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Everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history. His. That a lot of heavy subjects this week, we're doing a lot of Holocaust awareness, but now we've got I don't know, there's a lighter something I'm not sure it's Elvis's health by Elvis Presley. We're talking about the king of rock and roll. Was he destined to die? Young got Sally Hodel on the podcast. She has spent years researching Elvis's health struggles. And it turns out he had a whole bunch of issues that he inherited from his parents.

She's revealed compelling evidence of a genetic legacy of chronic medical conditions, not even Elvis, not even the king could overcome. This was such a fascinating podcast, a record of obviously, like everybody else in the world, long been a fan of Elvis, long found him a kind of fascinating character. But the knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes, the stress that he put himself under and the battle that he had with his weakening body is absolutely astonishing.

You know, we like to have an anniversary on the podcast. Well, Elvis Presley's first hit song, Heartbreak Hotel, was released on the 27th of January, 1956. That is 65 years ago. It topped the charts in the U.S. in April, became his first hit in the U.K. in May. Just over 20 years later, he died aged 42, which when I was young, seemed to me a reasonable age to die. I mean, I thought 42 was impossibly ancient, now 42, everybody prime of life, early, early peak.

He said he was on the upward slope. In my in my honest opinion, he's the same age as me. Elvis died when he was my age. There we go. Anyway, I'm just going to go and pull myself a few fingers of Scotch and listen to this podcast. You can do the same. And after you've done so, make sure you take advantage of our January offer at history hit dot TV. History hit TV is like the Netflix for history.

We have hundreds of history videos. We have hundreds of history podcasts. You go there, you listen to some of the world's best historians. You watch some of the world's best history documentaries. It's growing bigger all the time. We got a giant amount of content we're going to be dropping. I love that expression. I'm going to be dropping this year. Some big ambitious shows only available at history at TV for proper history lovers. If used to go January, it's still January.

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I might get another subscription. Why not? You can never have enough. In the meantime, I won't enjoy this extremely knowledgeable history. And Elvis fan Sally Hodel as she takes us on a journey through Elvis's health.

Sally, thanks so much for coming on this podcast. Thanks for having me, Dan. Now that we can make a judgment, looking back, how big a figure do you think is Elvis in popular culture, history, music, history, just just the history of the of the US pop culture wise?

You know, I don't think he gets much bigger and around the world as well. I always say that Elvis is recognizable around the world as Mickey Mouse. And Coca-Cola, you know, is kind of Americana. Right. The difference is Elvis was a real person. So some of that gets lost now that he's such a big image. And I do think, you know, who else is recognizable, especially forty four years after his death, still by his first name and by his picture alone.

I mean, I think anybody who sees Elvis knows who he is. So I would say his impact was huge. I think it's still going it's ongoing today.

Yeah, I agree. Even a silhouette. You show so many silhouette like, oh, my God, you know what made Elvis Elvis? Like, when did it become apparent that, you know, like Beyonce more recently that he'd, like, pulled ahead of the pack and just became his own whole thing? You know, it becomes it's almost irrelevant comparing to other singers within the genre. Yeah, yeah.

Who knows how that happens? I think there's a little bit of magic involved when it does happen. But I think Elvis deserves the credit for creating Elvis. He really knew he was different. He was comfortable with being different and he created the image. He created his sound. A lot of it was by accident and he would have said that himself. You know, the big bang of rock and roll in July of fifty four at Sun Studios with. That's all right, Mama.

Even he said it kind of happened by accident. They were just practicing and he was messing around with that blues song. And Sam Phillips said, that's it. That's the sound we're looking for. So a bit of it was by accident and a lot of it was very hard work. And if you read the early stuff, you know, it's obvious that Elvis worked really hard in those early 50s when he was touring across the south nonstop to create his sound, to create his look.

And of course, the biggest thing that helped Elvis was the television, because he not only sounded different and looks different, he moves different. And it was really shocking to nineteen fifty six America and the world.

And because of the television, you could see that for the first time people talk a lot about the African-American influence and Elvis in terms of his moves and his music. And is that something he acknowledged?

Oh, absolutely. And the best thing you can do is look back at YouTube videos of Chuck Berry and B.B. King and James Brown and Sammy Davis Jr. And Elvis had a great relationship with the black entertainers at the time. And they all tell stories about that. And Elvis talked about that. I think the influence went both ways. And but Elvis was absolutely, without question, influenced by by black music, by gospel, by Southern music, the music of the South country.

Elvis really brought all those sounds together in a in a unique way. And what about Elvis?

Like what stage you wrote about his health, his mental or physical health? Like what stage does do you see his gigantic fame, the pressure, some kind of impact on the man himself, like you mentioned, like touring across the south in which he was stationed? You just start to change, right?

Well, I you know, my book points out that the Elvis of nineteen fifty seven is just as sick as the Elvis of nineteen seventy seven. He has many of the same ailments already. They just haven't manifested themselves. You can't see them. They're easier to live with. Fifty seven. But there are small pieces of evidence that if you look at his touring in the 50s when he's going across the south and he's twenty twenty one years old, he does still end up in the hospital for exhaustion.

There are people quoted around him like his girlfriend June, when he goes saying he was so exhausted he couldn't have possibly done one more show yet he did one more show. So there was talk of that exhaustion from the touring even in the fifties and of course, in the sixties. He's busy just making a lot of movies when he tours again in the seventies, all that exhaustion and all that, the the physical drain of touring on anybody but someone with complicated health history.

It's just more obvious when he's touring, but it's always there. And and we really see his health problems. What my book points out long before the fame, which is really important because so much of Elvis, his health issues have been dismissed because of the prescription medication use. But my book points out that many of them were present before fame. So and we have evidence of that now or so.

Yeah. Talk me through some of them.

Well, when Elvis passed in nineteen seventy seven, he has disease or disorder in nine of the 11 systems of the body. And what my book shows is that at least five of them were present prior to fame, so they could not have been caused by a prescription medication which is always linked to that type of thing. So his colon problem, you know, which is kind of famous, unfortunately for Elvis, has always been attributed to taking the prescription medication and how that would have slowed down your digestive system.

But we have a relative on record now saying that as a toddler, it was a huge problem that Gladys would do. His mother would do everything she could to try to help him properly move waste to his body and whatnot, because he he couldn't he had serious constipation problems even as a child. So that was you know, that's a big piece of information. He suffered from an immune system disorder and of course, an. Nineteen thirty five when he was born in nineteen seventy seven when he passes, there is still very little known and understood about the immune system.

It was very much in its infancy, even in the seventies. So he had something called Hypo Gallogly anemia, which means his body wouldn't have been able to properly fight infection. And we see that time and again throughout his life. We see it with severe cases of tonsillitis that almost kill him as a child and then flu and fever and constant recurrent infections as an adult, and especially in the 70s when he's touring more, the harder he works, the the less effective his immune system is.

And we see that, too. So there's a number of things, heart problem, obviously, from his mother's side of the family, which we can go into the family tree of that a little bit more, which is what led me in this direction. But lung problem, insomnia is a nervous system disorder, and he had that prior to fame. So there was a lot going on with Elvis. Wow.

How does he keep himself together for so long on the road? Like, what were his coping strategies?

Well, a big part of it became the prescription medication. And that started in the nineteen fifties, around fifty six. Fifty seven, probably fifty seven with treating the insomnia because he was fine as an insomniac his whole life up until all of that during and at first it was a real benefit because they are driving from city to city to city, you know, hundreds of hundreds of miles between shows. So being able to stay awake and not needing a lot of sleep was a big advantage to all of us at first.

But then when fame really hits you, he can only keep that up for so long and he knows it. And because he did pull his family out of dire poverty, he feels such a responsibility to work hard and to continue working hard to keep them out of poverty. And and that compromises his health. But he finds a way to keep being Elvis Presley. And it starts with Dexedrine, which combats that insomnia problem. So it gives him the energy he can get by on less sleep and then it turns into needing something to sleep.

So it grew from there.

So you mentioned his family history and his his poverty. I mean, talk to me a little bit more about the other family he was born into and and then maybe. Yeah, the medical history of the family as well.

The launching pad was knowing that Gladys died in a very similar four year degenerative pattern of health, as Elvis did, and she didn't take the same prescription medication. So that had to be some similarities there health wise. So looking into her side of the family tree, the maternal side of the family tree in particular, it was really important. And what we discovered was that Elvis's maternal grandparents, so Gladys's parents were first cousins. And of course, with that comes a lot of a lot of issues, oftentimes with that doubling of the gene pool, so to speak.

And we see it in Gladys, we see it play out in her siblings. So with Gladys dies at age forty six, Elvis dies at forty two. But three of Gladys's brothers also die. Forty six, forty eight, fifty eight rather young and have heart related type situations similar to Elvis and Gladys. So the family tree was super important in painting this picture. Akehurst recommends comedy podcasts we love.

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You mentioned he was keen to keep his family out of poverty. I mean, was he handing out money to relatives or was he living a very lavish lifestyle, had his fame and his money so changed him? Sure.

And Elvis is usually more than one aspect to everything. And oftentimes you have to hold two things in tandem, that kind of our opposite. And that's part of what keeps the story so fascinating. But, yeah, he came from such dire poverty to such extreme wealth. And really very quickly, you know, he did start in fifty four, but nineteen fifty six is just skyrocketing to a level of fame that no one has ever had ever experienced before at that point.

And with it came the money and the money came very quickly. And money wasn't important to Elvis in the sense that he wanted to just have a lot of it. Money was important to Elvis so that he could provide for his family so that he could pull them out of poverty, like I said. And he does. You know, this is a a twenty one year old rock star, the most famous guy in the country and in the world at that time.

And he lives with his parents. He buys his parents a house and lives with them first on Autogen Drive and then at Graceland. And then later on, his grandmother lives with him. His aunt lives with him all through the 70s, 60s and 70s. His grandmother and his aunt are living at the house. Multiple family members work for him. He has aunts and uncles that do great security and ground security, and he would employ them in any way that he could then friends as well.

You know, the Memphis Mafia and all the guys around him are certainly legendary. And he most of them came from the same background that he did. They were poor Southern guys for the most part. Couple were not that he met in the army and whatnot, but he saw himself as pulling them out of poverty as well. And that was very important to Elvis to be a provider. And it's really interesting that that is really the factor that also compromises his health later on because he doesn't save money.

He's he's not good with money. He spends a lot, you know, he's famous for that as well. So when he is sick and he needs to stop, he can't because he he still feels an obligation to keep everybody employed and everybody housed and everybody, you know, subconsciously probably out as far away from poverty as possible.

You mentioned his physical health problems. What stage do you think they manifest themselves as mental health problems as well?

That's a tricky question, you know, because. There's a lot of discussion about whether or not Elvis was really depressed or not, and I personally think that Elvis went through cycles of that like any adult does, where life is disappointing and life is great and life is disappointing, where he was comfortable with fame and then times when he was more comfortable staying home. So I don't see him as depressed, you know, tragic figure. His story is often one of self-destruction.

And I think it's often told that way with the picture that my book is painted with these health problems. Again, that would lead to some depression when you don't feel good. Physically, it does impact you mentally, and I think that's also where a lot of his depression and whatnot might have come from because it was very hard for him to be Elvis. It was very hard for him to perform the way he wanted to perform. And he relied on the prescription medication for a long time to make that happen.

And then that also became a problem. So over time, that didn't work either. That's not a story of self-destruction. It really is a story of the struggle to survive for Elvis in those last few years.

Did he manage to keep going? Did he manage to keep working as he struggled with weight gain and all these issues that you talk about? I mean, how tough was life, Elvis, towards the end?

It was very difficult. And he also felt we talked a lot about how he wanted to provide for his family. But he also felt a huge obligation to his fans because he knew that the fans put him there, the fans made him successful and and allowed and enabled him to provide. So he felt a huge obligation to the fans and with any rock and roll star. Yeah, I'm sure there's a need to fill the ego. So he would want to tour and want to get out there.

But you have to remember that when he's doing those Vegas shows and he goes to Vegas for a month, he he's there for 30 days and he's doing two shows a day. So in 30 days, he does 60 shows that would be draining on the most healthy person. And Elvis was not healthy. He had compromised systems in his body and disorder and disease. So he would leave that Vegas month of Vegas performing. He'd have a couple of weeks off and then he'd be touring again, you know, from city to city around the country and then back today.

So I think it would've been draining on anyone. But there is a point where even Elvis knows that he can't keep being Elvis without the prescription medication, that he literally needs it to keep being Elvis Presley. And he had a lot of confidence in that because he felt he studied the physician desk reference and he felt like he knew what he was doing. And that was both a positive to be informed and a negative because he had too much confidence. So he knew he could be Elvis Presley without it.

And it does become a problem. My book doesn't sugarcoat that at all. But what this book does is it answers that question of why why does Elvis turn to prescription medication? And it's because of his health problems and has to continue being Elvis Presley because it was that hard.

I heard a story today about a famous Hollywood actor who is making movies and making huge amounts of money. But he's so traumatized by his early years of acting work and not having enough money and having to work and just being living every on every month, rent check, you know, worrying about paying the rent every month, that he's still obsessed with needing to work and needing to provide.

Why do you think all of his work that hard was it was he who spent money or was he not cutting the right deals with record labels? Why was he working so hard?

Yeah, it's a lot of things. No. One, it's he's driven to work that hard. You know, it just happened that he ended up being a rock and roll star. But if he had been an electrician or a number of other things that he looked into, he wanted to provide for his parents and pull them out of poverty. So he would have worked hard at anything to do that. But then with this fame that came, he felt an obligation to a lot of people and that he was just a I think he was a hyper responsible person in that sense, whether he felt responsible to his parents or to the fans or to the colonel, his manager, which is another big aspect.

You know, he didn't have very good deals with the colonel. So the money that did come in, you know, it wasn't financially handled properly. And then Elvis did spend his legendary for his generosity and he gave cars away and rings away and jewelry away. So he wasn't a good saver either. And like I said before, in the end, you know, towards that last year when he says. I don't know if I can keep going, I don't know if I can keep touring and people around him are saying, take a break, Elvis, it's OK, you can stop.

And he says, no, I've got to make payroll. So he really did. He had to keep working because he had overspent his means with things like the airplane and things like that that would require a continual income coming in to support those lavish things. You're so close to him now.

How do you think he felt in those last four years of his life?

I think he felt like any human being does that accomplishes their goals. He felt the stress and the pressure of it hard to live with at times. And yet on many occasions he is recorded as saying, I love being Elvis Presley. When a reporter said, you know, is there anyone else you'd want to be? His answer was, are you kidding me? So he knew he had a good thing and he did enjoy being Elvis Presley. Doesn't mean it was easy.

Does it mean it was always fun? And at times, I'm sure he would have liked to have just been that kid in Tupelo that nobody knew. But there's also there's plenty of evidence that he absolutely loved being Elvis Presley to he died about to head off on tour again.

Right. He worked till until his dying day. Absolutely.

And he was really sick. And he had had some phone conversations that week prior to leaving on tour or supposed to leave on tour saying, I don't feel good. It's going to be it's tough for me to go. And they'd say, cancel the tour, obviously. No, I want to go. And then the night before, he he said to his cousin, this is going to be the best tour ever. So he was ready to go out again.

He wanted to go out again. You know, unfortunately, he passed away, but he was planning to go back on tour. There was a 12 day tour ahead of him. So I think with anyone that is in that position. Again, it's really hard to be Elvis Presley, and you're the one who has to go out there and travel from city to city and put on the shows, and he was doing even when he was on tour from city to city, he'd often do two shows a day on a Saturday and Sunday.

So, you know, just an astronomical rate that you don't see today from from people that are as big as Elvis was. What finished him off? Well, again, it's an accumulation of all these things. When you have disease and disorder and nine systems of the body that's going to wear on every system of your body. You know, he had a lot wrong with him and a lot of it was genetic and congenital in nature things. He had no control over the prescription medication he took.

A lot of it was needed for those ailments. And then some of it obviously became a problem. And the things he even the things he took for the ailments he had, like the insomnia, had tolerance levels. So then you would need more. And they didn't have the type of prescription drugs that we have today for just for insomnia. They didn't have Lunesta and Ambien, for example. So you had to take volume. So when you look at that, that final toxicology report and there's polypharmacy going on, you have to remember he needed a lot of that prescription medication.

So I think it is an accumulation of a lot of different things that were going on in his body. But ultimately, the liver and heart problem that he had, you know, the blood goes through the liver to go back to the heart. And when the liver is not functioning properly, it's going to return slower. And that's a problem. So it's kind of when it works normally it's like water going through a straw. And when it's not functioning properly, it's like putting going through a straw.

So you can imagine that that blood flow problem was a real issue for him. So with his constipation, which is really one of his biggest ailments, he he develops a mega colon, which is toxic in nature. And because he's going on tour, he was in the bathroom all morning trying to clear his bowel so he wouldn't be so bloated to go on tour. And that constant straining led to something called the resolver maneuver, which is a change in pressure between the heart and the blood flow.

And it happens during labor and things like that. But it was just enough for Elvis to create that cardiac arrhythmia, that change in heart rate, and that led to the heart, the heart attack, cardiac arrhythmia issue and ultimately what killed him. So, again, you can't say it's one thing. It's really it's the liver. It's the heart is the colon and how they all all worked together. And in that moment, it led to his death.

I remember when I was a kid hearing Elvis had died, when he was forty two, it was like he made it. He made old bones. That's impossible. Now that I'm forty two, I consider Elvis to be in the prime of life the absolute peak years.

So how sad.

He died so young, so young, so young, so young. And you realize that now and that when we can say he's been gone for almost forty four years and this past January 8th he would have been eighty six. So when you think of things in those numbers, it's yeah, he's been gone a long time and he was very young. He missed out on a lot of, you know, who knows? I always think of it in terms of just like Gladys, his mother died at forty six.

She never had a chance to meet her grandchild and Elvis didn't have a chance to meet his grandchildren. And a lot of that is because of genetics situation that they had no control over.

Well, I hope his grandchildren listen to his podcast and read your book and go and get themselves regular medical checkups. That's all I can say. Thank you very much indeed. Tell me, how can people get hold of your wonderful book?

Well, there's more information on my website, which is Elvis author dot com. And you can order it there if you like. It does ship around the world. But just recently I partnered with a group called Strictly Elvis in the U.K. and you can you can Google them online and give them a call because they are going to be the main distributor in the UK and Europe and it'll save a lot on shipping, which was the main goal so that this book can reach fans around the world and and save on the international shipping rate.

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and talking about Elvis life and his health. That was perhaps too fast to think he really could still be alive and it wouldn't be that crazy. You know, I knew that he was he's younger than the queen. The king is younger than the queen. Right.

So, yeah, it's totally possible. But thank you for having me this. In the history of our country. Hope you enjoyed the podcast just before you go a bit of a favor to ask. Totally understand. If you want to become a subscriber or pay me any cash, money makes sense. But if you could just do me a favor, it's for free. Go to iTunes or have you get your podcast. If you give it a five star rating and give it an absolutely glowing review, perjure yourself, give it a glowing review.

I'd really appreciate that tough world law of the jungle out there and I need all the fire support I can get, so that will boost it up the charts. It's so tiresome. But if you do, I'd be very, very grateful. Thank you.

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