Elvis ex in an interview

Linda Thompson: “I knew he had others”

The "Crown" in Las Vegas with Linda Thompson in Elvis Presley's hotel dressing room.

(Bild: Chaluk/Lukas Charwat)

The "Krone" met the former Miss Tennessee and Elvis' ex Linda Thompson in Las Vegas with Austro artist Dennis Jale. She chatted openly about her relationship with the "King" and revealed exciting details, such as the fact that she was one of the first to learn in 1977 that the King had died ... 

He was the "King" and she, Linda Thompson, the newly crowned Miss Tennessee. And yet their relationship lasted for years, until the now 74-year-old songwriter (she had already been nominated for an Oscar) drew a line under it. Austro artist Dennis Jale, who met her in the hotel in Las Vegas where true rock 'n' roll took place, told us all about this and much more - and the "Krone" got to play fly on the wall.

Dennis Jale, top drummer Paul Leim, Linda and Sam Thompson (from left to right).

(Bild: Chaluk/Lukas Charwat)

The chat came about because Jale and Thompson, along with his brother Sam (who was Presley's bodyguard for many years), will be seeing each other on the high seas next year. "That's right, on the TCB Cruise in October", says the Viennese musician, "In cooperation with Ruefa, we are organizing a huge gathering of fans of the King on the 'Costa Fascinosa', which will sail through the Mediterranean and celebrate Elvis' 90th birthday."

Here, where Barry Manilow now performs every evening at the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas, Austro musician Dennis Jale got a taste of the stage air that Presley breathed from 1969 to 1976.

(Bild: Chaluk/Lukas Charwat)

Presley would have turned 90 on January 8, 2025 (he died on August 16, 1977). "I spent a total of nine months of my life here in what is now the Westgate Hotel, which used to be called the International," Thompson tells ADABEI in an interview. "From 1969 to 1976, he performed here twice a year - my God, that's a lot of memories," Thompson gets emotional. The question may be asked, only good ones? "Yes, of course I knew that when he was unattainable at some point, he had things with other women," she says about his colorful love life (which was probably also the reason for the break-up) and also reveals that fame also had its downsides. "In all the time I was here, we never went for a normal stroll anywhere. We were always led from his rooftop sweetie via an elevator, past the dustbins so to speak, to the 'Green Room', his dressing room, or to the concert hall".

What made Elvis the star that he was - and still is for many today? "He was authentic and often brutally honest," says Thompson, who was also one of the first to learn that Elvis had died on that August day in 1977.

His daughter Lisa Marie (2023), with whom Linda maintained a family relationship even after the separation, called her from Graceland: "Daddy's dead. He suffocated in the carpet." It was clear to Thompson that the King, her partner of many years, whose decline she had witnessed, had really died: "The sleeping pills kicked in, he stumbled, fell and suffocated on the long fibers of his carpet."