The Colonel and the King

In early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker - the manager of the number-one country musician of the day - heard that an unknown teenager from Memphis had just drawn a crowd of more than 800 people to a Texas schoolhouse, and headed south to investigate. Within days, Parker was sending out telegrams and letters to promoters and booking agents about the man who would become a global icon and legend: Elvis Presley.

The close personal bond between Elvis and the Colonel proved impossible for outside observers to understand - not during their lifetimes, and not in the decades since. It was a long-standing, deeply committed relationship, founded on mutual admiration and support. From the outset, the Colonel defended Elvis fiercely and indefatigably against RCA executives, Elvis' own booking agents, and movie moguls. But in their final years together, the story grew darker, and the relationship strained, as the Colonel found himself unable to protect Elvis from himself - or to control growing problems of his own.

Featuring troves of never-before-seen correspondence from the Colonel's own archives, revelatory both for their insights and - particularly with respect to Elvis - their emotional depth, The Colonel and the King provides a groundbreaking dual portrait of the relationship between the iconic artist and his legendary manager and a unique perspective on not one but two American originals. A tale of the birth of the modern-day superstar (an invention almost entirely of Parker's making) by the most acclaimed music writer of his generation, it presents these two misunderstood icons as they've never been seen before: with all of their brilliance, humour, and flaws on full display.

About the Author

Peter Guralnick's books include the prize-winning two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love; an acclaimed trilogy on American roots music, Feel Like Going Home, Lost Highway, and Sweet Soul Music ; the biographical inquiry Searching for Robert Johnson ; and Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Guralnick won a Grammy for his liner notes for Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, wrote and co-produced the documentary Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll, and wrote the scripts for the Grammy-winning documentary Sam Cooke/Legend and Martin Scorsese's blues documentary Feel Like Going Home. His 2015 book Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll was a finalist for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography of the Year, awarded by the Biographers International Organization. His most recent book is Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing.