Sometimes we just have to answer when opportunity knocks—or rings. When the phone rang, I was feverish and congested, at the start of a summer bug, and was home napping. Seeing the familiar 974 prefix telling me that the call was coming from the University of Tennessee, I decided I should answer it. On the line was Alissa Galyon, the director of marketing and communications in the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music, who had a very unexpected request. She wanted to know if I would be willing to be interviewed by a reporter from the BBC concerning the potential sale of Elvis Presley’s former home, Graceland. As I wasn’t feeling well, I did have to think twice about accepting. But I quickly came to my senses. Realizing that it’s not just every day that one gets to talk to a reporter from the BBC, I said yes.

I have a longstanding interest in popular music history as well as Tennessee history. I am old enough to remember exactly where I was on August 16, 1977, when I first heard that Presley had died. His death was huge news as he was only 42 years old and still one of the world’s best-known musicians. Fans were mourning all over the world, and in the days immediately following his death many gathered outside the gates of Graceland. Years after Elvis made his final exit, I, too, made the pilgrimage to Graceland. 

I had this useful background knowledge. But when called about the BBC interview, I was unaware of why there was renewed interest in Graceland. A brief look at the news of the day answered my questions: Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC was making the claim that Elvis’s only child, Lisa Marie Presley, had taken out a loan from their company using Graceland as collateral in 2018 and, at the time of her untimely death in 2023, had not repaid the loan. Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough—the current owner of Graceland—was challenging these claims, contending that her mother had never taken out the loan and that any documentation was either forged or nonexistent. The BBC wanted to talk with someone from Tennessee regarding the potential sale, and they had found me! Later that afternoon I was on hold on my phone, waiting to be interviewed. A medley of Elvis’s hits started to play, and soon I was talking with BBC Radio 5 host Gordon Smart. 

After introducing me, Smart explained to his listeners why Graceland was once again in the news and asked me to describe its cultural and historical heritage. Graceland is famous for eccentricities like the Jungle Room, the shag carpet, the mirrored walls, and the hall of Elvis’s sequined jumpsuits and gold records. Those features are more easily understood when visitors realize that Graceland, intentionally stuck in time in the year Elvis died, is one of the few museums that celebrates and enshrines the 1970s. 

While many would rightly call the house a mansion, Graceland is relatively modest. Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll and a successful movie star when he bought the house in 1957. But Graceland, though large when one considers the additions Elvis had made, is not like Versailles, Hearst Castle, or Neverland Ranch. Inside, the rooms reminded me of many people’s grandparents’ houses from the 1970s. They revealed to me a humble side of Presley that I was surprised and pleased to discover. Elvis had planned for his parents to live with him there and to eventually raise his own family there, and you can see that in his comfortable and inviting house. The endearing impression that I took away from my visit to Graceland was that Elvis had chosen to live more humbly than other superstars might. I enjoyed the opportunity to share those thoughts with the BBC audience, most of whom would undoubtedly never visit Graceland. 

Smart asked if I thought the foreclosure case could prove successful. While I didn’t know, I pointed to a few indicators that the claims made by Naussany Investments were likely to be false. He questioned whether I would find it strange if someone other than the Presley family were to eventually assume ownership and management of Graceland and perhaps turn the estate back into a private home or open it as a commercial enterprise. I said that, while the many devoted fans of Elvis would undoubtedly be disappointed if the house reverted to private ownership and was closed to the public, those fans might also find it inappropriate for a commercial enterprise to own the graves of Elvis; his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley; his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley; his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley; and his grandson, Benjamin Keough—all of whom are interred in the Meditation Garden at Graceland. 

Smart then asked if I thought the State of Tennessee might eventually acquire and take over the management and preservation of Graceland. I had not considered that but thought it a possibility. He concluded by asking whether the recent movie featuring Austin Butler as Elvis, which has created a whole new group of Elvis fans, was being noticed in Tennessee. I agreed that it had and shared a conversation, inspired by the movie, I had shared with musician and Memphis native Marcel Holman. Holman had played with his band at one of Elvis’s Christmas celebrations in Memphis in the late 1960s. I asked him whether the film’s positive portrayal of the relationship between Elvis and the Black community of Memphis mirrored what he had experienced as a member of that community, and Holman assured me that it did. He felt that Elvis was well integrated into Memphis and shared, as an example, how Elvis had gone out of his way to talk with him and the other Black band members who had been hired to play at his Christmas celebration. 

Smart noted the important role Elvis played, thanked me for coming on his show, and commented on my Southern accent before moving on to his next story. Even though I still felt a bit ill, I was surprised by how fast the interview flew by. I was also pleased to have knocked an item off my bucket list that seemed so unlikely I would never have considered putting it on my list in the first place: being interviewed by the BBC!

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