DALLAS — Every week in North Dallas, two friends get together for burgers.
Charles Stone and Sam Thompson have been meeting for lunch for six years, but they say they wouldn’t be friends and never would have even met if they didn’t have one remarkable thing in common.
Both men worked for Elvis and were part of the inner circle Elvis referred to as TCB, Taking Care of Business. In fact, both men were given TCB necklaces by Elvis, an honor only bestowed upon those closest to him.
“When he gave me my TCB, I almost cried,” Stone said. “That was probably my most sensitive moment ever with Elvis Presley.”
Stone was traveling with Frank Sinatra when Colonel Parker, Elvis’ manager, called him in Alabama and asked him to come join Elvis’ tour.
“When I got the call to do that, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” Stone said.
Thompson was working as the deputy sheriff in Memphis when his sister, Linda, started dating Elvis in 1972. After meeting, Elvis’ asked Thompson to come work as his bodyguard.
Thompson and Elvis became good friends and Elvis even bought Thompson a house near Graceland so the two could spend more time together.
“I’d go over, we’d sit up all night long and we’d read the Bible,” Thompson said. “And he’d talk about philosophy and talk about religion and talk about life in general.”
While Stone occasionally interacted with Elvis, he had a much closer relationship with Parker. The Colonel, as he was often called, had a reputation for being tough and hard to deal with, a persona that was magnified through the recent Elvis movie.
Stone says his experience with The Colonel is quite different.
“He actually was a gentle giant under the skin,” Stone said.
“Once he got to know you, The Colonel had a much softer side,” Thompson agreed. “He was very generous.”
Thompson said even after Elvis’ death in 1977, even as he changed addresses, The Colonel sent him a personalized Christmas card every year. And when Stone’s wife gave birth to their youngest daughter, Lindsay, The Colonel asked to be her godfather.
Dallas friends of Elvis Presley remember the man behind the entertainer
Thompson and Stone both spent so much time with Elvis, they could talk for hours and often travel the world to share their stories.
They don’t talk about Elvis the performer, but Elvis their friend.
“I got to know him as a human being,” Thompson said.
In private, Thompson said Elvis often wondered if he was more than just an entertainer.
“He’d be reminiscing about something and he’d say, ‘do you think people will remember who I am,’” Thompson recalled.
Elvis’ concern was that most people that knew who he was didn’t really know who he was.
“Elvis used to say, ‘they don’t know me, they know that person up on the stage,’” Thompson recalled.
Thompson said Elvis was one of the nicest, and smartest, people he’d met. The two often hung out at Graceland through the middle of the night.
“We would have these philosophical conversations that would just astound people when they saw Elvis Presley doing rock ‘n roll,” Thompson said.
Both Thompson and Stone said when Elvis listened, he made you feel like the most important person, even in a crowded room.
“He makes you think he’s talking just to you and nothing else matters,” Stone said.
“He was good to all of us,” Thompson added.
Elvis not only cared about them, but their families often going out of his way to include them.
“He wanted to take a picture of my family with him,” Stone said.
They say Elvis was larger than life, too large even for the big screen.
After the Elvis movie, starring Austin Butler, was released last year, Elvis’ music has topped the charts and been heard by a whole new generation.
“To Elvis, the most important part of his legacy was his musical legacy,” Thompson said. “And I certainly remember that, but the memories that are most important to me are the ones where he shared his humanity with me one-on-one. And that’s the guy that I’ll remember.”
And with friends like these, now you will, too.