The Elvis World bids farewell to one of its own Sonny West 1938-2017

If you're a die hard Elvis fan or just a casual fan you've probably heard of the Memphis Mafia. It was the name given by a reporter in the 60's to Elvis group of friends and employees. The group included Joe Esposito, Jerry Shilling, Lamar Fike, Marty Lacker, Charlie Hodge, the West cousins Red and Sonny as well as several others. Sonny worked primarily as a bodyguard for Elvis for 16 years and even had bit parts in some of Elvis films. Sonny along with cousin Red and Dave Hebler were fired by Vernon Presley supposedly due to cut backs in expenses. They would later go on to write a tell all book called Elvis What Happened? The book detailed Elvis drug abuse and was a huge embarrassment to him according to those still in his inner circle. For this reason some Elvis fans have never forgiven the three men for what they consider a betrayal. The men themselves saw it as a way of hopefully opening Elvis eyes to what was happening to him, sadly he didn't live long enough for that to happen. I met Sonny in Memphis at Elvis Week 2005. He was doing a show where he told stories from his days with Elvis and I approached him about doing an interview for my page Walkin' On The Blvd. He was very intimidating. When I asked for the interview he told me it was VERY difficult to get an interview with him because he had been burned in the past. I stood to the side while he talked with other people. I felt I had little shot of getting the interview. He just didn't seem like he had any interest in talking to me but then, after he finished talking to his friends and without any additional prompting from me, he turned back and asked "what kind of questions are you gonna ask me?" I told him I would give him a list of them before the interview and just like that I got my interview. A few years later, a friend of mine who was also friends with Sonny arranged for a second interview. This time I got the opportunity to interview him at Vernon Presley's home on Dolan. It was a great interview, at least for me. I had a crowd of spectators watching the interview and applauding at Sonny's answers. He even remembered me from the first interview and played a joke on me before the interview started. He said, I looked for you last year to get a copy of our interview. I saw you but you avoided me. I was stunned. I told him I didn't remember and he busted out laughing. He said he was just screwing with me. We did the interview and later in the week along with some friends accompanied him to a screening of a film he had acted in and later he came with us to IHOP for late night dinner. The following Elvis Week I talked with him about appearing in a film I was doing. He said he was interested in appearing in it unfortunately he got sick and that was the last time I saw him at Elvis Week. I know a what I'm writing isn't going to change the minds of the masses. As they say, haters gonna hate but I don't care. My experiences with Sonny West were all good ones. You can hate all you like, it doesn't matter to me.

So long Mr West, thanks for the memories. A lot of us in the Elvis world will miss you.