Though Elvis Presley was known to be devoted to those he loved, he also had a short temper,
and he had little patience for those he didn't like. Here are some celebrities Elvis couldn't
stand.
The careers of Elvis Presley and John Lennon took similar trajectories, in that both were
two of among the very biggest names in music — and in popular culture as a whole — at
roughly the same time. Further, both men were big while the Vietnam War was going on.
To say that the war was divisive is an understatement. Attitudes about the war extended beyond the
well-publicized public demonstrations and the entire genre of music that protested the
war. Public figures were quick to line up on either side of the debate as well. Celebrities
like Jane Fonda and Mohammed Ali publicly opposed the war, while others, like John Wayne,
supported it.
Lennon was steadfastly opposed to the war in Vietnam, and made no secret about it. Presley,
however, supported the war, according to The Express, and was a big fan of then-president
Lyndon Johnson, whom Lennon hated for going all-in on the war.
"Honey, I'd just as soon to keep my own personal views about that to myself."
When the two men finally met in 1965, their conflicting attitudes about the Vietnam war
quickly came to the surface.
No sooner had the Beatles entered Elvis' home than the tension between the two became apparent
according to author Chris Hutchins. Hutchins arranged the meeting and later wrote about
it in the book Elvis & Lennon: The Untold Story of their Deadly Feud. He told The Daily
Mail,
"[Elvis'] dislike of the pacifist Beatle was born from the night I took the Fab Four to
his house for their first — and last — meeting."
Why? Well, according to the Beatles press officer Tony Barrow, things started off on
the wrong foot. Barrow told The Guardian,
"John asked what had happened to the old rock 'n' roll Elvis, who at that point was mainly
singing the soundtracks to his films. He was half-joking but he meant it."
The tension was eventually eased by an old fashioned jam session, but the hard feelings
apparently lingered. Barrow told the The Guardian,
"John said it had been about as exciting as meeting Engelbert Humperdinck."
As for the other Beatles? They weren't exactly blown away either.
"I don't remember. I spent most of the party trying to suss out from his gang if anybody
had any reefer."
Elvis wasn't prepared to just stew about John Lennon, the Beatle's anti-Vietnam War stance,
and the personal slight Elvis had suffered in his own home. He wanted Lennon gone. As
in, out of the USA. What's more, he actually went to none other than the President of the
United States to get action.
That's because Presley wasn't the only person keen to have Lennon silenced. The U.S. government
wasn't exactly thrilled with Lennon's anti-war sentiments either. So when Elvis met with
President Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970, he found a receptive audience when he tried
to convince the POTUS to find a way to get rid of Lennon and the Beatles.
According to the official White House meeting notes from the President's personal file,
"Presley indicated that The Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit. He
said that the Beatles came to this country, made their money, and then returned to England
where they promoted an anti-American theme. The President nodded in agreement."
And Elvis wasn't done lobbying for Lennon's removal. In 1971, during a tour of the FBI
offices, The King met with then-director J. Edgar Hoover. According to government records,
he expressed
"[...] the opinion that the Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are
having with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music."
Elvis got his wish, as The FBI did indeed go after Lennon, spending years attempting
to get him deported in order to ensure he didn't damage right wing political goals through
his activism.
On the surface, Elvis and crooner Robert Goulet couldn't have been more different. The former
was a boundary-pushing, controversial Rock & Roll pioneer, the latter an inoffensive,
ballad-singing performer whose presence wouldn't be unexpected on "The Lawrence Welk Show."
Legend has it that the short-tempered Elvis had little patience for seeing Goulet on TV,
and once shot one of his television sets when he saw the crooner perform.
But while it's apparently true that Elvis did shoot a TV while Goulet was performing,
the rumors of a supposed beef between them may have been overblown. According to author
Lisa Rogers, Goulet would later call Presley a, quote, "personal friend."
And as for shooting a TV whenever Goulet was on? Presley reportedly did that to scores
of TVs, and it had less to do with Goulet himself and more to do with the King's short
fuse and his jealousy of all other performers. He was also known to fire at the TV when other
popular singers, such as Mel Torme or Frank Sinatra, appeared as well.
In fact, according to The Vintage News, Elvis' handlers kept scores of spare TVs around in
case their boss happened to shoot one. That's kind of screwy.
By the middle 1950s, Rock & Roll was becoming a thing, with pioneers like Elvis, Bill Haley,
and Chuck Berry bringing a new form of music to the masses, and teenagers eating it up.
This presented something of a problem for old guard musicians like Bing Crosby, Perry
Como, and the like. Careers were threatened, and concerns were raised about what effect
the new form of music was having on the morality of America's youth.
And Frank Sinatra, for his part, basically called Rock & Roll garbage. According to The
Express, in 1957 he said of Rock & Roll,
"It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phony
and false [...] It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons."
Elvis wasn't about to brook being called a "cretinous goon" by Old Blue Eyes. In a press
conference, Elvis responded by saying,
"He has a right to his opinion, but I can’t see him knocking it for no good reason. I
admire him as a performer and an actor but I think he’s badly mistaken about this.
If I remember correctly, he was also part of a trend. I don’t see how he can call
the youth of today immoral and delinquent."
The two seem to have buried the hatchet eventually, at least professionally; in 1960, after Elvis
completed his time in the U.S. Army, Sinatra hosted a TV special called "Welcome Home Elvis."
No word whether anyone shot the TV.
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