✰ New interview with Reeca Smith about her time with Elvis
- I was googling some things about Elvis (as one does) and I randomly came across this interview that was just posted yesterday featuring Reeca Smith Gossan who was briefly involved with Elvis from September 1974-January 1975
it’s only about 40 minutes long but worth the listen in my opinion !! Reeca seems really sweet and is very adamant about defending Elvis and his intentions with her. However if you don’t have the time to listen I did list some of the most important/interesting keynotes below ⬇️
- According to Reeca, the U.S release of the Amazon documentary was delayed not because of Currie Grant’s involvement, but because of the passing of Lisa Marie. This didn’t make much sense to me in regards to the timeline so I’m wondering if the makers of the documentary used that reason as the company line as opposed to saying they didn’t want any legal trouble with Currie/Priscilla. She did say it will be coming out “hopefully soon”, and if I had to guess, I think it will come out either before the release of the upcoming Priscilla movie or after (probably to cash in on the hype)
- Reeca also said that she is involved in an upcoming project with 60 Minutes (Australia’s version, not the U.S) about Elvis, however she gave no other info than the fact that she was being interviewed for it. So I’m not sure if this 60 minutes special will be just about Elvis’ women, or about Elvis all together
- She also talked about how it was Jerry Schilling and Joe Esposito who urged her to initially share her story as they wanted the world to know that Elvis had good intentions with her, despite how their age difference looked on paper
- And for now I’m giving kudos to Reeca because she said she has declined several opportunities to share her story about Elvis over the years as many were going in a direction she didn’t like. For example, she declined an offer to be involved on a project that was named “Elvis: the Cradle Robber”
- Another little random factoid is that while she was working in California, she actually met and became acquainted with Austin Butler’s mother (what a small world 😭)
- As for her relationship with Elvis, she says she first met him in September of 1974, and met up with him throughout that whole month. Then she met up with him again throughout November of 1974. And then lastly in January of 1975
- Their first initial meeting started with a shopping spree where Reeca left with over 2700 dollars worth of clothes, including a rhinestone-denim-suede floor length coat that she still has to this day
- After the shopping spree they went back to Graceland and one of the Memphis Mafia guys brought her down to the TV room where Elvis soon came down to talk with her
- She said they had a very very long talk and that was Elvis was extremely inquisitive, asked tons of questions, and basically wanted to know all about her
- Reeca also talks about how Elvis’ biggest source of happiness was giving other people happiness, and that he almost managed to do so just by getting information from casual conversations
- For example when Elvis was asking Reeca what her favorite animal was, she didn’t know it was because he was planning on buying whatever she said. She loved cats, so Elvis wanted to buy her a white persian cat. Dave Hebler, one of the guys, was assigned with the task of finding a white persian cat but came up short 💀 He settled on a little dog and showed up with the dog at Reeca’s doorstep, courtesy of Elvis
- Another example is that when Elvis and her were talking about his cars, she casually mentioned that she loved Trans Am. Just a few hours later after telling Elvis this, Reeca was asked to close her eyes, and was then escorted to the front of Graceland by Elvis where a brand new Trans Am was waiting for her 👀 Elvis made a pact with her and her parents that the car would only sit in their drive-way until Reeca was old enough to get her license
** Also Elvis was very open and honest with her parents, and personally called them everytime he wanted Reeca to come over. She said he would even let them know what exactly they would be doing, and who exactly was in the house
However Reeca did say there was a few occasions where he wanted Reeca to fly with him on tour but that idea was promptly shut down by her parents
- And when asked about if Elvis was able to go anywhere without bodyguards she talked about how Elvis and her would take off alone and go driving up and down on Elvis Presley Boulevard, without letting any of the Memphis Mafia know where they were going … which of course made them mad as they worried about Elvis’ safety but Reeca said Elvis was never worried
- As I mentioned Reeca was 14 at the time and so she was naturally very curious to know why Elvis wanted to spend time with her, and Elvis’ answer to that was that she reminded him of his childhood and of a simpler time where people didn’t expect so much out of him
** Elvis was very content just to have her company as neither one of them put any pressure on each-other and Reeca said he particularly loved reading the Bible to her, and spending hours just talking
- He was also extremely protective of Reeca and made it known to her and the guys that she was never to have any of the medication/pills the group took, after she had inquired about them from seeing them in his bedroom
- And according to her, it does seem like Elvis intended on having a future with her as they talked about they could be together more when she was older, and how Elvis was going to help her accomplish her dream of becoming a model as he had the connections to do so
- But the relationship/friendship ended up being short lived as Reeca saw that Elvis was going on a downward spiral. Whenever her mom said that Elvis was on the phone and wanting to talk to her, she declined the invitation. She was very young and she talked about how she felt scared and very helpless as there was nothing she could do to stop him
- The very last time she saw him in person was in January of 1975. He made the trip to her house alone, driving his yellow Pantera, and asked her to come out and talk to him at his window. She said she nearly didn’t recognize him as it was clear that his physical and mental health was declining
- After she stopped seeing Elvis, Reeca says that’s when she started hanging out with Ricky and David Stanley more on their own. They were terrible influences on her and were actually responsible for getting 15-year-old Reeca on some hardcore drugs
- Reeca also said that if Elvis had ever found out about what Ricky and David were doing, he would have either kicked them out or killed them (deserved tbh 🤧)
- She gives Elvis credit for being the one to inspire her to turn her life around. Soon after Elvis’ passing she was involved a very bad car accident as she was driving while high, and that became the turning point. Reeca even said if it wasn’t for what Elvis showed her, she would be dead right now
- Reeca was really impacted by Elvis’ passing as he was the first person close to her to pass away, she really struggled with coming to terms with the fact that she would never see him again. And according to her, on the day of Elvis’ funeral, Joe Esposito brought her in for a private viewing of Elvis in his casket which gave her the closure she needed as it became very real that he was actually gone
- When asked about why Elvis felt lonely and could sometimes be unhappy, Reeca said it always felt like Elvis was reaching for something. She also believes that in the later years when his health deteriorated and struggled to make it through concerts, he felt like he wasn’t make anybody happy anymore and that’s what killed him inside
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