THINGS ABOUT ELVIS YOU LIKELY NEVER KNEW
According to his childhood friend Becky Martin, Elvis always wanted to be a preacher. Martin was in touch with him throughout the 1970s and recalls Elvis saying, “Becky, just think what I could have done if I had become a preacher! Just think of the good I could have done if I’d lived my life spreading the word of the Lord.” This desire would occasionally manifest itself when he read the Scriptures between songs and hushed the audience into an almost reverent silence to listen to J.D. Sumner and the Stamps sing “Sweet, Sweet Spirit.”
Sumner recalls a woman approaching the stage in Vegas with a crown sitting atop a pillow and Elvis asking her what it was. She answered, “It’s for you. You’re the King.” Elvis took her hand, smiled, and told her, “No honey, I’m not the King. Christ is the King. I’m just a singer.”
The prayers of Elvis’s final days
One of the men standing nearby as Presley and Humbard knelt together was Rick Stanley, Elvis’s stepbrother. “Elvis recommitted his life to Jesus Christ on that night,” he told me in an interview. “Elvis knew the Lord. He was a modern day King David.” Stanley believes that, like King David of the Bible, Presley was a man who pursued God, yet stumbled.
Stanley has one of the more unique perspectives of all those who were close to Presley. He lived with Elvis for 18 years, moving into Graceland at age 6 after his mother married Elvis’s widowed father. Presley was 25 years old at the time.
On the day before Presley died, Stanley told Elvis that a friend of his, Robyn, was telling him about Jesus and how she was praying for him. “Elvis Presley, at 42 years old, looked at me and said, ‘Ricky, she’s telling you the truth.’ Then he said, “People who talk to you about Jesus really care.”
In his 1992 book, Caught in a Trap (Word), Stanley writes about the days leading up to the close of Elvis’s life. On the night of his death, Elvis prayed, “Dear Lord, please show me a way. I’m tired and confused, and I need your help.” A few minutes later, he looked at Stanley and said, “Rick, we should all begin to live for Christ.” On the previous day, Stanley heard Elvis praying, “God, forgive me for my sins. Let…people…have compassion and understanding of the things I have done.”
“The next morning, after spending some time with Elvis, I went to do an errand and when I returned to Graceland Lisa Marie, Elvis’ daughter, told me that Elvis was dead.”
Robyn came to the funeral but Stanley told her that he didn’t want to hear about Christianity because he was angry with God about the death of Presley. Stanley says that she “didn’t even bat an eye and said, ‘He can handle it.’”
A few months later, Stanley became a Christian and began sharing his testimony. When Stanley told Vernon Presley about his plans to preach, Elvis’s father said, “Now son, people are going to be critical of you and your ministry because you are related to Elvis, but don’t let them deter you because Elvis wanted to preach more than anything in the world.”
Rick Stanley became a preacher. One of millions of Elvis’ good legacy.
Ron tells the story of Elvis wanting to be a preacher and why he didn’t plus he will give some insights on Elvis that Ron has learned by talking with people who knew Elvis well.
Ron is being asked more and more to present Elvis’ Gospel music, so in 2008 Ron will be recording some of Elvis’ favorite Gospel songs that Elvis did and some that he never got around to recording. We’ll keep you posted as to when the CD is recorded and when it will be available.
“There is only one real King, and His name is Jesus Christ”
Elvis A. Presley.