It's February twelfth, and on this day in 1977, Elvis Presley took the stage at the Sportatorium in Hollywood, Florida. But behind the scenes, tension was running high. Though Ginger Alden, now calling herself Elvis’s fiancée, was at his side on tour, echoes of Linda Thompson’s recent departure lingered. Linda had lived with Elvis at Graceland for four years before walking away in 1976, saying she was “tired of seeing him self-destruct on drugs.”
Adding fuel to the fire, Linda had since begun a relationship with David Briggs, the pianist and organist in Elvis’s tour band. Elvis, well aware of this, brought Briggs along for the tour anyway—but not without making his feelings known. During the show, in a subtle but unmistakable move, Elvis pulled the plug on Briggs’s electronic keyboard mid-performance.
