A close encounter between The Boss and The King came after Bruce Springsteen “jumped the wall of Graceland.”
Though Springsteen would never meet one of his greatest influences, he did get close to his house. During the Born to Run tour, The Boss jumped the wall and told The E Street Band member Stevie Van Zandt he had to try and say hello to the Hound Dog hitmaker. Though Elvis Presley was not at home the night Springsteen called in unannounced, it’s a story well remembered by the Born in the U.S.A. hitmaker nonetheless. Introducing the song Follow That Dream during a live show ten years after the near run-in, Springsteen confirmed he had tried and failed to meet his hero. But the story he got out of it is just as inspiring, if not more so, than meeting The King.
He told the crowd: “And it took us out there in the middle of the night, and I remember we got outta the cab, and we stood there in front of those gates with the big guitar players on ’em. And when we looked up the driveway, in the second story of the house, you could see a light on, and I figured that Elvis has gotta be up readin’ or somethin’.
“And I told Steve, I said, ‘Steve, man, I gotta go check it out.’ And I jumped up over the wall and I started runnin’ up the driveway, which, when I look back on it now, was kind of a stupid thing to do because I hate it when people do it at my house.
“Anyway, at the time, I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth and ran up the driveway, and I got to the front door, and I was just about to knock, and guards came out of the woods and they asked me what I wanted. And I said, ‘Is Elvis home?’ Then they said, ‘No, no, Elvis isn’t home, he’s in Lake Tahoe’. So, I started to tell ’em that I was a guitar player and that I had my own band, and that we played in town that night, and that I made some records.
“And I even told ’em I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek. I had to pull out all the stops to try to make an impression, you know. I don’t think he believed me, though, ’cause he just kinda stood there noddin’ and then he took me by the arm and put me back out on the street with Steve.”
Though Springsteen was presumably escorted off the property, he was left wondering how the interaction with Presley would have gone down. He added: “Later on, I used to wonder what I would have said if I’d knocked on the door and if Elvis had come to the door because it wasn’t really Elvis I was goin’ to see.
“But, it was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear, and somehow we all dreamed it. And maybe that’s why we’re here tonight, I don’t know.”