Transcript

David Sillito:
Welcome to Blackpool for this News forum live on interactive TV and also of course on the Web. It's all about Elvis today as you can probably see over my shoulder here. I am joined now by David Stanley, the step-brother of Elvis. I've got a whole collection of questions here - they come from all over the world.

We'll start with one from John Horne, Kent, UK: I have been a big fan of Elvis Presley for many years. Was Elvis actually like a brother to you?

David Stanley:
He was. I moved into Graceland when I was only four years old - Elvis was 25 years old , so he was 21 years older than me but he accepted me as a little brother. He was more like a father-figure because as I was growing up with that age difference - the influences that he had on my life - we'd play football in the back yard, we had Christmases and holidays together. He told me about girls - and who would know better than Elvis? He came to watch me practise sports. He really encouraged me to do the things that I did within the martial arts and music. So brother yes but more like a Dad more so.

David Sillito:
You were though living in Graceland weren't you?

David Stanley:
Correct.

David Sillito:
What a crazy childhood to have.

David Stanley:
Well the word surrealistic is the first thing that comes to mind. It was pretty cool - Graceland is set in some 14 acres of land in Memphis, Tennessee. We had horses and go-carts and golf-carts and all kinds of things that we played on when growing up. There was lots of land to play on. Christmas was especially nice because when it snowed, we'd have the big living room full of presents and the tree.

People have got to understand, he was just like anybody else but he just so happened to be Elvis Presley and things were just maybe a little bigger and a little more extravagant.

David Sillito:
We all know what he looks like on stage and what the public image is. What was he actually like off stage - how different was he?

David Stanley:
It's like Elvis once said in an interview he did in New York City in Madison Square Gardens - he said the image is one thing and the man is another thing. Elvis was a very humble person. He was a very mellow, laid-back type person.

When he wasn't working he loved to play - and playing for Elvis meant anything from racing go-carts in front of Graceland to riding horses, to staying up all night long and going to the movies. We'd rent a movie theatre every night and we'd go to the theatre about 1 o'clock in the morning and watch two or three movies and Elvis would get lost in the entertainment of the film that we were watching. He was just a real humble cat - real mellow, fun-loving, but on stage the electricity turned on and of course the rest is history.

David Sillito:
That takes us perfectly into a question from Gina Della Valle, England: Elvis could buy anything. Was there anything that money couldn't buy him?

David Stanley:
That's a great question. I could get really deep on that particular question. I think what Elvis wished he could have had was some inner peace. The toughest thing for Elvis Presley was to be Elvis Presley - everybody loves me everywhere I go, people want a part of me - and Elvis had really no accountability and no one to answer to. I think what Elvis really wanted was to be able to sit down with somebody and just create an inner peace of his life - about who he was, why he was and why he had the gift that God had given him.

David Sillito:
Joanna, UK: I'm a huge Beatles fan and just wondered what Elvis really thought of them?

David Stanley:
First of all let me her how much I love her because I am a Beatles fan. Here I'm growing up at the Graceland mansion, my brother is Elvis Presley and I'll share this brief little story.

In 1964, the Beatles played Memphis Tennessee, Elvis was in Los Angeles, but I was at Graceland with my family and the Beatles came by to see Elvis and there was a knock on the door and I opened the door and there was Brian Epstein and John Lennon. Now I'm a John Lennon fanatic - I'm ten years old and I'm going - Mum, it's John Lennon - but she wouldn't let him in the house because the competition was there - Elvis - the Beatles. Of course I never forgave my mother for that, but I did get to talk to John Lennon which was one of the great things in my life.

But Elvis personally thought the Beatles were a great band - he liked Paul McCartney and he like George Harrison. He had a little problem with John Lennon because Elvis didn't believe in projecting negative messages through music. He thought that Lennon was a danger to society in the United States to the point that he even went to see the President of the United States and said, we've got to watch for John Lennon. But how funny is that? In the 50s Elvis was a menace to the United States or the world for that matter! So I think that he thought that Lennon was a little rebellious. I used to say to Elvis - rebellion! - you created rebellion. But Elvis always tried to communicate positively in his music and he was a little threatened - not professionally - but by the personal lyrics of John Lennon. But hey, nobody is perfect - not even the King.

David Sillito:
The images we see of Elvis, they're always now, it seems to be, in the jumpsuits in his Las Vegas days. Do you think that maybe we've forgotten what Elvis was really about which is really what he did 50s?

David Stanley:
I agree with you 100%. I think Elvis is so big in the United States and I know over here you know what Disneyland is, you know what Mickey Mouse is - well in the United States and Los Angeles at Disney studio there's a Disney character Mickey Mouse on the side of the water tower. Now I tell you that to say this: Elvis has become the image - he's almost like an image on the side of a water tower. He's more of a branding than he is an individual.

I think what's happened over the years is people have forgotten that Elvis Presley was just a human being. Every time I try to talk about Elvis - both good and bad, positive and negative - I always try to talk very realistically about the human being. I try to humanise the King because if Elvis was alive today, that's what he would want. People miss that human spirit which was the 50s of a rowdy rock and roller who came out and basically just did it his way.

David Sillito:
Do you think there's been too much about the drugs, the eating of the cheeseburgers etc.

David Stanley:
I think that goes back to what I'm saying about the icon on the side of the Disney tower. People talk about Elvis eating jellied doughnuts - I never saw Elvis ever eat a jellied doughnut. They say Elvis ate a bunch of cheeseburgers - I love cheeseburgers - Americans love cheeseburgers, the Brits love cheeseburgers. They talk about the specific foods he ate: peanut butter and banana sandwiches - well people down South in the United States, that's what you ate and too many people major on that.

As far as the medication and drugs - it was a tragedy. Elvis died a very untimely death - 42 years old. He made a series of mistakes that cost him his life but that's not who Elvis was - that was the human that cost him his life. But as far as the entertainer and the person that we're trying to remember 25 years after - he left his mark and people should focus on the positive rather than the negative. I have negative things in my life that I'd certainly not want anybody to know about. I hope I'm more of that kind of person that leaves behind the positive.

David Sillito:
Kathleen Wells, London, UK: I was only five years old when he died, but he still means a lot in my life.

How do you feel that there are new fans coming along, people who are rediscovering him 20 - 30 years later?

David Stanley:
It's absolutely phenomenal. I have a friend of mine, Rachael Harvey. Rachel is only 24 years old. Now Elvis passed away 25 years ago. She's just started a publication called Endlessly Elvis which is a magazine which talks specifically about Elvis. I was so impressed with her love for Elvis that I did an article for her.

I tell you that story to share with this young lady that never even saw him but can only hear the lyric and hear the music. How do you explain that? I don't know but that certainly says something about an individual 25 years after he left, how he is impacting on the youth of today. He has just had a No. 1 record here in the UK - how can you figure that one out? It's just there's something about the pureness of Elvis' voice and the music that he projected that people grab a hold of.

David Sillito:
And amazing TV moments - Aloha from Hawaii.

David Stanley:
This picture behind me was taken from the Aloha Hawaii concert. Now I was backstage with Elvis and almost eerie because this is almost life-size. And I'll never forget talking to Elvis - I said, Elvis are you nervous? And he said why would I would nervous? I said, there's a billion people about to see you on television. And he looked at me and said, I tell you what I'm nervous about - he said, I'm nervous that I'm not going to give them what they want.

Then he started pacing around and all of a sudden out of nowhere he said - God, I miss my mother - because he realised where he was at. You've got to understand this guy was born in a house not as big as this stage and suddenly he was about to walk out in front of billion people and communicate a gift that had been given to him by God and the only thing he was thinking about was, would my mother be proud of me.

David Sillito:
Chris in the UK asks: Elvis had a bit of a sense of humour didn't he?

David Stanley:
Absolutely. If you couldn't laugh, you couldn't work for Elvis - it just wouldn't happen. His favourite movie was the Holy Grail, Monty Python. We sat in a theatre many, many a night and watch that movie - we only had about 12 people in the theatre because it was just us. He loved the Holy Grail - he would watch it time and time again and he'd just laugh and laugh.

He was a practical joker - he was always pulling jokes on the guys who worked for him. We were always wrestling in the hallways, always in the backyard playing football - always upbeat and fun and laughing. He always said - when it ceases to be fun, then quit. All the guys around Elvis sometimes would say - hey this is a tough tour, I'm tired etc. and he'd always say, it could be worse - you could have nothing. He said, we're so blessed we have so much and we'd sit down and just start laughing - telling jokes etc. or watching Monty Python. The guy loved Monty Python.

David Sillito:
His life doesn't seem as tragic as a lot of the reports writing retrospectively are saying.

David Stanley:
The tragedy is he left. The tragedy is some of the things he did cost him his life. But as far as the individual's life - Elvis did a lot of living for a 42 year-old man. He saw a lot and did a lot. He entertained a lot - he left a legacy.

You said something about a spiritual man - he was a spiritual man - I'm a spiritual man and it was just time for Elvis to go home. He had done his thing, he had left his mark, he had pleased the people and like you said five year-old girls who were just babies love Elvis today. He left something behind that's positive.

You've got to look at this guy, Elvis Presley. He could have influenced society in a lot of different ways. It goes back to the John Lennon situation. Elvis never projected drugs or sex or anything in music - the only thing he projected in communication was the Gospel because he was a believer. He could have led society in so many different ways with his influence and he chose to if he's going to share something, share the gift that was given to him by the God that he sang about in his music. And that says a lot about a guy. He didn't talk about his political perspectives, he didn't try to lead people down these ways and avenues of different political agendas - he just entertained the people.

David Sillito:
How do you feel today?

David Stanley:
The thing is, I'm riding around in the car trying to find a parking spot, I'm coming in here and I'm doing interviews etc. and I have this shell of happiness in me of sharing this great friend of mine - this brother of mine. But there is a thick, thick, thick sadness of the day I walked in and my brother had left me. I can't shake it - I'm trying to shake it - I'm keeping the image up right now but inside I'm crying and I'm hurting because I miss him - I miss Elvis - every single day of my life I miss Elvis Presley.

David Sillito:
Final question here from Michael Little, UK: He has really gone hasn't he?

David Stanley:
Yes, he's gone. I like to kid around because Elvis had such a great sense of humour - actually he lives in Dallas, Texas with me, ok!. No he's gone. I wish he wasn't and nobody loved Elvis more than me and nobody wishes he was here more than I do. But he's not here with us but in spirit he hangs with us and we're able to celebrate his life and God I wish he was.

David Sillito:
David Stanley, thank you very much indeed on an important day.

David Stanley:
Yes it is.

David Sillito:
On our BBC News interactive forum there, I've been speaking to David Stanley - extraordinary inside tale there of Graceland on the 25th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley.