Elvis and drugs

Thanks everyone for your replies. I've been a fan of E's music for a while but it was only after reading 'Elvis by the Memphis Mafia' that I because curious about his attitude to drugs. The media portrays him as a drug abuser and I wanted to know if this opinion is fair. I knew you guys would be more in the know.
Also, I can see why you might be annoyed at yet another Elvis and drugs posting but I couldn't find this answer anywhere.

Now, back to the music!

This is the place to be if you want as near to the truth about anything to do with Elvis on any Elvis forum out there.

Alot of Elvis sites use this forum to do their research as well.

Welcome aboard !!!

the fans still want to believe he only used pills.........wake up it was the seventies....everbody used all kind of drugs and also ep.........so what the Rolling Stones all those bands and singers...didn't use only vitamins

Not everybody. I am sorry. Yes, Jim Morisson, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Bon Scott, John Bonham died because of the drugs and alcohol combined but there were thousands other groups - like ABBA or Pink Floyd who were clean. And Elvis was not on the street drugs, that's for sure and he rarely drink alcohol.

jurasic1968 wrote: "... but there were thousands other groups - like ABBA or Pink Floyd who were clean..."

are you for real...??

Sincerely MB280E

get a life does anyone ever listen to the dvd from the final curtain about the news report about his dead there is some other footage of west and hebler saying he was using cocaine

Yes, Elvis didn't only do prescription drugs, he also tried/used LSD, marijuhana and cocaine. LSD he reportedly only tried once, but marijuhana and cocaine (mostly liquid, but a few times as powder) he certainly used more than once.

So he couldn't be totally against illegal drugs, that's for sure.

the fans still want to believe he only used pills.........wake up it was the seventies....everbody used all kind of drugs and also ep.........so what the Rolling Stones all those bands and singers...didn't use only vitamins

Everybody used all kind of drugs? Really?

As Lamar Fike once said he took drugs "..because he just fuc*ing loved em".

Plain and simple..

Lamar sure said some dumb and unnecessary things in his time. That was one of them.

What's so dumb about it?

A large majority of people who have done drugs do them because they like the feeling it gives them.

Elvis may have started doing drugs to stay awake but he probably kept doing them because he liked the buzz it gave him.

Then over time he developed a higher tolerance for them then gradually became addicted.

That's how it goes for drug users.

Lamar was probably right and being very truthful.

To say Lamar was a liar or his comments on this were dumb is wrong.

Exactly.

As Lamar Fike once said he took drugs "..because he just fuc*ing loved em".

Plain and simple..

Lamar sure said some dumb and unnecessary things in his time. That was one of them.

What's so dumb about it?

A large majority of people who have done drugs do them because they like the feeling it gives them.

Elvis may have started doing drugs to stay awake but he probably kept doing them because he liked the buzz it gave him.

Then over time he developed a higher tolerance for them then gradually became addicted.

That's how it goes for drug users.

Lamar was probably right and being very truthful.

To say Lamar was a liar or his comments on this were dumb is wrong.

Exactly.

It's dumb because there is no context. There is no comment on addiction or the pressures that might have led him to go down that route. There is no comment on the fact that Elvis convinced himself that he needed the stuff. A blunt "because he f**king loved them" does not tell the full story. I'm not naive. Obviously the buzz was a factor in Elvis taking stuff, but the buzz was part of the addiction. Lamar's comment was flippant and said for effect. With many people dismissing Elvis as a fat junkie, you might think that a close friend would discuss the issue with more sensitivity and understanding.

I can name at least 2 performers from the 70's that never used drugs and still don't. Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty. Not everyone did

As Lamar Fike once said he took drugs "..because he just fuc*ing loved em".

Plain and simple..

Lamar sure said some dumb and unnecessary things in his time. That was one of them.

What's so dumb about it?

A large majority of people who have done drugs do them because they like the feeling it gives them.

Elvis may have started doing drugs to stay awake but he probably kept doing them because he liked the buzz it gave him.

Then over time he developed a higher tolerance for them then gradually became addicted.

That's how it goes for drug users.

Lamar was probably right and being very truthful.

To say Lamar was a liar or his comments on this were dumb is wrong.

Exactly.

It's dumb because there is no context. There is no comment on addiction or the pressures that might have led him to go down that route. There is no comment on the fact that Elvis convinced himself that he needed the stuff. A blunt "because he f**king loved them" does not tell the full story. I'm not naive. Obviously the buzz was a factor in Elvis taking stuff, but the buzz was part of the addiction. Lamar's comment was flippant and said for effect. With many people dismissing Elvis as a fat junkie, you might think that a close friend would discuss the issue with more sensitivity and understanding.

Yes but he still fuc*ing loved em!!

As Lamar Fike once said he took drugs "..because he just fuc*ing loved em".

Plain and simple..

It's anything but "plain and simple". Whilst Lamar did indeed say these very words, its somewhat taken out of context. Of course every addict "loves" whatever they are addicted to and through the passage of time Elvis wanted that 'feeling' of being zonked out. It didn't start off that way though. Quite the opposite in fact.

As Lamar Fike once said he took drugs "..because he just fuc*ing loved em".

Plain and simple..

Lamar sure said some dumb and unnecessary things in his time. That was one of them.

What's so dumb about it?

A large majority of people who have done drugs do them because they like the feeling it gives them.

Elvis may have started doing drugs to stay awake but he probably kept doing them because he liked the buzz it gave him.

Then over time he developed a higher tolerance for them then gradually became addicted.

That's how it goes for drug users.

Lamar was probably right and being very truthful.

To say Lamar was a liar or his comments on this were dumb is wrong.

Exactly.

It's dumb because there is no context. There is no comment on addiction or the pressures that might have led him to go down that route. There is no comment on the fact that Elvis convinced himself that he needed the stuff. A blunt "because he f**king loved them" does not tell the full story. I'm not naive. Obviously the buzz was a factor in Elvis taking stuff, but the buzz was part of the addiction. Lamar's comment was flippant and said for effect. With many people dismissing Elvis as a fat junkie, you might think that a close friend would discuss the issue with more sensitivity and understanding.

I think sometimes we tend to over think these things the simple reason Elvis did drugs was because he liked them.
All addicts convince themselves they need the stuff..

I didn't take Lamar's comments as flippant or said for effect or insensitive.

I just thought he was being straight forward, honest and blunt in his comment.

I'm sure Lamar was aware of the possibility of other factors but i believe he was speaking of the bottom line.

I believe Sonny West, Marty Lacker, and Joe Esposito also did drugs during those years but didn't deal with the pressures Elvis had.

Yet they all abused pills just like Elvis.

Sorry if this has been asked before or seems like a silly question, I'm new here.

My question is: did Elvis take drugs to get high or only because he actually thought he needed them?

It would seem Presley's early use of amphetamines in the late '50s-early '60s was meant to squeeze more out of every day, and to keep his weight down. When he moved into barbiturates, circa 1965, it was a form of self-medication, even if he didn't realize it. His issues of chronic depression came at a time when understanding of same was in its infancy, and eventually the misuse of downers began to escalate in the '70s.

Although there was sometimes a recreational use to these things, Presley in general did not go that route. Like many addicted to drugs, Elvis rationalized his pill taking since it was almost all legally prescribed to him by doctors. And if his doctors gave him the OK, he was not going to stop. Eventually, it all caught up to him.

Now that you have your answer, let's hope you move on to other topics of interest, like Elvis' magnificent artistic legacy, his groundbreaking beginnings in the '50s, his triumphant return in 1960, the stunning 1968 TV Special, and so much more.

Great summation.

Doc's response is spot on but i believe the older he got the more recreational and then dependent he became. In addition, He was taking massive quantities of demoral and dilaudid which were synthetic morphine and heroin opiates. Chronic depression and he just liked the thrill to relieve the terminal boredom. Said differently the usual suspects for a recidivist junkie- he just possessed the means to indulge the habit longer than most and for the most part avoid street drugs. IIRC there are also reports of extensive cocaine use but i am less familiar with the truthfulness of them.

Well, I think it's the "opposite," in a way - in terms of the word "recreational," anyway. I think he dabbled in the '60s, and in the service. (And like every other country singer, he popped the then-equivalent of Red Bull on the road, but that would have led to nothing, were it not for the Army.) But to me, despite Priscilla's upset with his use of sleeping pills to knock himself out, and real problems when he went out to film "Clambake," it was "dabbling." He tried everything: LSD, pot, what have you, and he bought pills from the pharmac(ies) in L.A., directly. Something he likely learned in the service, when he boasted of his slick ability to acquire the speed, to an Army buddy named Rex Mansfield. So, to me that's "recreational."

Until about '70, late '70, I think, he was just dabbling. When O'Grady found his circulatory system suppressed early on (late 1970), this was no longer dabbling, but the shift is always hard to pinpoint - especially to the people closest. Factors may cause the shift, but it's hard to pin it down. Look at the candid photos, and they do tell a story.

It's when he got in real deep so that he was in trouble, that you can't call it "recreational." When someone is seriously addicted, they can't stop on their own, and they're not enjoying it. They may think they can stop, or try to think they can, but they're trapped. Elvis, at some point, stepped into the quicksand, and kept going down. There was a time, 1973, when you'd think he hit bottom, nearly died, and would have made it out alive. But it just didn't happen. There were dealer-docs like Elias Ghanem who kept him loaded. (The late little creepy "doctor" is very well-known in Vegas. He lived near where Conrad Murray's Vegas house was, so in 2009, when the cops descended there, people thought it maybe had something to do with the late Ghanem! He also "treated" Murray's victim. Murray was one of the first Dr. Feelgoods to get the book thrown at it him. Finally.)

If you read the various books, and all the materials generally available, it was not all "legal." Or even all by "prescription." Most, yes, but by no means, all. You will read in all the official accounts of his addiction strictly to prescription drugs, but it puts the reality at a comfortable distance. (And I'm not talking about his '60s experimentation with psychedelics, either.) A bit was just plain illegal (some was actually stolen), more was home-brewed by "doctors" (or dentists), but much of it was through the 'scripts. Some of those were forged; Lisa's name was on some, as were the names of other children. Dr. George Nichopoulos was tried for criminal overprescribing after Elvis died, in connection with his case, and others. He was acquitted. He already had his license suspended, for a while, and a pharmacist was put out of business for what he did. In the 1990s, Nick lost his licence for good.

It is really not possible to talk about the music without looking this in the face, in my view. Or maybe, we'd have had a lot more music, for one thing, and what he made in the lifetime he had, also would have been different, as well.

Greil Marcus once wrote that to approach the story, while avoiding the fact of "ruin" was not to approach the story at all, and I wholeheartedly agree with him on this count.

Just imho.

rjm

rjm I noticed you mentioned the 1970 O' Grady story a few times. Basically he said Elvis took a sedative before the lie detector test. He did add that Elvis was not out of it enough to disqualify his responces. I wouldn't say that that was a new low or a new level of abuse. O' Grady has been quoted that though he knew Elvis used things, it wasn't until after Aloha that it became life threatening.

Doc's response is spot on but i believe the older he got the more recreational and then dependent he became. In addition, He was taking massive quantities of demoral and dilaudid which were synthetic morphine and heroin opiates. Chronic depression and he just liked the thrill to relieve the terminal boredom. Said differently the usual suspects for a recidivist junkie- he just possessed the means to indulge the habit longer than most and for the most part avoid street drugs. IIRC there are also reports of extensive cocaine use but i am less familiar with the truthfulness of them.

Well, I think it's the "opposite," in a way - in terms of the word "recreational," anyway. I think he dabbled in the '60s, and in the service. (And like every other country singer, he popped the then-equivalent of Red Bull on the road, but that would have led to nothing, were it not for the Army.) But to me, despite Priscilla's upset with his use of sleeping pills to knock himself out, and real problems when he went out to film "Clambake," it was "dabbling." He tried everything: LSD, pot, what have you, and he bought pills from the pharmac(ies) in L.A., directly. Something he likely learned in the service, when he boasted of his slick ability to acquire the speed, to an Army buddy named Rex Mansfield. So, to me that's "recreational."

Until about '70, late '70, I think, he was just dabbling. When O'Grady found his circulatory system suppressed early on (late 1970), this was no longer dabbling, but the shift is always hard to pinpoint - especially to the people closest. Factors may cause the shift, but it's hard to pin it down. Look at the candid photos, and they do tell a story.

It's when he got in real deep so that he was in trouble, that you can't call it "recreational." When someone is seriously addicted, they can't stop on their own, and they're not enjoying it. They may think they can stop, or try to think they can, but they're trapped. Elvis, at some point, stepped into the quicksand, and kept going down. There was a time, 1973, when you'd think he hit bottom, nearly died, and would have made it out alive. But it just didn't happen. There were dealer-docs like Elias Ghanem who kept him loaded. (The late little creepy "doctor" is very well-known in Vegas. He lived near where Conrad Murray's Vegas house was, so in 2009, when the cops descended there, people thought it maybe had something to do with the late Ghanem! He also "treated" Murray's victim. Murray was one of the first Dr. Feelgoods to get the book thrown at it him. Finally.)

If you read the various books, and all the materials generally available, it was not all "legal." Or even all by "prescription." Most, yes, but by no means, all. You will read in all the official accounts of his addiction strictly to prescription drugs, but it puts the reality at a comfortable distance. (And I'm not talking about his '60s experimentation with psychedelics, either.) A bit was just plain illegal (some was actually stolen), more was home-brewed by "doctors" (or dentists), but much of it was through the 'scripts. Some of those were forged; Lisa's name was on some, as were the names of other children. Dr. George Nichopoulos was tried for criminal overprescribing after Elvis died, in connection with his case, and others. He was acquitted. He already had his license suspended, for a while, and a pharmacist was put out of business for what he did. In the 1990s, Nick lost his licence for good.

It is really not possible to talk about the music without looking this in the face, in my view. Or maybe, we'd have had a lot more music, for one thing, and what he made in the lifetime he had, also would have been different, as well.

Greil Marcus once wrote that to approach the story, while avoiding the fact of "ruin" was not to approach the story at all, and I wholeheartedly agree with him on this count.

Just imho.

rjm

rjm I noticed you mentioned the 1970 O' Grady story a few times. Basically he said Elvis took a sedative before the lie detector test. He did add that Elvis was not out of it enough to disqualify his responces. I wouldn't say that that was a new low or a new level of abuse. O' Grady has been quoted that though he knew Elvis used things, it wasn't until after Aloha that it became life threatening.

Mike thanks for the info! OGradys comment is strange to me. His feeling Elvis wasnt out of it enough to disqualify his responses is subjective. Was he an expert? In the 70s things were not as scientific as now.

Well I think that during the Comeback period, he likely cut back to an extent from the "Clambake" time. So after TTWII, I think he started going in the wrong direction. And I truly believe the drug-hystetia of the time actually and directly pushed him there. But it didn't happen suddenly. It grew to the point where it was in '73. It didn't begin then, the trouble. It was a process.

But he should not have had respiratory depresson then. Not to mention other odd health problems early on in the '70s. His eyes? How did that happen? I've done some research. But I'd like to see other opions on that.

rjm

Doc's response is spot on but i believe the older he got the more recreational and then dependent he became. In addition, He was taking massive quantities of demoral and dilaudid which were synthetic morphine and heroin opiates. Chronic depression and he just liked the thrill to relieve the terminal boredom. Said differently the usual suspects for a recidivist junkie- he just possessed the means to indulge the habit longer than most and for the most part avoid street drugs. IIRC there are also reports of extensive cocaine use but i am less familiar with the truthfulness of them.

Well, I think it's the "opposite," in a way - in terms of the word "recreational," anyway. I think he dabbled in the '60s, and in the service. (And like every other country singer, he popped the then-equivalent of Red Bull on the road, but that would have led to nothing, were it not for the Army.) But to me, despite Priscilla's upset with his use of sleeping pills to knock himself out, and real problems when he went out to film "Clambake," it was "dabbling." He tried everything: LSD, pot, what have you, and he bought pills from the pharmac(ies) in L.A., directly. Something he likely learned in the service, when he boasted of his slick ability to acquire the speed, to an Army buddy named Rex Mansfield. So, to me that's "recreational."

Until about '70, late '70, I think, he was just dabbling. When O'Grady found his circulatory system suppressed early on (late 1970), this was no longer dabbling, but the shift is always hard to pinpoint - especially to the people closest. Factors may cause the shift, but it's hard to pin it down. Look at the candid photos, and they do tell a story.

It's when he got in real deep so that he was in trouble, that you can't call it "recreational." When someone is seriously addicted, they can't stop on their own, and they're not enjoying it. They may think they can stop, or try to think they can, but they're trapped. Elvis, at some point, stepped into the quicksand, and kept going down. There was a time, 1973, when you'd think he hit bottom, nearly died, and would have made it out alive. But it just didn't happen. There were dealer-docs like Elias Ghanem who kept him loaded. (The late little creepy "doctor" is very well-known in Vegas. He lived near where Conrad Murray's Vegas house was, so in 2009, when the cops descended there, people thought it maybe had something to do with the late Ghanem! He also "treated" Murray's victim. Murray was one of the first Dr. Feelgoods to get the book thrown at it him. Finally.)

If you read the various books, and all the materials generally available, it was not all "legal." Or even all by "prescription." Most, yes, but by no means, all. You will read in all the official accounts of his addiction strictly to prescription drugs, but it puts the reality at a comfortable distance. (And I'm not talking about his '60s experimentation with psychedelics, either.) A bit was just plain illegal (some was actually stolen), more was home-brewed by "doctors" (or dentists), but much of it was through the 'scripts. Some of those were forged; Lisa's name was on some, as were the names of other children. Dr. George Nichopoulos was tried for criminal overprescribing after Elvis died, in connection with his case, and others. He was acquitted. He already had his license suspended, for a while, and a pharmacist was put out of business for what he did. In the 1990s, Nick lost his licence for good.

It is really not possible to talk about the music without looking this in the face, in my view. Or maybe, we'd have had a lot more music, for one thing, and what he made in the lifetime he had, also would have been different, as well.

Greil Marcus once wrote that to approach the story, while avoiding the fact of "ruin" was not to approach the story at all, and I wholeheartedly agree with him on this count.

Just imho.

rjm

rjm I noticed you mentioned the 1970 O' Grady story a few times. Basically he said Elvis took a sedative before the lie detector test. He did add that Elvis was not out of it enough to disqualify his responces. I wouldn't say that that was a new low or a new level of abuse. O' Grady has been quoted that though he knew Elvis used things, it wasn't until after Aloha that it became life threatening.

Mike thanks for the info! OGradys comment is strange to me. His feeling Elvis wasnt out of it enough to disqualify his responses is subjective. Was he an expert? In the 70s things were not as scientific as now.

He was on the narcotics squad for many years so he was pretty well trained in that sort of thing. I'm assuming Elvis just took something mild for his nerves, and that it wouldn't have mattered either way on the test. He did notice his breathing was more measured, but I didn't take it as the kind of respiratory damage he incurred later. I don''t think Elvis was in anyway that ill as of yet. I've read five different interviews with John and his stories never changed. His comments were very pointed about the later years, but he points out that when he first met Elvis he would be straight sometimes and that he found him to be very smart and interesting when he wasn't out of it.

jurasic1968 wrote: "... but there were thousands other groups - like ABBA or Pink Floyd who were clean..."

are you for real...??

Sincerely MB280E

Syd Barret wasn´t clean I think. ABBA wasn´t into drugs, but Benny Anderson has recently spoken about too much booze and is now a sober guy.

OK, sorry, i know Syd Barett drug abuse. But The other members of Pink Floyd were clean.

For one or several reasons Elvis got addicted to drugs. From what I understand, things started getting bad during the end of the 1970 Summer Festival. The visit to the White House in december -70 is an indication that things were not right at the moment. Some of his live appearances and session work during 1971 shows that things were getting worse. About six months after Aloha, his own doctor realised that Elvis was an addict and Elvis was actually treated for that during the fall -73.

I don't know why so many fans have a problem with the fact that Elvis used drugs. It's a fact and it doesn't get any better because other performers did the same.

When we talk about recordings and live performances of the 1970s, drugs have to be mentioned quite often, because they affected his art. It has nothing to do with putting him down, it just has to be mentioned in the context.

To me it is no big deal that Elvis ended up as a junkie-de-luxe. I love his voice and even love a lot of the stuff he recorded in the 1970s. As written before: Let's move on to the more interesting aspects of the King's life.

I don't know why so many fans have a problem with the fact that Elvis used drugs. It's a fact and it doesn't get any better because other performers did the same.

Because people are different. Some don't care if Elvis was a junkie, but for some, that is disturbing. If Elvis only used prescription drugs because he needed it's much easier to accept.

[quote="A. C. van Kuijk"]I don't know why so many fans have a problem with the fact that Elvis used drugs. It's a fact and it doesn't get any better because other performers did the same.

When we talk about recordings and live performances of the 1970s, drugs have to be mentioned quite often, because they affected his art. It has nothing to do with putting him down, it just has to be mentioned in the context.

To me it is no big deal that Elvis ended up as a junkie-de-luxe. I love his voice and even love a lot of the stuff he recorded in the 1970s. As written before: Let's move on to the more interesting aspects of the King's life.[/quote]

agree, as time has gone on, and celebrities today talk about their addictions, its obvious that 'lots' of them had the same problems. Its unfortunate that Elvis died in an era when people were still more secretive about their problems.....

I don't know why so many fans have a problem with the fact that Elvis used drugs.

i don't know either. when i listen to or watch an elvis concert i don't sit there and think, he sounds/looks so drugged up, or whatever. because i don't see/hear it

I don't know why so many fans have a problem with the fact that Elvis used drugs. It's a fact and it doesn't get any better because other performers did the same.

When we talk about recordings and live performances of the 1970s, drugs have to be mentioned quite often, because they affected his art. It has nothing to do with putting him down, it just has to be mentioned in the context.

To me it is no big deal that Elvis ended up as a junkie-de-luxe. I love his voice and even love a lot of the stuff he recorded in the 1970s. As written before: Let's move on to the more interesting aspects of the King's life.

....Totally agree with you A.C.Kuijk -

Elvis had his faults too as a human - he is /was unique - a phenomenon - a mega star who over took the music field with his style and charisma - Long Live His Legend and Name forever -