Elvis friend: The King was 'the absolute best'

Talking Vegas, Cadillacs, growing old on 'Larry King Live'

"Diamond Joe" Esposito, who was both Elvis Presley's best man and a pallbearer at his funeral, met the King in the Army.

(CNN) -- Elvis Presley had his excesses -- he loved junk food, once bought 34 pickups for his ranch and developed a drug abuse problem that contributed to his death at age 42.

But, said longtime Presley friend, best man and pallbearer "Diamond Joe" Esposito, the King of Rock 'n' Roll was never one to skimp on giving of himself.

He was "the absolute best" entertainer, Esposito said Tuesday during an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live." "He just was so at ease onstage. He loved performing," Esposito said.

Even when Presley was just among friends, he would perform, Esposito said.

"He'd sit in his house for hours on end by himself at the piano and just play songs and sing," he said.

Presley died August 16, 1977, 25 years ago this month. Commemorations and celebrations of his life are planned in his adopted hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, during Elvis Week, which begins Saturday.

EXTRA INFORMATION Who's on 'Larry King Live'  tonight?   RESOURCES • Hot Topic: Is Elvis Presley overrated?  • EW.COM: All about Elvis Presley

Esposito chatted with CNN's King about his first meeting with Presley, the singer's romance with his future wife, Priscilla, and the sad final day when Esposito found Presley dead in a bathroom at Graceland.

Fateful meetings during Army service

The pair met during Presley's military service in Germany. A mutual friend recruited Esposito to play on a team of touch football players, including Presley. The two hit it off right away, said Esposito, and when talk turned to what Esposito was going to do when he left the Army, he was recruited again.

"I just had an office job in Chicago," Esposito said. "[Presley] said, 'Why don't you come to work for me?' And I said, 'Of course, yes, absolutely.' And that's how my career started with Elvis."

Presley took pains to be one of the guys, Esposito said. "He worked as [hard] as any other GI, and he did it on purpose because he really didn't want people to say, 'Oh, he had an easy time in the service,' " he recalled. "He really worked harder than anything."

It was also in Germany that Presley met then-14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Air Force captain. The two courted -- chastely, said Esposito -- for eight years before marrying in 1967.

Elvis, an only child, "was the weird kid," even in high school, said Esposito. Performing was a way of giving of himself, he added.

"She walked in the door, this cute, beautiful little girl in this little Navy dress," Esposito recalled of her first appearance in Presley's life. "I'll never forget that day when she walked in. Elvis walked over to her immediately, introduced himself to her, and they just started talking."

When the two were finally married, Frank Sinatra lent a hand in throwing the media off the scent, Esposito added.

"We all went to Palm Springs [California] to fake everybody off," he said. "But that evening at night we jumped over the back fence, got to the plane, drove to the airport, got a jet -- Sinatra's jet -- flew into Las Vegas, went down to City Hall in Las Vegas, got the license, went right to the Aladdin Hotel and got married that morning, and the press was still in Palm Springs."

Drugs and depression

But Presley, an only child whose twin brother died in childbirth, could be a lonely man, Esposito said, which was one reason he liked to have friends around constantly.

"He didn't have any friends when he was a kid," he said. "He was the weird kid ... even in Memphis in high school."

Despite encouragement from others to stay out in public, Presley preferred to hide when he wasn't performing. Esposito recalled leaving Presley's Vegas suite to play poker in the wee hours of the morning.

"We used to go down at 4, 5 in the morning just to play cards a little bit in the casino when it wasn't as crowded. But then all of a sudden it got crowded, bothered him, [and] we had to back upstairs," Esposito said.

Presley was also a generous soul. He gave large bonuses to his entourage, once bought a limo driver his own limousine and more than once bought complete strangers new Cadillacs, Esposito said. As Presley's right-hand man, he'd often handle the bills, he said.

But trying to keep up with Presley was a 24-hour job, and that constant go-go-go contributed to the singer's drug abuse, said Esposito, who worked for the peformer for more than 17 years.

"Elvis was an insomniac, first of all ... so he started taking sleeping pills," he said. "And he would wake up and feel groggy. And someone said, 'Hey, take this, it will keep you awake.' So he'd take something to keep you awake."

When he passed 40, the singer also fell into a depression.

"There was a picture on a magazine ... that said, 'Fat and 40, Happy Birthday Fat and 40 Elvis.' ... And that gets to him," Esposito said. "Well, he'd take a pill."

The day the singer died, Esposito was at Graceland when Presley's girlfriend told him the musician had fainted in the bathroom. He went upstairs and quickly learned the truth.

"The minute I touched him, I knew he had been dead. I knew it right then," Esposito recalled.

The funeral featured a cortege of 17 white limousines. Thousands of people lined up for the viewing. And, yes, Elvis really is dead, said Esposito. "[Rumors of Elvis being alive] just drive me crazy," he said. "The man's gone."

But never to be forgotten.

"Elvis had an effect on people because he had this great voice, he sang with feeling and they felt what he was singing," Esposito said. "And any person that ever saw him live onstage, they all felt that he was singing only to them."