The Insane Story Behind the Elvis & Nixon Photo
Oh baby! We have a special one for you. Another, rather ridiculous story from the Tape Spaghetti vault for ya! Elvis Presley had money, fame, private jets, guns, karate skills, and basically anything else a human being could reasonably want. But there was one thing he couldn’t seem to get: a federal narcotics badge. So, naturally, he went to the President. In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake dig into the wonderfully bizarre story behind one of the most famous photographs in American pop culture: Elvis Presley shaking hands with Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. What begins with an argument at home turns into a cross-country odyssey involving commercial flights, loaded guns, handwritten letters to the White House, a surprise presidential meeting, an attempted career as a “federal agent at large,” complaints about the Beatles, and Elvis trying very hard to convince the United States government that he was exactly the man they needed to infiltrate the counterculture. And somehow, against all reasonable expectations, he actually got the badge. Throw in J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI, prescription drugs, a commemorative Colt .45, and one extremely determined King of Rock and Roll, and you’ve got one of the strangest side quests in music history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices