Elvis Became Scarily Obsessed With Priscilla Presley’s New Boyfriend After an Onstage Attack
Elvis Presley was not happy when Priscilla Presley began dating after their divorce. His jealousy twisted into something more frightening after one concert, though. Several audience members stormed the stage, and Elvis became convinced that Priscilla’s boyfriend was behind it. Because of this, he couldn’t stop focusing on the other man.
Elvis Presley became fixated on Priscilla Presley’s new boyfriend
Elvis had long worried about a potential assassination attempt during a concert, and it seemed that his fears were going to come true during a 1973 show. While he performed, four men stormed the stage. Elvis’ entourage jumped into action and pulled the men from the stage. Elvis himself even pushed one potential assailant back into the crowd.
He resumed the show once the men were gone. Afterward, though, Elvis could not move past the potential attack. After speculating about the men’s intentions, Elvis began to think that Priscilla’s new boyfriend, Mike Stone, had hired them.
Elvis already felt vitriol toward Stone for dating Priscilla, so the jump wasn’t difficult for him to make. He believed Stone was too cowardly to fight him himself, so he hired four men to take him out. The best response, Elvis believed, would be to kill Stone before he could try to hurt him again.
“There is too much pain in me, and he did it. Do you hear me? I am right,” he wailed to his bodyguard, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “You know I’m right. Mike Stone [must] die. You will do it for me — kill the sonofab****, Sonny, I can count on you. I know I can … He has no right to live.”
Elvis continued to talk like this for days after the thwarted attack.
Elvis had previously encouraged Priscilla Presley to train with Mike Stone
Not long before this, Elvis held Stone in high regard. In 1972, Stone visited Elvis and Priscilla backstage at a Las Vegas show. Stone was a celebrated karate instructor, and Elvis encouraged Priscilla to train with him.
“He has that killer quality,” Elvis told Priscilla, per her book Elvis and Me. “Nothing on two legs can beat him. I’ve been impressed with him since the first time I saw him fight. He’s a real bada** — I like the cat’s style.”
Priscilla decided that the drive was too long for her to train with Stone, but she formed a friendship with him. Before long, their relationship developed into an affair.
He once insulted Mike Stone onstage
After Priscilla and Stone began their relationship, Elvis lost all the respect he had for the other man. During one concert, he even let his audience know how much he disliked Stone.
“It’s not a car, it’s a Stutz — No, wheeew, God help me, no, it’s called a stud — a Stutz,” he said of a car Priscilla liked. “And she likes the stud. She likes the Stutz. Mike Stone ain’t no stud — so forget it. She likes the Stutz and — so I’m going to give her the Stutz and she can give me the Rolls, okay? But I wish [Mike Stone] was a stud, you know. He’s a … nice guy.”
