“IT’S a Scam!”
Those were the three simple but highly evocative words that Priscilla Presley posted to her Instagram on Tuesday, emblazoned over a photo of Graceland, her late ex-husband Elvis Presley’s famous home.
The iconic singer definitely passed away on August 16, 1977.
And it was one of those profound events in cultural history that you never forget.
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I was just twelve years old at the time but can still vividly remember finding out the shocking news by seeing a newspaper billboard screaming “ELVIS DEAD AT 42!” as I walked along the seafront in Hastings, East Sussex, where I’d spent the day shrimping with my family.
It was a stunning moment, and we all just stood there in disbelief.
Elvis was the biggest star on the planet, and arguably the greatest icon in music history.
And now he was gone, at such a horribly young age.
She wasn’t, as some unhinged internet conspiracy theorists instantly rushed to assume, casting aspersions on whether Elvis is actually dead.
Little did we know then that his death, far from ending the Elvis phenomenon, would massively fuel it – sparking nearly five decades of drama, tragedy, gossip and conspiracies.
In a plot twist that would befit any lurid TV soap opera, Graceland could potentially be lost forever to a mysterious firm named Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC that has no apparent physical address but only various P.O. boxes in Missouri
Piers Morgan
But throughout those tumultuous 46 years, Elvis has lain in the same place, in the grounds of his legendary mansion home of Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.
He paid $102,500 for it in 1957 and lived there until he died.
Such is its cultural importance, it was added to America’s National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, the first rock-n-roll site to be named to both lists.
More than 600,000 people flock to Graceland each year to pay homage to him, and to see memorabilia like his private plane, 20-car collection including his pink Cadillac, and pool table (on which he claimed never to have lost a game).
It’s the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.
Those visitors included another singing legend Paul Simon who said after his secret trip: “When you finish the tour, and you come outside, there’s his grave and it said, ‘Elvis Presley whose music touched millions of people all around the world.’ And I read it, and I just started to cry. … Being in the crowds that come to Graceland, it’s almost like a religious thing about Elvis.”
He was so moved he wrote a best-selling song about it.
Now that home is at the centre of perhaps the greatest Elvis scandal of them all, as his family fight desperately to stop it slipping into the hands of a ruthless American investment company.
In a plot twist that would befit any lurid TV soap opera, Graceland could potentially be lost forever to a mysterious firm named Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC that has no apparent physical address but only various P.O. boxes in Missouri.
A listed phone number for them is no longer in service.
The firelighter for this dispute was the sudden death last year of Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley, from heart failure aged just 54.
Lisa had inherited Graceland when her father died, and on her own death, it passed to her daughter, Hollywood actress Riley Keough.
But then Naussany Investments came forward to claim that Graceland was used as collateral for a £3 million loan taken out by Lisa Marie with them in 2018, but which they say was never repaid.
And, as a consequence, Naussany has put Graceland up for sale in a foreclosure auction due to take place tomorrow.
Furious Riley has taken emergency legal moves to stop the sale, saying that her mother never signed anything, nor borrowed any money, and claiming that Naussany Investments doesn’t even exist.
And crucially, the notary – an official who would witness such a document being signed – says it never happened and she never even met Lisa Marie.
Riley won a temporary restraining order on Monday and is pushing for a full injunction to prevent any disposal of Graceland to the highest cash bidder.
A spokesman for Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the mansion business and much of his estate, said in a statement: “Elvis Presley Enterprises can confirm that these claims are fraudulent. There is no foreclosure sale. Simply put, the counter lawsuit has been filed to stop the fraud.”
And that precipitated Priscilla’s own much shorter statement: “It’s a Scam!”
However this legal battle ends up, the idea of Graceland possibly being taken from Elvis’s family has horrified his vast army of fans.
After all, this is where the King is buried, although not initially.
Two days after his death, he was interred next to his mother Gladys, at Memphis’ Forest Hill Cemetery.
But after an attempt was made to steal his 900-lb., steel-lined, copper-plated coffin and hold the remains for ransom, Elvis and Gladys were moved to Graceland.
And that is where many of his other family are buried too, including his grandmother, his father, Lisa Marie, and Lisa Marie’s son Benjamin who shot and killed himself in 2020.
Their burial plots are all together in the eight-bed, eight-bathroom Graceland compound’s Meditation Garden, located behind the main house, which is why the surviving members feel so strongly, and protectively about it.
When I interviewed Priscilla for Piers Morgan Uncensored last year, to coincide with the release of the movie about her life, she’d just resolved her own legal dispute with Riley to clear up the unresolved financial mess left by Lisa Marie’s unexpected and untimely death.
Priscilla, who Lisa Marie appointed as the Elvis estate manager and co-trustee 25 years ago, contested the validity of her daughter’s will, which included an amendment from 2016 to remove Priscilla as trustee, and appoint Riley and her brother Benjamin as ‘successor co-trustees.’
When my mom passed there was a lot of chaos in every respect of our lives. Everything felt like the carpet had been ripped out and the floor had melted from under us
Riley Keogh
Priscilla had never been informed of this amendment, and it even spelled her name wrong.
But it was all settled amicably with Riley paying her grandmother $1 million, and $400,000 in legal costs, and becoming the sole trustee of the estate including Graceland which thanks to Priscilla’s determination to keep Elvis’s legacy alive now generates over $100 million a year.
Priscilla is also a paid special adviser to the trust.
Riley told Vanity Fair: “When my mom passed there was a lot of chaos in every respect of our lives. Everything felt like the carpet had been ripped out and the floor had melted from under us. Everyone was in a bit of a panic to understand how we move forward, and it took a minute to understand the details of the situation, because it was complicated.
“We are a family but there’s a huge business side of our family, so I think there was clarity that needed to be had, and clarity has been had.
“Things with grandma will be happy, they have never not been happy. She’s a beautiful woman and she was a huge part of creating my grandfather’s legacy in Graceland.
“It was very important to her. He was the love of her life. Anything that would suggest otherwise in the press makes me sad, because at the end of the day, all she wants is to love and protect Graceland and the Presley family and the legacy, that’s her whole life, it’s a big responsibility she is trying to take on.
“None of that stuff has ever really been a part of our relationship prior, she’s just been my grandma.”
When I read these words to Priscilla, she instantly welled up.
“I never read that, wow. I am going to cry again. I love her. We have always gotten along. It was a little bit of trying to figure out the will, like you normally do, but Riley and I have always been close. I think Riley will be great, she has asked me a few things about what to do. I want to help her with Graceland. She has a great head on her shoulders. I trust her.”
And when I asked Priscilla if one day she’d like to be buried alongside Elvis at Graceland, she replied emphatically: “Yes.”
Then laughed: “But not right now!”
I can only begin to imagine how hurt she and Riley must currently be feeling at this attempt to snatch Graceland away from them.
They must be thinking the same thing as me: if it happens, what the hell happens to all the bodies buried there, and especially to Elvis?
His memory, and his legacy, and his home, cannot be lost to a bunch of dodgy loan sharks.
And my message to those sharks?
Don’t be cruel.
