The Beatles' legendary meeting with Elvis Presley gets a new chapter: “I was there that day”

Mal Evans worked alongside the biggest pop group in the world, but his greatest thrill came when he accompanied the Beatles to meet his musical hero, Elvis Presley.

As the Beatles’ road manager, Evans had a front-row seat as the Liverpool quartet became global superstars. He began working with them as a roadie and bodyguard in August 1963, eventually becoming a trusted insider who accompanied the band on tour and in the studio. He even helped Paul McCartney develop the idea of an alter ego for the group while the two were on holiday in 1966 — a concept that would help give rise to the Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Evans had planned to write a book about his adventures with the group and received permission from all four Beatles to do so. Sadly, he never completed it. He died in 1976, aged 40, after police shot him during a confrontation at his home. Distraught over his impending divorce, Evans had waved an airgun at officers. His death is widely understood as a possible case of suicide by cop.

Beatle Paul McCartney with Beatles road manager Mal Evans, shown on his arrival in India February 20, 1968, to join the other Beatles at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's transcendental meditation center.
Evans and Paul McCartney arrive in India, February 20, 1968, where they joined the other Beatles at the meditation center of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Now, however, his stories of life with the Beatles are finally being published. Evans’s family made his recordings available to Kenneth Womack, one of the world's foremost Beatles scholars and the author of numerous books about the band. Those include his 2023 biography of Evans, for which he gained access to recordings Evans made on a portable cassette recorder in 1975 while working on his memoir.

“It’s the book Mal was going to publish, taking us into the heart of Beatlemania, reminding us how electrifying it was,” Womack told The Guardian. “He pulls no punches. He shows us the Beatles. It’s very powerful. It’s a treasure trove of new material.”

Among the stories is an account of the Beatles’ August 27, 1965, meeting with Presley at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, during the group’s U.S. tour that year.

Source: guitarplayer.com/Christopher Scapelliti

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