Elvis’ bodyguard reveals heartbreaking reason ‘the King’ didn’t like to be touched in his twilight years

nypost.com:

Elvis Presley served consumers of his original best-selling hits, including “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock,” with a mixture of country, rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll, and both his sound and charisma rewarded him with hysterical fans.Presley was a pioneer of youth music at the same time as Patsy Cline produced a crossover between country and pop and Ray Charles bridged the gap for ground-breaking soul.

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was a cultural icon in the 1950s in both the music and television industries.In the months leading up to his sudden death on Aug.

16, 1977, Presley was reportedly in a lot of pain.“He was really heavy,” Ted Pryor, author and former bodyguard for Presley, told Fox News Digital.“Elvis was at a point where he was so heavy he didn’t like to be touched, because he was constantly perspiring and hot,” he said.Pryor, a super middleweight kick boxing champion, was hired to Presley’s team because of his world champion status.“Elvis, when he was younger in the service, he learned a little bit of martial arts, and he was infatuated with it,” Pryor said. “Getting to bodyguard for ‘the King’ was pretty exciting for me.”Pryor and his friend Joe were training Florida law enforcement, FBI and DEA personnel on self-defense techniques to deploy in the field when they received a call from Presley’s team offering work as bodyguards while he toured the U.S.“He had to start touring, because his manager gambled his money away,” he added of Presley’s then manager, Colonel Tom Parker.The kickboxing duo traveled across the country from Tennessee and Florida to New York to California with “the King” but never internationally.“Elvis never traveled outside of the United States,” Pryor said.