this board does Elvis a great injustice on many many occasions, and probably considerable damage. I'd like to see some other good-hearted and informed people come to his aid at this point, unless we want outsiders and visitors to think that the above comment is valid and an appropriate summary.

Agreed. I've always tried to figure out just why some come to complain about him and put him him down on these sites. If I don't like something or someone, I just don't have anything to do with either.I'm sure others will disagree; but there is a difference in "drugs" and taking prescribed medications. Many patients today still get addicted to prescribed medicines and have to work their way off of them. Is that some "weakness" of theirs or a pre-disposition to the medicines given? I think science and medicine is still trying to figure that out.

There is no difference in abusing "street" drugs and "prescription" drugs. There is no difference in how one goes to great lengths to do so and how one unravels their life to do so (for example, the stories of manipulation and Elvis being consumed with keeping his flow of drugs intact mirror Deep Purple's Glenn Hughes doing everything in his power to keep his supply of Cocaine intact). The people trying to differentiate the two are usually apologists. That is nothing new on this message board. It is baffling how a faction of members here cannot handle a discussion on Elvis' drug abuse. If you can't handle it, don't join the thread. Whether you like it or not, it is an important part of the story. Not only did Elvis' drug abuse prematurely end his life, but it greatly affected his craft. It is clearly an important topic of discussion if one wants a greater understanding of Elvis Presley.

I have no problem saying Elvis was addicted to some medicines. But, I think you're wrong in saying "there's no difference" in "street drugs" and prescribed medicine-- try telling a doctor or police officer that. I don't believe anyone that gets prescribed medicine chooses to become dependent on them. With "street drugs" ,I find most made that choice .all by themselves.
As far as "knowing Elvis" ,I'd suggest looking to his childhood and on up to the day he died. We are all "weak" on some things and not one of us is perfect. It's easy to just blame him. Look to the ones that joined with him ,to help hurry his death along, then pled innocent.
If you don't like what Elvis did, try imagining doing all he did and paying everyones way.

"Nothing but a junkie" - how can such a comment ever be justified? In my opinion this board does Elvis a great injustice on many many occasions, and probably considerable damage. I'd like to see some other good-hearted and informed people come to his aid at this point, unless we want outsiders and visitors to think that the above comment is valid and an appropriate summary.

Sometimes the truth hurts,eh? But it's still the truth.

Call it what you want...does a life of a junkie radically differ from that of a prescription drug addict?

Junkie may be more "name-calling" but there is no difference in their lifestyles and how they treat themselves and the people around them with that of any other "kind" of addict.

It's not the term "junkie" so much, but the words "nothing but a junkie", implying that they are inferior human beings; I guess we can throw out the legacies of a lot of celebrities, then.

Call it what you want...does a life of a junkie radically differ from that of a prescription drug addict?

Junkie may be more "name-calling" but there is no difference in their lifestyles and how they treat themselves and the people around them with that of any other "kind" of addict.

Call it what you want...does a life of a junkie radically differ from that of a prescription drug addict?

Junkie may be more "name-calling" but there is no difference in their lifestyles and how they treat themselves and the people around them with that of any other "kind" of addict.

I'd recommend living with a "junkie" and comparing it to living with someone like Elvis . You might see a difference, at least how much you eat and being taken care of with little expected from yourself.

Have you lived with Elvis, Shawn? How can you tell the difference so easily? "Living with a junkie" or "living with Elvis" I suspect neither would have been pleasant.

NIce clip. For the sake of this discussion, the song's message could speak for everyone with addiction---not just Elvis.

There's only one other male entertainer, whether one likes him or not, that in his prime can be compared to Elvis in terms of hysteria, pressure and sheer success and that is Michael Jackson. The Beatles, yes, but they s-h-a-r-e-d all the succes with the other Beatles and John struggled alot with alcohol, acid and heroin in the 60s and 70s. Ringo became an alcoholic and George did drugs as well. Paul regularly used cocain, tried heroine, and of course did marijuana like the other Beatles. He also had/has little-known bouts of drinking and aggression.

Jackson of course was a full-blown "junkie" too, addicted to prescribed medications and pain-killers.

So Elvis is not an exception, at all. What does that teach us ? Perhaps that a human being isn't made to experience such success and pressure. Something's gotta give sometime, ya know.

Thanks to those here who have attempted some degree of imaginative understanding and moderate expression.

"Nothing but a junkie" - how can such a comment ever be justified? In my opinion this board does Elvis a great injustice on many many occasions, and probably considerable damage. I'd like to see some other good-hearted and informed people come to his aid at this point, unless we want outsiders and visitors to think that the above comment is valid and an appropriate summary.

Sometimes the truth hurts,eh? But it's still the truth.

I've told this before in another thread but I found out first hand how easy it is to get "hooked" on prescription drugs. I shattered my elbow last year and had to have surgery. I was prescribed strong pain killers. I was on Dilauded initially in the hospital. I then was put on Oxyyconton. When I went home, I was put on Vicodan and then Percocet every 6 hours. After about a week or more, I noticed that it didn't make much of a difference for my pain so I quit taking them. After only about 2 weeks of being on pain killers, I started going through horrible withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't sleep. I got restless leg syndrome. It was so bad, I was going to go back to taking the pain pills but because of what we now know about drug addiction and because of Elvis's example, I stuck it out. I had withdrawal symptoms for weeks, it would have been so easy to just go back to the pills. This showed me just how easy it is to get addicted to these things. It is also surprising how freely doctors still pass these things out. My ortho doc told me to call it in whenever I needed more. I recently had a toothache and went to 3 different dentists to figure out the best treatment. All three of them prescibed me Vicodan.

Elvis didn't have the benefit of all the all that is now known about prescription drug addiction.

"Nothing but a junkie" - how can such a comment ever be justified? In my opinion this board does Elvis a great injustice on many many occasions, and probably considerable damage. I'd like to see some other good-hearted and informed people come to his aid at this point, unless we want outsiders and visitors to think that the above comment is valid and an appropriate summary.

Sometimes the truth hurts,eh? But it's still the truth.

I've told this before in another thread but I found out first hand how easy it is to get "hooked" on prescription drugs. I shattered my elbow last year and had to have surgery. I was prescribed strong pain killers. I was on Dilauded initially in the hospital. I then was put on Oxyyconton. When I went home, I was put on Vicodan and then Percocet every 6 hours. After about a week or more, I noticed that it didn't make much of a difference for my pain so I quit taking them. After only about 2 weeks of being on pain killers, I started going through horrible withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't sleep. I got restless leg syndrome. It was so bad, I was going to go back to taking the pain pills but because of what we now know about drug addiction and because of Elvis's example, I stuck it out. I had withdrawal symptoms for weeks, it would have been so easy to just go back to the pills. This showed me just how easy it is to get addicted to these things. It is also surprising how freely doctors still pass these things out. My ortho doc told me to call it in whenever I needed more. I recently had a toothache and went to 3 different dentists to figure out the best treatment. All three of them prescibed me Vicodan.

Elvis didn't have the benefit of all the all that is now known about prescription drug addiction.

Some of you guys make the '70's sound like the Stone Age. Plenty was known about drug addiction in the 70's. You got out cause you wanted to,from everything I've read,Elvis didn't want to .

Have you lived with Elvis, Shawn? How can you tell the difference so easily? "Living with a junkie" or "living with Elvis" I suspect neither would have been pleasant.

NIce clip. For the sake of this discussion, the song's message could speak for everyone with addiction---not just Elvis.

I never lived with Elvis nor anyone like him. Though I've known some alchoholics ,worked in the medical field, probably closer to Elvis' age than most here, was brought up much the same way he was. I've just talked to many people that were around him in a family/friend way. {not employees} .Read a lot of his history, not just the music/entertainer side of him. I see him and relate to him as a man that struggled to make something of himself--but above all to take care of his family and people he cared about. No matter how irritated he got at them. I just relate to his circumstances of life, the time period he grew up in and that it was him that everyone depended on. With that ,he paid a high price. His health, loneliness and always the blame for whatever didn't work out for everyones wants and needs.
I even used to walk in my sleep.

I relate to a lot of his music, in that I can usually find a song that expresses how I feel or what I want to say. So, if I excuse his weakness, I also can excuse others for theirs. Life isn't all "black and white" nor does it come with instructions. We do the best we can with what we've been given. Only difference in him and I, I could never have put up with the ones he kept around him. It's just not worth it .

The conversation reveals just how frustrating it was to talk to Elvis during those years. No one was going to penetrate that wall he put up...

Agree 100%...The influence of the pills was too huge...

A appreciate your honesty and courage to say this, eligain. It shows how easy it is to get hooked, especially when having a medical condition. For myself, it was a miserable year 2010 health-wise, and after surgery gone-bad in April (second this year) I had to take *massive* amounts of pain, sleeping and other medication that challenges your metabolism.
I was hospitalized several times thru intensive care. I too couldn't sleep or function properly (the basics) for 4 months, one physical problem led to another like a never-ending roller-coaster, and I was a total wreck in the end, up until the beginning of August. My muscles had completely deteriorated from lying down so much. I didn't get hooked, but I suspect the limited time period and my natural tendency -somewhere deep inside my brain- to stay clean had to do with that. I could easily have been, considering the amounts of pills I had to take every day and night. If you don't take them, and you can't function, well there's no way any doctor or specialist will follow you up, that's the problem! You're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It's do or die. I still have diverse medical issues now as a result of all that mess, and still developing "new" ones , even though it's now more under control, but there were MANY times during those 4 months when I thought it would be the end, all my functions were shutting down, one by one. I couldn't think, get up or speak properly anymore because of chronic lack of sleep, pills and intense pain 24/24. I had to walk, talk, think all over again, because when your body goes, so does your mind after months and months. Soaring summer heat doesn't help either, when you already have fevers and dangerously high blood pressure. It's like double or triple hell. Anyway, imagine this for years and years, it's hard for someone who hasn't experienced a total break-down, to feel sympathy or to truly understand some of the situations Elvis was in, or anyone experiencing such a string of events. You expect to be the last person who this could happen to.. until it happens to you.

First thing I did when I got home in August was to .. listen to Elvis' voice again. His voice helped me through it. Sounds corny but it's the truth.

"Nothing but a junkie" - how can such a comment ever be justified? In my opinion this board does Elvis a great injustice on many many occasions, and probably considerable damage. I'd like to see some other good-hearted and informed people come to his aid at this point, unless we want outsiders and visitors to think that the above comment is valid and an appropriate summary.

Sometimes the truth hurts,eh? But it's still the truth.

I've told this before in another thread but I found out first hand how easy it is to get "hooked" on prescription drugs. I shattered my elbow last year and had to have surgery. I was prescribed strong pain killers. I was on Dilauded initially in the hospital. I then was put on Oxyyconton. When I went home, I was put on Vicodan and then Percocet every 6 hours. After about a week or more, I noticed that it didn't make much of a difference for my pain so I quit taking them. After only about 2 weeks of being on pain killers, I started going through horrible withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't sleep. I got restless leg syndrome. It was so bad, I was going to go back to taking the pain pills but because of what we now know about drug addiction and because of Elvis's example, I stuck it out. I had withdrawal symptoms for weeks, it would have been so easy to just go back to the pills. This showed me just how easy it is to get addicted to these things. It is also surprising how freely doctors still pass these things out. My ortho doc told me to call it in whenever I needed more. I recently had a toothache and went to 3 different dentists to figure out the best treatment. All three of them prescibed me Vicodan.

Elvis didn't have the benefit of all the all that is now known about prescription drug addiction.

Very brave and strong of you eligain and James27 for sharing your stories . . We are after all, only human. Thank you for sharing your tests in this life. May you both grow stronger and stronger.

Very brave and strong of you eligain and James27 for sharing your stories . . We are after all, only human. Thank you for sharing your tests in this life. May you both grow stronger and stronger.

I was just shocked at how quickly you can get hooked on this stuff. You don't notice anything until you try to quit and then, bam, your body reacts without it. It is so tempting to go back to it to end the with-drawls but I knew I would be just digging myself in deeper if I did. And I don't have any other substance problems. I can handle alcohol fine, don't smoke and don't gamble and have no close relatives that do (except smoking). Maybe if I did, I wouldn't have been able to ride out the with-drawls.


vbgt wrote:

Some of you guys make the '70's sound like the Stone Age. Plenty was known about drug addiction in the 70's. You got out cause you wanted to,from everything I've read,Elvis didn't want to .

Sure there was but prescription drug addiction was less emphasised and talked about. Doctors dolled out pain meds and diet and sleeping pills quite freely and they weren't as tightly controlled and reported to the DEA like they are now. You can't just call in a refill for pain meds now. A doctor can't either. You now have to have a physical script from the doctor for each refill. Prescription drug addiction just wasn't talked about in the context of doctors over prescribing or getting prescriptions from multible doctors. It was more about pills sold illegally on the street. I had an aunt (through marriage) in the 70's who was going to three different doctors and she almost got in severe trouble because they were all prescribing her different things without knowledge of each other and she almost overdosed innocently.

You can't just call in a refill for pain meds now. A doctor can't either. You now have to have a physical script from the doctor for each refill.

Not in the U.S.

You can't just call in a refill for pain meds now. A doctor can't either. You now have to have a physical script from the doctor for each refill.

Not in the U.S.

You do here in Colorado according to the pharmacies I've gone to like Walgreens and Rite-Aid. When I needed a refill on my Percocet, I tried calling it in and was told that I had to go to the doctor's office and get a hand written script from the doctor and then bring it to the pharmacy to be filled even though my bottle said 10 refills. When this happened on a weekend, the doctor tried to call it in and Walgreens wouldn't fill it because they said it was against US law. So the doctor had to write another script from home and have someone pick it up and bring it to the pharmacy. My Dad went through the same thing with a different pharmacy after his knee replacement last year.

People, he didn't get ****** up on medication to hurt you or any of the fans. He was addicted, yes, but "nothing but a junkie" is not right. It is hurtful towards any person who's ever been addicted to something in his/her life, including gambling, sex, violence, drugs, alcohol, power.. He was a person, first and foremost, and a very sensitive and talented one at that. Being addicted is no crime. Unless one physically hurts somebody. The only people that could blame Elvis were his direct family, his daughter first and foremost. To say he purposely hurt millions of fans, is to throw a rock into one's own face. Everybody is a sinner.

James, love your post.

I have heard Johnny Cash say several times, "There for the grace of God go I".

And it is true what Elvis sang, "Walk a mile in my shoes ...."

Anyone of us, if we had the same parents and/or up bringing would be in the same situation.

People addicted to anything are not bad people, they are simply troubled people. They deserve no less respect than anyone.

This putting down people with addictions is simply a case of saying, look at me I am better than them.

As Kris Kristofferson sang: in the song Jesus Was a Capricorn.

'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me

**** And yes, prescription medication is very easy to be addicted too, for a multitude of reasons, price, availability, ease of justification that it is from a Doctor, but above all they are still drugs, for example ....

Valium can/will create its own symptoms within 4 hours or so, creating the very SAME anxiety symptoms that the drug was taken for in the first place. And it is impossible to know if the anxiety one may feel is what was there to start with or withdrawal symptoms. So almost instant addiction. Many pharmacists will tell you that this is more addictive than Heroin. Makes one wonder about drug companies and profits before people.

Thanks, it's comforting to know there are some people here on the same wave-length.

I hope these very frank descriptions of people's experiences with addictive medications will be informative to those who seem to enjoy crushing Elvis with their crude and insensitive judgements. I'm willing to bet that those who admit here to drug problems did not undergo such pressures in their lives as Elvis endured for years and years.

I hope these very frank descriptions of people's experiences with addictive medications will be informative to those who seem to enjoy crushing Elvis with their crude and insensitive judgements. I'm willing to bet that those who admit here to drug problems did not undergo such pressures in their lives as Elvis endured for years and years.

Where are all these pressures? Pressure is working two jobs and STILL not knowing how you're going to pay the rent. Flying to Colorado in your private plane for cheeseburgers is NOT pressure.

There's 50-100 million people in the U.S. who everyday face more pressure in a day than Elvis ever did. Give the "pressure" thing a rest,Elvis was an addictive personality,who got addicted and couldn't get out,plain and simple.

By 1976 Elvis was nothing but a junkie. A rich one with a whole bunch of people taking care of each and everything, but still nothing but a junkie. Just listen closely and you know what I mean. It's just sad, that such a great man fell so deep.

Really a classless post if you ask me! The fact that Red West is tape recording his conversation with Elvis is worse if you ask me, yet you don't mention that!