Leo Sayer recalls Elvis phonecall before the King’s death

Elvis Presley phoned leo sayer and told him, “This is Elvis Aaron Presley, and you make me feel like dancing, ” handing Sayer an unexpected invitation to Graceland and a 25-minute conversation that ended days before Elvis was found dead at a Memphis hospital. The episode reveals an intimate, unresolved link between two very different stars and explains why Sayer kept the encounter largely private for years.
Elvis Presley phonecall to Leo Sayer
One day a man named Michael handed Sayer a phone; the voice on the other end identified himself as Elvis Presley and said he was “going through a bit of a hole” and wanted leo sayer to “come to Graceland and hang out. ” They chatted for about 25 minutes, and Elvis said he loved Sayer’s songs and thought Sayer could be a “good force of energy” for him. The next day Sayer heard that “the singer Elvis Presley has been brought into Memphis Baptist hospital dead on arrival. ” The pattern suggests the call was both a candid reach-out from Presley and a decisive emotional moment that Sayer treated with discretion afterward.
Muhammad Ali and Keith Moon
Beyond Elvis, Sayer’s life is threaded with encounters: he has extraordinary stories about Muhammad Ali and Keith Moon, and those connections form part of his public narrative. Sayer has described storming out of Big Brother and living in Australia, where he is currently based and remains active in recounting those tales. The pattern suggests that Sayer’s network of celebrity encounters has shaped how he frames and preserves specific episodes—keeping some private while sharing others as part of a larger life story.
Adam Faith’s management fallout
Leo Sayer was signed by Adam Faith early in his career; Faith opened doors but later swindled Sayer, who signed power of attorney over to him. Sayer reached commercial peaks in 1976 and 1977 with successive US number-one singles, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” and “When I Need You, ” and he wrote other hits such as “Moonlighting, ” “Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance), ” and “Thunder In My Heart. ” Now 77 and based in Australia, Sayer traces a trajectory from young graphic artist and harmonica player to pop star and, finally, to a custodian of a public persona he calls Leo rather than his given name Gerard. The pattern suggests that Sayer’s career highs and legal setbacks help explain why he guarded the Elvis call and why the story only surfaced sporadically over decades.
What remains open is whether a planned meeting at Graceland between Elvis Presley and leo sayer would have taken place; if that meeting had occurred, it would resolve the specific question of whether Presley and Sayer might have collaborated or changed each other’s trajectories in the months that followed.




