Elvis Presley has been many things over his decades-long career. According to his fans, he was the king of rock and roll. For his peers in the music industry, few were as talented as he was, winning multiple Grammy awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award when he was just 30) and breaking records for the best performing albums of all time on the Billboard charts.
Although his music career is the focus of the world, there is one shocking fact about Elvis’ star-studded career: in an alternative life, Elvis says he may never have been a rock and roll celebrity.
Elvis Presley was fascinated by guns and law enforcement
Sandwiched between the launch of its Creole King album and his Elvis is back! Presley served in the United States Army from March 1958 to March 1960. But this was not the only case in which Presley’s time and energy was devoted to arms and law enforcement. In fact, the king of rock and roll was also the king of the police’s collection of objects and weapons.
In fact, according to the Smithsonian, Presley has spent more than $ 100,000 on revolvers for Christmas gifts. He also loved to collect police and police items, and maintained an extensive collection of police badges.
The Smithsonian reports that Presley was so obsessed that he once wrote to President Richard Nixon. Presley offered his celebrity status and endorsement if Nixon gave him an officer badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
The king traveled to Washington, DC, with his collection of police badges and weapons, met with Nixon and fulfilled his wish: a federal badge. However, this obsession was more than just collecting police memories.
The king wanted to be a policeman
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Before winning millions of fans on stage, Presley dreamed of becoming a police officer.
“If Elvis Presley had not grown up to be the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, there is a chance that he would have been a policeman, such was his deep respect for law enforcement,” reports Australia’s Official Elvis Presley Fan Club. “As a young man, Presley wanted to grow up and be a police officer, according to press reports in the 1970s.”
And a retired deputy police chief, Robert Cantwell of Denver, agreed. “He always thought he would become a police officer,” the late Cantwell told Colorado Public Radio in 1977. However, Presley told Cantwell that his childhood career dreams have changed because “God has blessed him with a voice.”
But in a surprising twist of fate, Presley fulfilled his wish.
Elvis Presley really became a cop before he died
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According to Cantwell’s book The Elvis Presley that I knew, as reported by the Elvis Presley Fan Club, Presley got so close to the Denver police force that he was named an honorary captain of the force.
“The Denver police even gave Elvis a uniform for the Denver police captain, which Elvis wore as a cover,” historians at the Denver Public Library report. When Presley passed away, the Denver police force even broadcast news of his death on his police radio network.
And that is not all. The fan club also points out that Presley was appointed honorary deputy chief by the Memphis sheriff’s department, and the National Security Archive reports that Nixon appointed Presley a federal agent in general.
Leave it to Presley to achieve his two dream careers. The king was quite a character.