Liza Minnelli also talks about this night on the Graham Norton Show (BBC) on June 3, 2011.
We first published this story on June 11, 2011 however at the time we could not see the video as the BBC video player is set not to play for anyone outside the UK. Now we have the video [which you can view below] it is very interesting to find the contradictions between what you see and hear in the video and how the UK's Daily Mail distorted the story. They actually started their article with 'Alice Cooper has revealed he nearly shot Elvis Presley after meeting the King of rock and roll in Las Vegas in 1971' [Alice states 1970] and we chose not to use this text or the similar headline. Alice also never says Elvis had him put the gun to his head as claimed by the Daily Mail and it again is good to view the video as you can see the good-natured way Alice tells the story, with humor and possibly a touch more good storytelling than full facts [The angel and devil].
Alice Cooper talks about meeting Elvis
Below: Our Original Story: June 11, 2011
We did not know what to make of this story that was recently published in the British tabloid 'The Mirror'... and we were not going to run it as it did not seem credible. However hot on the heels of this, Liza Minnelli is on The Graham Norton Show (BBC) and confirms in her story that Alice Cooper, Chubby Checker and Linda Lovelace among the other guests in Elvis' suite at the time and Elvis was showing off his Karate moves.
Alice Cooper Remembers Meeting Elvis Presley: Las Vegas Hilton: 1971
'He had the penthouse - this was when he was at the top of his game. I had always been a fan as a kid, so I jumped at the chance to go upstairs and meet him. When I got to the lift I found it was me, Liza Minnelli and the porn actress Linda Lovelace'. Arriving at Presley's suite, the unlikely group were frisked for guns by the King's security team. 'I don't know why they bothered - when we got inside the place was full of guns', Alice recalls. 'Elvis took me into the kitchen, opened a drawer, and pulled out a loaded pistol, telling me to put it to his head. I recognized it straight away, a snub .32. I didn't know what to do'. 'I had this gun in my hand and was expecting one of his security to come in any second, see me holding a weapon and shoot me dead'. 'A little voice in my left ear was telling me, 'Go on, this is history, kill him, you'll always be the guy who killed Elvis'. In my other ear was another voice saying, 'You can't kill him, it's Elvis Presley - wound him instead, you'll only get a few years!'. 'A fraction of a second later Elvis did a flying kick on the gun, and sent it flying, before tripping me and pinning me to the ground by my neck, announcing, 'that's how you stop a man with a gun'.
Note: We do not believe that the gun (Actually a pistol) was loaded, but apart from that we do believe the story is true. Alice is either exaggerating as people do with time, misremembering, again as people do, or he could simply have mistakenly been under that impression at the time. And there is not much story to tell if the gun is not loaded is there? So he is more likely to stick to the loaded gun line.