The strange story of Elvis Presley's phonecall to Leo Sayer shortly before the King's death

12 March 2026, 11:44

Elvis Presley was a (not so) secret Leo Sayer fan.

On the face of it, you might think that the hard-edged rock 'n' roll and balladry of Elvis Presley was a million miles away from the soft, blue-eyed soul of Leo Sayer.

But it turns out that the duo interacted in a very real way, shortly before Elvis's tragic death in 1977.

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The crossover was sparked by Sayer falling off stage and being rehabbed by a former American footballer called Michael who, it turned out, also worked with Elvis Presley.

"One day he handed me the phone, and the person at the other end said, 'This is Elvis Aaron Presley, and you make me feel like dancing'," Sayer told The Guardian.

Sayer originally thought it was one of his pals doing an impression, but Elvis eventually convinced him that he was who he said he was.

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Elvis apparently continued: "Well, Michael tells me you're a great guy and I'm going through a bit of a hole myself in my life, and things ain't so good, and I've just got me and my girlfriend here, and I would like you to come to Graceland and hang out.

"Let's see what we can do together because I love your songs, man. I think you could be a good force of energy for me."

Sayer added: "We chatted for about 25 minutes. He was very humble and very sweet. You could see he was a good Christian. And he was really enthusiastic about, 'Give me some of your energy'.

"I'm kinda famed for that energy. So the next day comes, and I had this foreboding feeling. Then, on the radio, I heard, 'The singer Elvis Presley has been brought into Memphis Baptist hospital dead on arrival'."

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Advised by his then-wife Janice, he generally kept the story to himself lest he be considered a namedropper or a crank.

In 1984, producer David Foster and Leo Sayer had lunch together, and in attendance was Ginger Alden, Elvis's girlfriend at the time of his passing, who apparently got the flight to London because she wanted to meet him.

"She'd been holding back this story for all those years," Leo said. "And Ginger told me the last thing Elvis said before she found him in the morning dead.

"She said, 'He was singing your song and saying he was going to meet Leo, and couldn't wait!'. So is that something to carry?"