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Elvis-Confidant Offers Intimate Portrait of King of Rock and Roll at Hilton Oak Lawn
Thirty-five years after his death, Diamond Joe Esposito is still taking care of business for best friend, Elvis Presley.
Diamond Joe Esposito, who spent 17 years working for and traveling the world with Elvis Presley, will be discussing the day the Beatles met Elvis at an intimate dinner tonight at the Hilton Oak Lawn. As a member of the Memphis Mafia, Esposito was Elvis’s road manager, right-hand man, and close personal friend from the time they were discharged from the Army up until Elvis’s death on Aug. 17, 1977. Esposito rew up on Chicago’s near-northwest side was just a few years out of Marshall High School when he was drafted into the Army in 1958. Elvis was already a huge star when he reported for duty at a small army base in Friedberg, Germany, three weeks after Esposito had arrived. The two saw each other around the base but didn’t actually meet …
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Tony Wilkins
1:24 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
I've been a fan of Elvis' since 1969 when I was 14. Esposito was indeed fired in early 1964 after he and Elvis got into an argument on the way home from Hollywood to Memphis. He didn't get rehired until early 1965. He also was not the only right hand man,Marty Lacker, another very close friend of Elvis' in the Memphis Mafia replaced Esposito as right hand man and stayed in that position until he … more ›