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BACK STORY ON THE "FLOATY FEET" OR HOW ELVIS FELT AT TIMES


Legend: Lake Tahoe, 21/08/1974.

Just felt I needed to relate to you the reason the "floaty feet" tickled him.(didn't know what else to call them, so just made this up when I wrote that note).

A few years into his return to the public, it became obvious on many occasions that some people thought of him as a god or King and this really disturbed him. A few nights prior to my giving him these, he was very, very upset over it, telling me, "I am NOT God, I do NOT walk on water". He actually had tears in his eyes. "Don't they realize we're only human?" and repeated what he had said for a couple of years, "When you cut me ... I bleed!" I can't remember at this moment just what incident occurred this evening, but I made a feeble attempt to change his mood by saying, "What you mean 'we', Kemosabe"...This is Your..."  He cut me off. "I'm serious, Kathy. I don't know what to do about this. Oh, why me, Lord?" (Note: A few days later when I gave him these, he waited until Why Me Lord to put these on, come out on stage.)

A long, serious conversation ensued and neither of us had any answer, nor had any idea why this was occurring and getting worse, but I knew that it would "dawn" on him as to what to do/say eventually. We both sat pondering how to make clear to his new audience that he was just a human being.

The following night before the first show, I turned from my dressing room to head for the stage and ran right into him. He had run down the hall to tell me, "They see themselves in me... that's all it is". He had a huge smile on his face, was waving his hand in front of me; I could tell he was happy he'd thought of at least a reason for this. "That's a good start on understanding all this", I said, and then we were urged to hurry (for some reason we were a bit late and rushing. The 'five minutes' warning had already blared over the dressing room monitors).

It was a few days later that I needed something or other, so went downstairs to shop. These appeared in the window of one of the Hilton's fine stores that usually displayed gorgeous shoes and/or jewelry. I thought, "How perfect and timely". I had them wrapped and slipped them into his dressing room with the note that said, "Have a Nice Walk on the Water", Minnie Mouse.  If you notice on the tape, he fumbles a bit when describing the note. He couldn't really say why it amused him, and didn't want anyone to misunderstand him again. 

Just think that the backstory needed to be added, so you perhaps will have a better understanding of how Elvis felt at times.

Note: The original article, on the "floaty feet", has been published here before.

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