Elvis 1977 final shows ‘horrifying to watch' admits ex Linda Thompson ‘Not the man I knew'
23.02.2022 - 05:59
/ msn.com
Elvis Presley's last couple of years saw him really let himself go. The King ballooned in weight and was addicted to the uppers and downers he felt he needed to maintain his busy touring schedule. From 1974-1976 the star performed almost 400 concerts and by his final months looked a shadow of the hunk he once was, as he suffered from liver damage, glaucoma, an enlarged colon and high blood pressure.
Around Christmas of 1976, his girlfriend of four years Linda Thompson amicably broke up with him, wanting a normal life away from his hectic celebrity lifestyle. During his final 1977 tour, manager Colonel Tom Parker had organised for what would be a third and final TV special. Filmed weeks before his death on August 16, footage was taken from concerts in Nebraska and South Dakota on June 19 and 21.
The programme titled Elvis in Concert was later broadcast two months after he died on CBS on October 3. It has never been commercially released, with the star's estate saying later in a statement: "We have no plans for releasing a home video of the Elvis in Concert material at this time. Because of the severity of Elvis' health problems at the time the special was shot, Elvis was far from his best in the way he looked and the way he performed, though there are some truly brilliant moments in the footage.
"Appearing in 2017 documentary film The King, Memphis Mafia member Jerry Schilling said: "I saw the CBS special and I called The Colonel and I said, 'How could you let him be filmed looking like that?'"Linda shared: "I just remember standing and looking at the television set and thinking, 'Oh my god, this is not even the same man that I said goodbye to eight months ago. It was horrifying to me to watch. "However, just as Elvis
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