Elvis Presley’s longtime friend and member of the Memphis mob, Jerry Schilling, opens up about what it was like to live in the late rock ‘n’ roll legend’s famous Graceland mansion.
Schilling, 82, moved into Graceland with Presley – who would have been 90 on Wednesday, January 8 – in 1964. He stayed there for a decade.
“It was the safest, warmest place I’ve ever lived in my life,” Schilling tells PEOPLE. “You’d think it was crazy, rock ‘n’ roll. We had parties down in the pool with the record player and all that, because his parents were up there, but they weren’t crazy parties.”
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Elvis Presley, Jerry Schilling and Sonny West meeting with President Richard Nixon in 1970.
Michael Ochs/Getty Archive
Schilling notes, however, that Presley’s pet chimpanzee Scatter could often be seen “flying to parties.”
Schilling only moved out when Presley bought him his own house in the West Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles in 1974.
“He was a good boss,” Schilling jokes, before adding more seriously, “He was a very generous guy. We hear about his generosity with cars and gifts, but I think I’m the only person he bought a home for outside of his immediate family , but he was also generous as a friend with his time and his soul.”
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Schilling — who recently appeared in a Netflix documentary The Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley — first met Presley in Memphis in 1954, before he had a “hit record.”
“He lived in my neighborhood, and since I was only 12, I needed another person to play football with,” Schilling says. – That’s how it all started 70 years ago.
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Rock and roll musician Elvis Presley performs in the TV special ‘Elvis Comeback’ on June 27, 1968.
Michael Ochs/Getty Archive
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After Elvis died of a heart attack at age 42 in 1977, Schilling says he remained close to the star’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, until her death in 2023. To this day, he maintains a strong relationship with Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, and daughter of Lisa Marie Riley Keough.
“I miss him a lot, of course, but I’ve been lucky enough to be with the Presley family all these years, with the kids, the grandkids,” says Schilling. “I still feel very close to the Presley family. They are my family and have been.”
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Source: HIS Education