Elvis Presley’s Step Brother On His Graceland Estate Being Vandalised: “One Of The Saddest Days Of My Life” (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
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Elvis Presley’s homeland Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee were tagged with graffiti by vandals on Sunday, with phrases like “BLM” and “No Justice No Peace.” The estate is the city’s most popular tourist attraction.
The former home of Elvis, where he lived of 20 years, was transformed into a museum and was dedicated to the late legend after his death in 1977. A tribute wall was built surrounding the property and Elvis’ fans has been using it to leave messages in memory of their idol.
Vandals on Monday night targetted the tribute wall for Elvis Presley and painted with slogans like “F**k Trump”, “Defund the police” and “Black Lives Matter”. The graffiti covers up many of the messages left by the fans who used it for more than 30 years.
Furthermore, the vandals also targeted the city’s Levitt Shell amphitheatre in Overton Park, where Elvis Presley performed his first paid concert. However, by mid-morning people had arrived to tried to remove the graffiti.
Elvis Presley’s stepbrother, Bill Stanley, also expressed his anguish to a local news Station WMC5, after the incident. He said, ‘This is totally uncalled for. [It’s] one of the saddest days of my life. I mean, besides the day that Elvis passed away, this right here is right up next to it.’
According to Unilad, executive director of the nonprofit Levitt Shell, Natalie Wilson also issued a statement regarding the incident at Elvis Presley’s Graceland Estate. She said, “We wake up, excited to celebrate our city on 901 Day, and we see our beautiful historic landmark defaced with messages of pain and that breaks our heart. We’re brokenhearted and devastated by this.
We want to be part of the conversation that helps heal our city. We want to see change happen. But how do we talk together, how do we ensure that the messages we provide are productive? This isn’t productive. People are trying to speak, and I get that, but we’ve got to come up with a better way.”
