(Way more than) 100 Words on...The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and Me by Dr. George Nichopoulos and Rose Clayton Phillips
The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and MeDr. George Nichopoulos and Rose Clayton Phillips
Thomas Nelson Publishing
1595551719
2010
Writer's Note: A longer review will appear at All About Jazz.
The 1977 death of Elvis Presley and its inevitable aftermath led to the publication of several books, all one way or another related to Presley's flamboyant and often paranoid behavior as a vector of his well established drug use. The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and Me details Nichopoulos' attempt to manage Presley's drug use - a feat tantamount to directing the Titanic's sinking with the same inevitable outcome.
On a technical note (and not included in the All About Jazz article): By the time Dr. George Nichopoulos entered the picture in 1967, Presley already had an established abuse pattern of stimulants and depressant that, more than likely, led to the singer's infamous insomnia. This insomnia (and Presley's de facto dependency on sedative/hypnotics) is what what Nichopoulos was trying to manage at the end of Elvis' life. Presley's post-autopsy toxicology screen revealed multiple barbiturates, non-barbiturate sedative/hypnotics and benzodiazepines.
While not identical to, this scenario is chillingly similar to that of Michael Jackson 32-years later. Conrad Murray was attempting to manage Jackson's insomnia with his stepwise employment of sedative benzodiazepines, hypnotic benzodiazepines, and finally propofol. In The King and Dr. Nick, Nichopoulos inaccurately dismisses the apparent similarities between the two singers' deaths. Where he does get this right is in culpability.
Where Presley died while under the deliberate care of Nichopoulos of most likely a cardiac pathology, Jackson died while his physician was administering intravenously a powerful general anesthetic that led directly to his death. Murray was present when Jackson expired. And the central question in both cases is, "did drugs cause the deaths. In both cases this answer is yes. Did Elvis Presley die of a drug overdose? No. In the case of Presley, a life of immoderate consumption of everything, including drugs, led to the debilitation resulting in death.
Did Michael Jackson die of a drug overdose. Yes, and therein lies the biggest difference.
The similarities between the two artists are more striking than their differences. Both had humble upbringings were relatively suddenly thrust into fame, making a pile of money in the meantime. Both evolved from artists into industries, employing armies of people...armies of people beholden to a single figure for their livelihoods. This sets up a people-pleasing paradigm where the employees do what is necessary to keep their employer performing, always in the short term.
Both artists were eccentric, peculiar, if you will, with peccadillos and appetites that provided the media with years of water-cooler fodder. Both were lavish in there spending and indiscriminate in their generosity. Both changed popular music in ways in which they had and have no peers. Nichopoulos, for his part in the life of Presley and his associates, never adequately explains his prescribing practices. That Nichopoulos loved Presley is beyond doubt, but did the doctor act in Presley's best interest is less clear.
Posted by liberationtheology at 2/7/2010 8:05 PM 
Categories: Book Reviews
Tags: George Nichopoulos Memphis rock and roll Elvis Presley
Categories: Book Reviews
Tags: George Nichopoulos Memphis rock and roll Elvis Presley
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