Over the years, Parker \u2014 a Dutch-born ex-carny and outsized character who shepherded the careers of country stars Hank Snow and Eddy Arnold before linking with the future King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll \u2014 has become something of a villain in the Presley story. But Guralnick believes the truth of their relationship, and Parker\u2019s role in making him one of the biggest stars of the 20th century is far more important, complex and nuanced, as his book\u2019s subtitle, \u201cTom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership That Rocked the World,\u201d suggests.<\/p>\n
![\"Col.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/c84dd046e3dabda0c397e256322a7481.jpeg\"\/)
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Col. Tom Parker, left, keeps a watchful eye on his client, Elvis Presley, as the singer returns to Memphis in 1960 after his stint in the Army.<\/p>\n
ELVIS PRESLEY AT 90: <\/strong>Decade-by-decade milestones in the life \u2014 and afterlife \u2014 of the King<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOn a broad level, I wanted to do this book either to restore the Colonel to his proper place in the story,\u201d said Guralnick, \u201cor at least to try to make a case for his proper place in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n The book was in large part inspired by Parker\u2019s voluminous archive of letters, which Guralnick first discovered in 1989 as he began work on his Presley bio \u2014 though it would take many more years, several other projects and various detours before he could return to Parker\u2019s story in full. <\/p>\n \u201cReading the Colonel\u2019s letters was such a revelation,\u201d said Guralnick. \u201cIt was a revelation to his character, his creativity, his sense of humor, and the fact that he was such a life force. I was so struck by the depth and the creativity and the vitality and the engagement of the letters. And also the eloquence, the real eloquence of somebody who had barely gotten through the fourth grade.\u201d<\/p>\n For years Guralnick conceived of doing a Parker book based around that correspondence \u201cOh yeah, it was going to be the letters, it wasn’t a biography for a long time. And I still don’t say it\u2019s a full biography now,\u201d said Guralnick, noting that the process of getting deeper into Parker\u2019s life upended his own notions and beliefs about his part in Presley\u2019s career.<\/p>\n \u201cWriting any of these books, whether it’s about Elvis, or Sam Cooke, or Sam Phillips, or Col. Parker, it’s always a process of discovery,” he added. “And so I understood things very, very differently as I got into the process. And it ultimately became a different kind of book.\u201d<\/p>\n For all of Parker\u2019s faults \u2014 and Guralnick is upfront about his professional shortcomings and personal problems, including what became a serious gambling addiction \u2014 he had an unwavering faith in his client from the start. \u201cHe believed in Elvis,\u201d he said. \u201cHe believed that he was the greatest. His faith in Elvis had to do with a future which couldn’t be foretold. He and Elvis had a vision of something that had not yet been achieved. Yet, he believed that together they would achieve it.\u201d<\/p>\n ELVIS WEEK 2025: <\/strong>Your guide to Elvis Week at Graceland: 12 events fans of the King won’t want to miss<\/a><\/p>\n Despite a lingering reputation as a less than scrupulous businessman, Guralnick said he found no evidence of that. \u201cThere was not a single person that Colonel did business with who didn’t speak of his ethics and integrity,\u201d said Guralnick. \u201cEvery single person that I talked to, felt he could teach lessons in business ethics. They may have thought he was a character, they may have thought he was limited, but nobody questioned his integrity when it came to business.\u201d<\/p>\n Guralnick notes that the negative public view of Parker was something that came later, only toward the final years of Presley\u2019s life, becoming more pronounced after the singer\u2019s death in 1977<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Elvis began to have his personal difficulties, and his behavior became more and more publicly erratic, and certainly after he died, there was a need for some kind of blame,\u201d Guralnick said. \u201cAnd the easiest thing was to lash out at the manager, who had always promoted the myth of himself as a kind of outlandish Svengali. There’s no question that he created that myth. And he enjoyed the benefits of that for many, many years. But eventually that same reputation would come to work against him.\u201d<\/p>\n For 20 years \u2014 from Presley\u2019s death until Parker\u2019s own passing in 1997 \u2014 the Colonel made no real attempts to dispel the negative perceptions about him, or his alleged part in Elvis\u2019 demise. \u201cThe Colonel’s own philosophy, something that he carried with him to the grave, was that an artist always wears a white hat and a manager must wear the black hat,\u201d said Guralnick. \u201cA manager has to take care that the artist’s reputation is never diminished, is never challenged. The artist always wears a white hat.\u201d<\/p>\n For many years, Parker was supposed to write an autobiography. At one point he got a massive publishing deal to do it, but the memoir never materialized.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was going to be an appreciation of the wonderful world of show business. That’s the book he wanted to write,\u201d notes Guralnick. \u201cBut the book he got a contract for, and the only book anybody wanted from him was a book about Elvis. In order to write that book, he would either have to not tell the truth \u2014 and he was honest person \u2014 or he was going to write something in which Elvis was not wearing a white hat. And there was just no way he could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n And so, the task of telling Parker\u2019s story through his words, letters and actions, would eventually fall to Guralnick, becoming the final part of his four-decade study of Elvis and those who made him.<\/p>\n Peter Guralnick at Elvis Week<\/p>\n To mark the publication of \u201cThe Colonel and the King,\u201d Peter Guralnick will be in Memphis making a series of appearances during Elvis Week at Graceland. He will join host Tom Brown\u00a0and a star-studded lineup of Presley\u2019s friends and collaborators for a \u201cConversations on Elvis\u201d event at 10 a.m. Aug. 15 at the Graceland Soundstage. Guralnick will follow with a pair of book signings, at 2 p.m. Aug, 15 and 3 p.m. Aug 16 at the Elvis Threads Gift Shop.<\/p>\n For more information, go to ElvisWeek.com.<\/a><\/p>\n