9. Elvis Presley

Sometimes the role of a bodyguard is more about protecting your client from himself. Rock legend Elvis was apparently a fan of pills, both uppers and downers, and had been since his days in the army in the late 1950s. By the 1970s, he was often performing and filming while seriously self-medicated. Towards the end of his life, three of his bodyguards started to try and rein in the King’s self-destructive tendencies, but their advice fell on deaf ears. Elvis would have rather had them join in, as it turns out. Former bodyguard Dave Hebler claims that Elvis gave him 16 pills to take on one occasion. He later showed them to Elvis’ doctor, who told him it would have been a lethal dose. Elvis ended up letting his bodyguards go shortly before he died of an overdose, but he heard that the three bodyguards were working on a book. Elvis hired a private detective to try and buy them off, but it didn’t work and Elvis: What Happened? was published in 1977, filled with secrets like the fact that the King thought he had the power to move clouds with his mind, and that he was in the habit of shooting the TV and other appliances that annoyed him.

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