Elvis Made an Audience ‘Nervous’ by Rambling About a Paternity Suit Against Him

During a concert, Elvis Presley took time in between songs to tell his audience about a paternity lawsuit against him. An associate who helped him with the lawsuit was in the crowd, and he took the opportunity to explain what happened. The audience reportedly nervously laughed as he went into surprising detail.

Elvis spoke to his audience at length about a paternity suit

During a show, Elvis introduced John O’Grady to the audience. O’Grady, who was known as Hollywood’s No. 1 Private Eye, helped Elvis with a paternity suit in the past. Elvis told this to the audience, before explaining how he couldn’t possibly have been the father. 

“Turned out to be a complete conspiracy and a hoax, man,” he said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “There is just no way. I had a picture made with that chick, and that’s all. And she got pregnant by the camera.”

According to Guralnick, the audience responded with “nervous laughter and applause.” Elvis didn’t pick up on this and continued on.

“She named the night,” he said. “And the night that she named, my wife was in — no, my wife was with me in LA — and that’s the night she said. Ain’t no way I’m going to fool around with her out there, are you kidding me?”

He then moved on from the subject to promote O’Grady’s memoir.

He also discussed his divorce

Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ ex-wife at that point, was also in the audience. He introduced her to the crowd, then explained what had gone wrong in their marriage.

“Our divorce came about not because of another man or another woman but because of the circumstances involving my career,” he said. “I was traveling too much. I was gone too much. And it was — it was just an agreement that I didn’t think was fair to her, ’cause I was gone so much and everything.”

He spoke about the Stutz car he wanted to give her. He used this as a way to insult her new boyfriend, Mike 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. “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.”

Priscilla Presley said the way Elvis was speaking to his audience concerned her

Priscilla sat horrified in the audience as Elvis spoke about all this. 

“I was in shock,” she said. “Because [in the past] he would never, ever let on to the audience what his emotions were. You know, singing was always his way of venting his emotions, how he felt about something — and he’d get onstage and sing his heart out … This was [so] out of character, for someone who had so much pride, you know — everything he was against, he was displaying. It was like watching a different person.”

She, like many people in his life, became concerned about his wellbeing.