{"id":1588,"date":"2012-05-08T12:25:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T17:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:01:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:01:50","slug":"local-girls-visit-graceland-too-by-sarah-reddick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/local-girls-visit-graceland-too-by-sarah-reddick\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Girls Visit Graceland Too (by Sarah Reddick)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published in\u00a0The Local Voice\u00a0#155 (May 3-19, 2012)…
\nClick here to download the digital edition PDF of issue #155.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPaul is dead.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Internets lit up with the news on a recent Monday night that Paul McLeod<\/strong>, owner and operator of Graceland Too<\/strong>, had passed away. Folks were speculating about what had happened to him, and a few Oxford residents even drove out to Holly Springs to see for themselves. They discovered 69-year-old McLeod was alive and well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The following week Nature Humphries<\/strong>, Stacey Pillault<\/strong>, and I decided to take a trip of our own to Holly Springs. Nature had never been, and Stacey was tired of watching the sides collapse on her baby pool and decided to ride with us instead of refilling it once again. We hit Betty Davis BBQ<\/strong> on the way, because I firmly believe Graceland Too is best experienced in a somewhat altered state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Paul McLeod and his hot, dusty, electric blue tribute to Elvis feel like they came straight out of the Southern Gothic school of writing. When he opened the door to greet us his steel gray hair was slicked back and he was wearing wrinkled slacks, black Velcro orthopedic shoes, and a short-sleeved button-up shirt that was unbuttoned almost to his belly button. He speaks quickly and with a nasally drawl that makes it almost impossible to understand much of what he says, and then there are the times when you understand him and wish you hadn\u2019t. I asked him right before the tour began who started the rumor that he\u2019d died. He said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s the third time it\u2019s happened. Last time I didn\u2019t get to the front door fast enough and the police cut it down with a chainsaw.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Every room in the 159-year-old house is stacked to the ceiling with Elvis-related memorabilia and other collections Paul has amassed over the years, including several thousand issues of TV Guide<\/em>. A broken bust of Elvis with one eye missing peers out from behind a stack of artificial Christmas trees on a stairwell so packed with things it can no longer be used.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"He has pictures hanging everywhere of his son, whom he named Elvis Aron Presley McLeod, dressed and posing like Elvis. He was especially proud of a large poster board covered with pictures of himself dressed as David Carradine, Rocky Balboa, James Dean, and Fidel Castro, among others. At one point he screamed \u201cYO!!\u201d at me and snapped his fingers in my face to direct my attention to a picture of himself when he was in his twenties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI was hung like a racehorse!\u201d he yelled and then giggled a high pitched giggle for several seconds before moving onto to something else. McLeod is rather Forest Gumpian, claiming to have been present for a wide range of famous historical events, including the assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. He also takes credit for a range of less widely publicized deaths, including \u201ccutting Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer up with an axe\u201d and \u201ckilling Smokey and the Bandit with a hammer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"He also throws out a variety of numbers, some downright unbelievable, most conflicting with a number previously mentioned. At one point he said his biggest tour group was 235 people, and a few minutes later said a group of \u201c230,000 Chinese tourists\u201d had descended on Holly Springs to see Graceland Too a few years ago. Trunks that line one wall hold \u201c31,000 VHS tapes\u201d cataloguing Elvis appearances on television, and even include moments when the host of a show was just wearing an Elvis t-shirt. Right before we left he told us his stereo system was comprised of \u201c20,000 speakers\u201d (but really appeared to be a boom box hooked up to a few old wall speakers) before turning \u201cJailhouse Rock\u201d on at full blast. He hollered \u201cStand back! I don\u2019t want to get you pregnant!\u201d and then stuck one leg out and did his best Elvis hip shaking dance moves.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent status update posted on McLeod\u2019s Facebook page proclaims, \u201cI ALWAYS SAID I\u2019D DIE FOR ELVIS TO COME BACK….. AIN\u2019T HAPPENED YET.\u201d If you haven\u2019t been out there, and you\u2019re in the mood for something uniquely southern and slightly creepy, go see Graceland Too.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThis article was published in The Local Voice<\/em> #155 (May 3-19, 2012)…<\/strong>Click here to access the digital edition of issue #155.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was published in\u00a0The Local Voice\u00a0#155 (May 3-19, 2012)… Click here to download the digital edition PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":1591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","category-sarah-reddick"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/IMG_1274-halfsize.jpg?fit=400%2C267&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155464,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions\/155464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}