Author uncovers fascinating Elvis Presley stories with 4 books in 8 years
Welcome to my world! For the past decade, I have made it my mission to tell Elvis Presley’s true story in spite of all the rumors and myths floating around. So, what drew me to Elvis in the first place?
Aside from the obvious – that he had a million (make that a billion) dollars worth of talent, Elvis was the quintessential rags to riches story. Presley came from nothing, but he lived the American dream. Elvis worked hard and he played hard, and he tried to squeeze the most out of life that he could.
I am constantly fascinated with how Elvis handled his wealth and fame, what he did with his money, how he interacted with his fans, his personal relationships, and how he evolved as a person.
But I grew up as a second generation Beatles fan. It took me a while to get to my A-HA moment and genuinely understand and appreciate Elvis. That’s probably because there were so many misconceptions out there about him.
Many classic rock fans, including myself, wondered why Elvis changed so much over the years. Elvis was forever compared to his 1950s image of sex, defiance and rebellion which in many ways led him to be misunderstood.
With my newfound interest in Elvis, I started writing articles about him, which led to my own online “Elvis” column on Examiner.com (now defunct) from 2011 to 2016. I was so flattered that my 2012 Examiner review of one of Lisa Marie Presley’s concerts was re-posted on her official website, as well as my Examiner review of the 2015 album If I Can Dream: Elvis Presley with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was quoted in an official press release for Sony Music.
In researching and learning more about Elvis, I started to uncover what the mainstream media and even his biggest fans, The Beatles, never understood about him.
One problem was that Elvis never did many interviews, so while he was alive, he always remained somewhat of a mystery to the outside world. Only his friends and family knew who Elvis was behind the scenes. As a result, it was only after Elvis died when everyone started writing books and doing interviews about him that the public was able to peel away the layers and discover who Elvis was as a person and what motivated him.
As a result, for the past decade, my goal has been to address misinformation and rumors about Elvis that are in the mainstream consciousness. That is what motivated me to write my first book in 2015.
ELVIS: Behind The Legend debunks common myths and stereotypes about Elvis that have taken hold over the years. The book also explores the inner motivations and desires of The King of Rock and Roll, and reveals how Elvis Presley’s success actually conflicted with many of his own personal passions.
One of many fascinating things I discovered about Elvis when writing this book was how Elvis never really set out to sing rock and roll. He wanted to be a gospel singer, but when that didn’t work out, his next choice was singing ballads, which is what he sang on his audition for Sun Records owner, Sam Phillips. Elvis literally “stumbled” into rock and roll during that audition.
As we all know, Presley was so talented as a rock and roll performer, and so astute at choosing which songs to record, that he became the most successful rock and roll singer of all time. As a result, in 1956 he was assigned the title “King of Rock and Roll” by the media, which he didn’t necessarily want.
Ironically, a similar thing happened to a huge fan of Presley’s – a guy named Bob Dylan. Who would have thought that Bob Dylan wanted to be a rock and roller like Elvis, even though he made his mark in the folk music scene? But in the end, Dylan saw himself as riding the wave of folk music to become successful, and then switched back to his first love of rock and roll famously at the Newport Music Festival in 1965. I explore the remarkable similarities between Dylan and Presley in Chapter 22 of my book.
But this was just the beginning. Without planning it, my next three books would continue to dispel myths and stereotypes about Elvis. In fact, you could say my entire 3rd book, ELVIS The Army Years Uncovered, fulfills that promise. I was inspired to write this book in 2021 to debunk the myth that Elvis’ army years were two years that contributed nothing to his life or career.
On the contrary, I believe that these 2 years changed Elvis Presley’s life in subtle, yet extremely important ways. Yes, everyone knows he met Priscilla in Germany, but many people don’t realize it was just 6 months before he left.
Elvis was in Germany a whole year before he met Priscilla and dated many other girls during that time. He traveled to Munich and Paris several times enjoying the nightlife. He also discovered karate while he was in the army and received expert instruction in Germany and Paris.
He made lifelong friends in Charlie Hodge and Joe Esposito. He worked on his vocal abilities in his spare time. He had the most personal freedom of any time in his life after he became famous during those 17 months in Germany (October 1, 1958 to March 2, 1960). And, in a way, being in the army helped distract him from his grief about losing his mother.
There are many other aspects of Elvis’ life that were affected that I discuss in the 25 chapters of the book. I’ve also included a handy detailed appendix of the timeline of his activities during those two years.
Even though Elvis was apprehensive about serving in the army, he followed Colonel Parker’s advice and agreed to serve as a regular soldier. Not only did that bring great publicity for the army, but in the end, it brought great satisfaction for Elvis. By the end of his 2 years, he had been promoted to Sergeant, which gave him a feeling of confidence and gratification.
Go behind the scenes of these two years in my book, ELVIS The Army Years Uncovered, which one reviewer calls “The best account to date of Elvis Presley’s life during his years of military service.”
The more I learned about Elvis through my research, the more the floodgates opened resulting in me writing 4 books in 8 years. So why do I keep writing about Elvis?
To sum up in 4 words – because Elvis history matters! And that became extremely important after the success of the 2022 ELVIS movie starring Austin Butler.
In its 2 hours and 39 minutes of screen time, the ELVIS movie covered so many fascinating and controversial facts and details about Presley’s life that I was compelled to delve into and verify what was true and not true.
At first, I considered doing a series of articles about the film. But then I realized there was so much to cover that it would make more sense to go through the entire film, scene by scene, and address, in book format, how accurate the story is to Elvis’ true history.
For example, it was obvious that director and writer Baz Luhrmann was exaggerating the negative side of Colonel Parker in the film. But what I never expected to discover was why he did it. Possibly the most important comment that Lurhamann has made about the film was how he intentionally fit the characters in the Elvis movie into his basic storytelling formula:
“I have a running gag, which is that you could populate all of these [Luhrmann’s] movies with the same characters,” Luhrmann said in a 2022 interview with Vulture. “All-powerful Barry Fife in Strictly Ballroom is Zidler in Moulin Rouge!, and The Colonel in ELVIS. There’s always a Colonel Tom Parker.”
This quote validates the need for my 4th book, Fact Vs. Fiction in the 2022 ELVIS Movie, which was released one year after the film came out in June 2023. For dramatic purposes, Luhrmann created Colonel Parker as a black and white character of the evil villain. Of course, the movie did its job – it recruited a whole new generation of younger fans to love Elvis. An unfortunate side effect was that the film had to fit a true story into a framework traditionally used for fictional storytelling.
My goal is not to criticize the movie, but rather complement it by presenting the related background, context and chronology to what is portrayed in the film. In fact, when watching the movie in digital format, it is amazing how many details and historical references can be found on multiple viewings.
It’s likely that many generations to come will first learn about Elvis from this movie, and this book will help people get the answers to all the questions they may have.
With the help of the 2022 ELVIS movie, Presley has regained credibility and respect in the mainstream which seemed to be lagging before the film came out. While Elvis will always have critics, one thing that can’t be denied is his influence on a whole generation of rock and roll stars – the most prominent being The Beatles!
As John Lennon said, “Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles.”
Starting in 1964, The Beatles were constantly compared to Elvis as being the only musical act that could rival him in terms of popularity and record sales.
When we look back on Elvis history, it’s hard to remember the context of what was going on in the world around Elvis. I wanted to compare and contrast the timelines of Presley’s career and The Beatles career from the 50s to the 70s to see what they were each doing at the time and how they interacted with each other.
As discussed in my 2018 book, Elvis and The Beatles, there were a lot more interactions between them and their managers behind the scenes than most people know about. And while we know that Elvis influenced the Beatles at the start of their career in the late 1950s, he was still influencing them after they had become famous.
For example, according to Paul McCartney, one of Elvis’ unique projects influenced The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album. (Read Chapter 6 to find out)
And not only that, The Beatles influenced Elvis to create and pour his heart into his acclaimed gospel album, How Great Thou Art.
Also, it is surprising how many similar experiences Elvis and The Beatles both had in their careers and personal lives. For example, while Elvis was going on his own spiritual journey in the mid-1960s by exploring different faiths including Eastern religions, The Beatles went through their journey in public just a few years later with their infamous association with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Presley’s lasting legacy in the world of entertainment, culture and society could be summed up best by Bruce Springsteen: Elvis was “the precursor of the sexual revolution, of the civil rights revolution… a new way of being, a new way of looking, a new way of thinking about sex, about race, about identity, about life… Once Elvis came across the airwaves, once he was heard and seen in action, you could not put the genie back in the bottle.”
I invite you to read all 4 of my books which uncover fascinating true stories about Elvis while preserving his legacy of being the best-selling solo artist of all time!
– Trina Young, author
Click on link to read free excerpts of my books on Amazon here:
ELVIS Behind The Legend (2015)
ELVIS and The Beatles (2018)
ELVIS The Army Years Uncovered (2021)
Fact vs Fiction in the 2022 ELVIS Movie (2023)