Tom Jones and the King

Tom Jones once took a shower with Elvis Presley, says John Preston in the London Daily Telegraph. After the Welsh singer became a star in the U.S., Presley took him under his wing, complimenting him for sounding like a black singer and giving him unsolicited career advice. On one night when Jones was performing at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the King walked into his dressing room. “That used to happen quite a lot. He’d want to stay up all night and party with me. This time, though, he kept going on about this song he thought I should record. I said, ‘Elvis, I’m just going to have a shower and I’ll be right there with you.’ So I’m in the shower washing my hair and I hear this singing. I open my eyes and there’s Elvis standing in there with me.” It got stranger from there. “When I got out, he was waiting in the dressing room, only now his pants were round his ankles. He’d gone to the toilet and he couldn’t get them up again. He was wearing this buckskin suit—very tight, with this lace-up front. I said, ‘Elvis, your pants are down.’ And he shouted for one of his guys—Red he was called. Elvis just says, ‘Ma pants, man.’ So Red has to get on his knees and pull Elvis’ pants up for him. And as he’s doing it, Red’s looking at me and saying, ‘Can you f---ing believe this?’”

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