Alice Cooper Nearly Killed Elvis

Alice Cooper has revealed that Elvis Presley's obsession with guns could have come to an abrupt and ironic end by his hands in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1971. According to Cooper, "The King" asked the young star to shoot him in the head during their bizarre meeting.

The shock-rock veteran recalled the strange gathering in Presley's penthouse suite. Cooper said, "He had the penthouse -- this was when he was at the top of his game. I had always been a fan as a kid, so I jumped at the chance to go upstairs and meet him. When I got to the lift I found it was me, Liza Minnelli and the porn actress Linda Lovelace."

Once inside things got stranger still. The 63-year-old continued, "Elvis took me into the kitchen, opened a drawer and pulled out a loaded pistol, telling me to put it to his head. I recognized it straight away, a snub .32. I didn't know what to do. I had this gun in my hand and was expecting one of his security to come in any second, see me holding a weapon and shoot me dead.

"A little voice in my left ear was telling me, 'Go on, this is history, kill him, you'll always be the guy who killed Elvis.' In my other ear was another voice saying, 'You can't kill him, it's Elvis Presley -- wound him instead, you'll only get a few years!'"

Thankfully for Cooper he didn't have to worry for too long. "A fraction of a second later Elvis did a flying kick on the gun, and sent it flying, before tripping me and pinning me to the ground by my neck, announcing, 'That's how you stop a man with a gun.'"