Editing Elvis Presley (section)

=== 1973–1977: health deterioration and death ===
==== Medical crises and last studio sessions ====
[[File:Elvis and Priscilla Presley after divorce hearing.jpg|left|thumb|Elvis and [[Priscilla Presley]] holding hands after their divorce was finalized in 1973]]
Presley's divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=329}} He and Priscilla would remain close friends until his death, even holding hands while leaving the courtroom where they finalized their divorce. Priscilla recalled that they lived life together "like we were never divorced. Elvis and I still hugged each other, still had love. We would say, 'Mommy said this' and 'Daddy said that.' That helped Lisa to feel stable. There was never any arguing or bitterness."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Finn |first=Natalie |date=January 6, 2024 |title=The Heartbreaking Truth About Elvis and Priscilla Presley's Love Story |url=https://www.eonline.com/news/1335721/the-heartbreaking-truth-about-elvis-and-priscilla-presleys-love-story |access-date=December 28, 2024 |website=E! Online}}</ref> By this time, his health was in serious decline. Twice during the year he overdosed on [[barbiturate]]s, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. In late 1973, he was hospitalized from the effects of a [[pethidine]] addiction. According to his primary care physician, [[George C. Nichopoulos]], Presley "felt that by getting drugs from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street".{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}} Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever.{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=238}} Despite his failing health, he undertook another intensive touring schedule in 1974.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=481, 487, 499, 504, 519–520}}

Presley's condition declined precipitously that September. Keyboardist [[Tony Brown (record producer)|Tony Brown]] remembered his arrival at a [[University of Maryland]] concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mic for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, 'Is the tour gonna happen'?"{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=547}} Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled: <blockquote>He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up.&nbsp;... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible.&nbsp;... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions.{{sfn|Hopkins|1986|p=136}}</blockquote>

On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—had fired "[[Memphis Mafia]]" bodyguards [[Red West]] (Presley's friend since the 1950s), [[Sonny West (actor)|Sonny West]], and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=50, 148}}{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=601–4}}{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=139}} Presley was in [[Palm Springs, California|Palm Springs]] at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=354}} Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=140}}

RCA began to grow anxious as his interest in the recording studio waned. After a session in December 1973 that produced eighteen songs, enough for almost two albums, Presley made no official studio recordings in 1974.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=560}} Parker delivered RCA another concert record, ''[[Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis]]''.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=336}} Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "[[How Great Thou Art]]" that won Presley his third and final [[Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance]].{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=381}}{{sfn|Grammy|2014}} All three of his competitive Grammy wins{{snd}}out of fourteen total nominations{{snd}}were for gospel recordings.{{sfn|Grammy|2014}} Presley returned to the recording studio in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=584–585}} In 1976, RCA sent a mobile recording unit to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions,{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=593–595}} but the recording process had become a struggle for him.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=595}}

==== Final months and death ====
{{See also|Elvis Presley death conspiracy theories}}
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Hurt (Presley).ogg|title="Hurt" |description=An R&B hit for [[Roy Hamilton]] in 1955 and a pop hit for [[blue-eyed soul]] singer [[Timi Yuro]] in 1961, Presley's [[Southern soul|deep soul]] version was picked up by country radio in 1976.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=397}}}}
After Presley's relationship with Linda Thompson ended,{{sfn|Gostin|2023}} he began dating [[Ginger Alden]] in November 1976; he proposed marriage to Alden two months later.{{sfn|Speakman|2023}}

Journalist Tony Scherman wrote that, by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Grossly overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."{{sfn|Scherman|2006}} According to Andy Greene of ''Rolling Stone'', Presley's final performances were mostly "sad, sloppy affairs where a bloated, drugged Presley struggled to remember his lyrics and get through the night without collapsing ... Most everything from the final three years of his life is sad and hard to watch."{{sfn|Greene|2018}} In [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]], Louisiana, he was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=628}} On March 31, he canceled a performance in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]], unable to get out of his hotel bed; four shows had to be canceled and rescheduled.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=628–630}}

Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, Presley fulfilled most of his touring commitments. According to Guralnick, fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Presley, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his [[Spiritualism (beliefs)|spiritualism]] books".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=634}} Presley's cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how he would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite [[Monty Python]] sketches and his past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=212, 642}}

"[[Way Down]]", Presley's last single issued during his lifetime, was released on June 6, 1977. That month, CBS taped two concerts for a television special, ''[[Elvis in Concert]]'', to be broadcast in October. In the first, shot in [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]] on June 19, Presley's voice, Guralnick writes, "is almost unrecognizable, a small, childlike instrument in which he talks more than sings most of the songs, casts about uncertainly for the melody in others, and is virtually unable to articulate or project".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=638}} Two days later, in [[Rapid City, South Dakota|Rapid City]], South Dakota, "he looked healthier, seemed to have lost a little weight, and sounded better, too", though, by the conclusion of the performance, his face was "framed in a helmet of blue-black hair from which sweat sheets down over pale, swollen cheeks".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=638}} Presley's final concert was held in [[Indianapolis]] at [[Market Square Arena]], on June 26, 1977.{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=23}}

The book ''[[Elvis: What Happened?]]'', co-written by the three bodyguards fired a year prior, was published on August 1.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=148}} It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: [[glaucoma]], [[high blood pressure]], [[liver damage]], and an [[megacolon|enlarged colon]], each aggravated—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}} His last appearance in public occurred during the early morning hours of August 8, 1977, when he rented the entire [[Libertyland]] amusement park in Memphis for himself and about ten others.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Srubas|first=Paul|date=June 20, 2016|title=Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster Closed After 3 Hurt|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2016/06/20/zippin-pippin-accident/86160364/|work=[[USA Today]]|access-date=March 23, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128004844/https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2016/06/20/zippin-pippin-accident/86160364/|archive-date=January 28, 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Elvis burial site.jpg|thumb|alt=A long, ground-level gravestone reads "Elvis Aaron Presley", followed by the singer's dates, the names of his parents and daughter, and several paragraphs of smaller text. In the background is a small round pool, with a low decorative metal fence and several fountains.|Presley's grave at [[Graceland]]|upright=0.8]]
On August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled on an evening flight out of Memphis to [[Portland, Maine|Portland]], Maine, to begin another tour. That afternoon his fiancée Ginger Alden discovered him unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Graceland mansion.{{sfn|Alden|2014}} Attempts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at [[Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis|Baptist Memorial Hospital]] at 3:30&nbsp;pm;{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=645–648}} he was 42.{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=242}}

President [[Jimmy Carter]] issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".{{sfn|Woolley|Peters|1977}} Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted {{US$|18000|link=yes}} ({{Inflation|US|18000|1977|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) to secretly photograph the body; the picture appeared on the cover of the ''[[National Enquirer]]''{{'}}s biggest-selling issue ever.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=386}} Alden struck a $105,000 ({{Inflation|US|105000|1977|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) deal with the ''Enquirer'' for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=660}} Presley left her nothing in his [[will and testament|will]].{{sfn|Victor|2008|pp=581–582}}

Presley's funeral was held at Graceland on August 18. Outside the gates, a car crashed into a group of fans, killing two young women and critically injuring a third.{{sfn|Matthew-Walker|1979|p=26}} About 80,000 people lined the processional route to [[Forest Hill Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)|Forest Hill Cemetery]], where Presley was buried next to his mother.{{sfn|Pendergast|Pendergast|2000|p=108}} Within a few weeks, "Way Down" topped the country and UK singles chart.{{sfn|Whitburn|2006|p=273}}{{sfn|Warwick|Kutner|Brown|2004|pp=860–866}} Following an attempt to steal Presley's body in late August, the remains of both Presley and his mother were exhumed and reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=660}}

==== Cause of death ====
While an [[autopsy]], undertaken the same day Presley died, was still in progress, Memphis [[Coroner|medical examiner]] Jerry Francisco announced that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest and declared that "drugs played no role in Presley's death".{{sfn|Ramsland|2010}} In fact, "drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. The pathologists conducting the autopsy thought it possible, for instance, that he had suffered "[[anaphylactic shock]] brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist, to which he was known to have had a mild allergy". Lab reports filed two months later strongly suggested that [[polypharmacy]] was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=651–653}} In 1979, forensic pathologist [[Cyril Wecht]] reviewed the reports and concluded that a combination of [[depressant]]s had resulted in Presley's accidental death.{{sfn|Ramsland|2010}} Forensic historian and pathologist [[Michael Baden]] viewed the situation as complicated: "Elvis had  an [[Cardiomegaly|enlarged heart]] for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."{{sfn|Baden|Hennessee|1990|p=35}}

The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Francisco had offered a cause of death before the autopsy was complete; claimed the underlying ailment was [[cardiac arrhythmia]], a condition that can be determined only in a living person; and denied drugs played any part in Presley's death before the toxicology results were known.{{sfn|Ramsland|2010}} Allegations of a cover-up were widespread.{{sfn|Baden|Hennessee|1990|p=35}} While a 1981 trial of Presley's main physician, George C. Nichopoulos, exonerated him of criminal liability, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of [[sedative]]s, [[amphetamine]]s, and narcotics: all in Elvis' name." Nichopoulos' license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}}

In 1994, the Presley autopsy report was reopened. Joseph Davis, who had conducted thousands of autopsies as [[Miami-Dade County]] coroner,{{sfn|Tennant|2013|p=2}} declared at its completion, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack."{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}} More recent research has revealed that Francisco did not speak for the entire pathology team. Other staff "could say nothing with confidence until they got the results back from the laboratories, if then."{{sfn|Williamson|2015|pp=11–14}} One of the examiners, E. Eric Muirhead, <blockquote>could not believe his ears. Francisco had not only presumed to speak for the hospital's team of pathologists, he had announced a conclusion that they had not reached.&nbsp;... Early on, a meticulous dissection of the body&nbsp;... confirmed [that] Elvis was chronically ill with [[diabetes]], glaucoma, and constipation. As they proceeded, the doctors saw evidence that his body had been wracked over a span of years by a large and constant stream of drugs. They had also studied his hospital records, which included two admissions for drug detoxification and [[methadone]] treatments.{{sfn|Williamson|2015|pp=11–14}}</blockquote>