The Unexpected Reason Why Elvis Presley Never Toured Outside America

Elvis Presley was a living legend, but just like anybody else, he was a victim of the industry’s cruelty. After his iconic debut in The Ed Sullivan Show, Presley proved to anyone that he was the first person who conquered the world with music, charm, and his explicitly good looks.

But, in as much as we label him as the first person who made the whole world go crazy, it’s unfortunate that we never got to see the King of Rock and Roll tour outside the US borders. And there’s a reason why.

On February 6, 1955, Elvis Presley met Colonel Tom Parker, the person who would guide him through the rest of his extraordinary career. By the middle of March of the next year, Parker was handling all of Elvis’ business affairs on his own; that includes telling the star the things he needed to do and those he needed to steer off. So, when the young Elvis wanted to discover the world through touring, Colonel simply wouldn’t listen to him.

Parker was adamant that Elvis would go on this kind of trip without him if he went ahead and planned it. According to Jerry Schilling, Elvis reportedly attempted to fire him; however, Elvis was unsuccessful. “When Elvis tried to get a tour going no one would touch him because they were afraid of the Colonel,” Jerry Schilling told Noise11. “They had the relationship with the Colonel. They respected the Colonel.”

Along the way, it was claimed that Parker had turned down a variety of rich offers for tours all over the world, and it appears that he did so because he was faking his identity. Tom Parker was an illegal immigrant, and he did not have a passport.

Schilling further added: “We didn’t know that while Elvis was alive; that came out after Elvis passed away.” According to Biography, Parker’s real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, born in the Netherlands. He later served in the United States Army and lied to have been born in West Virginia. In 1948, the governor of Louisiana, whose campaign he had assisted, bestowed upon him the honorary rank of colonel, even though he had never served in the military. It’s one of the many things that pushed Elvis’s career off the cliff, and later on, his life.