This was from a Q&A with Dolly on CMT: Appraising Elvis
Elvis was my first rock hero, and he remains the most charismatic performer I've ever seen.
Because Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker, kept him from doing interviews to maximize the mystique, I never spent time with Presley. But I did meet him one night in 1971 before one of his Las Vegas shows. Parker came by my seat in the showroom and asked if I'd "like to meet the boy." It would be a social call, he made clear, not an interview. Elvis wanted to thank me for something I had written about him.
Over the next few years, I watched Elvis slowly decline — physically and creatively. It was years before we knew the reasons for the weight gain and the careless shows — the depression and cases of prescription drugs that led to his death in 1977. The sight of him turning into a caricature was so disheartening that in 1974, I wrote one of the most difficult pieces of my career, suggesting it was time for Elvis to retire.
Presley fans were so outraged that I received death threats. Elvis read it, I learned, and was said to be furious. There were no more backstage invitations.
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