A monumental oral biography filled with raucous joy aching loss & terrible poignancy Elvis & the Memphis Mafia is the first book to capture the King
- the man & the phenomenon
- in his full complexity Through revealing interviews with three of Elvis's closest friends who were also his protectors & rescuers Nash achieves the first true mapping of Elvis's psyche Billy Smith
- Elvis's first cousin & the person he reputedly loved most after his own mother
- Marty Lacker
- best man at his wedding & foreman of the ' Memphis Mafia' the King's handpicked group of gatekeepers & confidants
- & Lamar Fike
- the touring crew member who accompanied him into the Army
- were with Elvis from his teens to his final days & provide unique access to the greatest of all rock & roll legends The revelations cut through every aspect of Elvis's life from the childhood seeds of his drug dependency through his fear for his mother's life & his plan to change his identity to his bizarre self-mutilation No one who reads this symphonic blending of three proud ribald sad & ultimately wistful voices can fail to be profoundly moved