Why Elvis Was So Disgusted By Fish And Forbade It At Graceland

Graceland was never a modest home. The 17,552-square-foot mansion held 23 rooms, eight bedrooms, five staircases, and enough space to host a steady stream of visitors, from friends and family to the occasional starstruck musician who scaled the gates hoping to meet Elvis. Inside, excess was everywhere: a basement TV room fitted with three sets so he could watch every network at once, a white-carpeted staircase leading upstairs, and a kitchen stocked daily with cases of Pepsi, biscuits, banana pudding, and the peanut butter and banana sandwiches he craved at all hours.

Yet for all that indulgence, there was one thing the King would never allow past the gates. Fish was strictly forbidden — mainly because he couldn't stand the smell. According to Graceland's archivist Angie Marchese (via Express), Elvis's tastes leaned heavily toward the Southern comfort food he grew up with — his special meatloaf, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese were regular fixtures on the table.

His weekly shopping list read like a catalog of comfort, from cases of Pepsi and biscuits to nightly banana pudding, brownies, ice cream, and even gum stocked in triplicate. But no sign of fish. "Anything but fish," as Marchese said, adding that Elvis couldn't stand the smell of it cooking, so it was banned from the house entirely.

There are a couple of other theories about why Elvis hated fish. One suggests it stemmed from his impoverished childhood, with fish serving as a reminder of what he lacked growing up. However, that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. While Elvis did grow up poor, he happily indulged in plenty of other Southern staples he'd known since childhood, so it's unlikely that poverty alone explains his aversion.

Another story also ties his dislike of fish back to childhood, when his mother and his aunt Lorraine would take him along on fishing trips and leave him with the unpleasant task of cleaning and scaling their catch. It's a more plausible explanation than the poverty theory, though it's worth noting that this account hasn't been firmly verified by credible sources either. Anyway, when you're the King of Rock and Roll and you can't stand the smell of fish, that alone is license enough to ban it from your castle. You don't really need a deeper reason! Also, the King clearly didn't know that getting rid of the fishy smell from your kitchen wasn't that hard.

Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla, eventually opened Graceland to the public in 1982, overseeing expansions that transformed it into one of the most-visited private homes in the country, second only to the White House, with more than 600,000 visitors a year.