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The Patriot

March 22, 2011 | Book

No, this is not about the well known movie, but a new book, written by Darrin Lee. The full title is almost a book on itself: “Elvis Presley – The Patriot: A Man’s Love Of God And Country. The Summit ‘76: A Triumph Of The Human Spirit”.

Press release

Elvis Presley – The Patriot: A Man’s Love Of God And Country. The Summit ‘76: A Triumph Of The Human Spirit is a 200 page, A5 format soft cover featuring the stunning artwork of Night Rider Designs, beautiful photographs of Bob Heis, and world class photographer Manuel Chavez’s never-before-published shot of Elvis flipping the “f” you middle finger to a heckler at the Summit on 28th August 1976. “The Little Girl With The Beautiful High Voice” joins Rosemary Alden, Sandi Miller and Joseph Tunzi as prominent contributors to this project dedicated to Lisa Marie Presley, the non-conforming, truth-seeking rebel.

The Patriot opens with “The Man In Black, The Memphis Flash & Hollywood Hokum (Walk The Line)” and “Academia & The Media Try, But Fail, To Paint A Patriot As A Pillhead” – 10 pages dedicated to Elvis’ historic meeting with President Richard Nixon. But it’s Chapter 3 that will leave many readers in a state of shock. Numbering 20 pages and entitled “The Hycodan Overdose: Thank God For Blonde Miracles… Enter Sandi Miller,” it thoroughly debunks one of the most damaging drug-based allegations (he furnished prescription-strength cough syrup to a sweet, innocent teenager from San Francisco resulting in her overdose in his Palm Springs bed and emergency hospitalization) lodged against Elvis Presley.

More than five of this chapter’s 20 powerful pages are devoted to Elvis: What Happened?, with two subsections written specifically as useful knowledge for Lisa Marie Presley: “ ‘Disposable’ People In EP’s Life? Providing A Deeper Understanding For LMP And Oprah Winfrey” and “EP To Whom It May Concern: ‘I am not fucked up. I’ve got a daughter and I’ve got a life.’ ” A lot of good folks admire Kathy Westmoreland and recognize her importance to Elvis, not only in his personal life, but on stage and in the studio. On 20th March 2011, Kathy spoke with the author about this forthcoming project and also revealed the biggest heartbreak Elvis suffered in the 70’s.

DL: “How much would it hurt or disappoint Elvis if Lisa Marie believed the accusations in the bodyguard book and elsewhere?”
Kathy Westmoreland: “I don’t believe Elvis would survive. He couldn’t live. I think it would just kill him. From my heart, I’m telling you it would crush him more than anything anyone could possibly imagine.”

DL: “There couldn’t be anything worse happen to him than for his daughter to believe the drug accusations?”
Kathy Westmoreland: “No. There could be nothing worse happen to him. I can’t think of anything. There’s nothing else that would hurt him more and Lisa was the only thing he worried about.”

DL: “Did he pretty much say, ‘What’s my girl gonna think?’ ”
Kathy Westmoreland: “Yeah. ‘What’s Lisa gonna think? What’s gonna happen to her? What’s she gonna believe?’ ” That was his big concern. He was just beside himself on realizing that she would be subjected to trying to figure all this out.”

DL: “In all the years that you knew Elvis, Kathy, was this the most hurt – the biggest heartbreak – that you observed?”
Kathy Westmoreland: “It’s the biggest one. It’s the one.”

DL: “Do you recall Elvis asking, ‘What if the public turns against me because of the bodyguard book?’ ”
Kathy Westmoreland: “I think he did say something to that effect, but he knew that he couldn’t please everybody and he would be the first to tell you that. He cared about Lisa. Knowing that Lisa would believe it and be affected by it for the rest of her life – Elvis couldn’t have handled it. He’d have an instant heart attack.”

Source:Email
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You Dont Know Me wrote on March 23, 2011
wow this will make as similar a type 'interesting a read' as the subject of Carbon Tax! and all the myths and stuff surrounding that! certainly it will be not a boring book to read!
Sirbalkan wrote on March 23, 2011
I will buy it FOR SURE.
Tony C wrote on March 23, 2011
The comments from Kathy Westmoreland are very interesting, but I believe are way off the mark. There is an old phrase that says don't shoot the messenger. People should think of the effect their strange behaviour will have on their loved ones at the time, not when others threaten to reveal such things. While we accept that the content of "Elvis, What Happened?" was exaggerated greatly and taken out of context, I don't think that anybody can deny that the basic story reflected Elvis' very out of control lifestyle. I don't usually go for what if scenarios, what I will ponder one today. If the firing of the bodyguards had not happened meaning there was no threat of a book and Elvis had lived longer than he did, would he have changed his lifestyle? I would like to think so, but in all honesty, I can't. As well meaning as Kathy is, she is blaming Red West, Sonny West and Dave Hebler for Elvis' heart attack, completely ignoring his poor state of health at the time.
Jerome wrote on March 23, 2011
Darrin Lee, isn't that the king of denial? He also wrote some other books that were remarkably positive..
Lex wrote on March 23, 2011
I know he wrote some fiction about how good Elvis was in 1977... he didn mumble, hit every note, amazing that fantasy!
Tony C wrote on March 23, 2011
You've jogged my memory there, guys. Darrin Lee is the man who wrote the book about the concert that we all know via the "Desert Storm" recording. I won't trash the book because I haven't read it, in fact, I avoided it like the plague. Apparently, we all got it wrong, Elvis was fine during that show. Books like this are as bad as Albert Goldman's trash, because they are complete opposites. Goldman took a life story, erased everything good about the man at all. These blinkered books do the reverse, they erase everything bad and blame everybody else for Elvis' sad demise. I just want the truth, believe me, I can handle the truth!
Steve V wrote on March 23, 2011
No interest at all. Give me the next volume of The Elvis Files.
benny scott wrote on March 24, 2011
Amen to that Steve ! Always El.
Hans Otto wrote on May 26, 2011
Hear-Hear to that, Tony C. Darrin Lee is the High Priest of the Holly Elvis Denial Congregation. Hmm. I'll wonder what Darrin will write about next? Maybe a revolutionary theory about who it was who actually ate the over 10,000 doses of uppers, downers and assorted narcotics which Dr. George Nichopoulos prescribed for Elvis in 1977 alone? Because St. Elvis sure didn't take any of these himself, did he...?