THE KING’S

Elvis Presley’s dream to play huge gigs at Wembley Stadium was dashed months before his death thanks to manager Colonel Tom Parker, the star’s stepbrother claims.

The disappointment put the King on his final path of self-destruction, says David E Stanley, who worked as a bodyguard and assistant to the star after his mum wed Elvis’s widowed dad Vernon.

Elvis was set on breaking the world record for consecutive sold-out gigs at the venue after being inspired by motorbike daredevil pal Evel Knievel jumping across buses there live on TV in 1975.

But after a furious row with his mentor Parker, the superstar ditched his planned London trek.

Speaking from Las Vegas, David, 66, reveals exclusively that this was one of the key moments that tipped Elvis into depressive drug use, eventually culminating in his death in August 1977.

The untold insider story comes as Baz Luhrmann’s hit biopic Elvis explores the complicated dynamic between the star and Parker.

David says Parker stifled the star’s creative drive and desire to reinvent himself in the late 70s, including with a role opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976 film A Star Is Born.

Author and filmmaker David, an ambassador for Elvis at his Las Vegas stomping ground the Westgate Casino, says he will go to his grave wondering how Parker managed to wield so much control over the singer.

David says he saw Elvis vow to perform 10 nights at Wembley, backed by promoters and pals Tom Hulett and Jerry Weintraub of Concerts West.

He reveals: “In 1975 Elvis referenced Wembley Stadium because of Evel’s jump. They were good friends and he was struck by seeing that huge audience and excitement of the stadium filled out with fans. Elvis said, ‘I want to go to England. I want to do a European tour.’

“So the next thing I know he and the team were talking to Tom and Jerry, and everybody started getting the buzz that we could be going to England.

“It was really exciting for us all who travelled with him because this would be our first trip out of the US.

“Elvis said, ‘I don’t care what Parker says – I want to go. F*** the Colonel. If I want to go, I am going’.”

“Elvis was enamoured with the idea, talked about how he loved the fans and how he would do there, given he had not played there in a stadium before.

“The fans would be interesting to see, given that this country produced The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

“He had a great affinity to the UK. The enthusiasm just swept around the Elvis Vegas suite on the 30th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton [now the Westgate].”

But this excitement was soon to be crushed. David says: “Later the Colonel, who must have got wind of this news, came into the suite, didn’t even knock, and holding his cane just swept into Elvis’s room.

“The atmosphere changed immediately and they started shouting about this English plan.

Elvis was shouting and swearing at him, insisting he was leaving no matter what he did, but Parker just kept refusing to allow it.

“Then after a few minutes, the Colonel stormed out as fast as he arrived.

“I walked into Elvis’s room, where he was very upset. He told me, ‘Screw that guy, I do what I want to’. Then our father