Jerry Schillings book on Elvis

"We were having a casual conversation over this little bitty cake. Elvis asked Linda if she had ever seen the movie Across 110th Street. She said, 'No, I never have.' Elvis started playing every part. It was one of the greatest command performances I've ever seen."

That's one of many stories Schilling has compiled in the new book Me And a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley.

One story you won't find in the book: the famous tales of Presley's trips to Denver for fried peanut butter sandwiches.

"It's one of the stories I hate; it's kind of ridiculous," Schilling said. "In reality, he didn't fly to Denver to get peanut butter sandwiches. We had friends there. We'd come here for a winter getaway.

"We'd do a lot of unauthorized night stuff on the ski slopes, such as snowmobiling, and even basic things like sliding down the slopes on cardboard boxes. Nobody knew it was Elvis; because of the cold weather, he was wearing a ski mask."

Schilling, who grew up with Elvis (they met when Schilling was 12 and Presley was 19), served as a pallbearer at The King's funeral, although he hadn't seen Elvis during the final months of his life.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't with him in the end," said Schilling who left Presley in 1974 to manage the Beach Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis and Billy Joel.

Schilling never planned on writing a book about his friendship with the rock icon.

"I thought 'Well, I wonder if there's a story here that hasn't been told.' The whole essence of who the man was hasn't been told. We know what he did, his career and his movies, but who was the man behind the scene? How did he feel about what he was doing?"

Rocky Mountain News