TAMPA, Fla. — Elvis Presley and gold have gone together for decades. Nearly 42 years after his death, the King has racked up 117 gold records, third all-time behind the Beatles and Garth Brooks.
On Thursday, more Elvis gold was on display, as the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa, Florida, unveiled Presley's 24-karat gold leaf grand piano at the building's new entrance, WTSP reported.
Check out this hunka-hunka-burnin' rock history at @SHRTampa.https://t.co/iFzorjP1Lg
— Things to Do (@thingstodotampa) July 11, 2019
The W.W. Kimball grand piano was built in 1928 and was bought by Presley for his mother before his first hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," hit No. 1, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Presley's wife, Priscilla, gilded the instrument with gold leaf in 1968 as a first-anniversary gift, the newspaper reported.
Until then, the piano had languished in storage after the death of Presley's mother in 1958, WTSP reported.
After Presley died in 1977, a collector bought the piano for $2 million and loaned it to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Times reported. The Hard Rock bought the piano in 2015 at an auction, reportedly for $650,000, the newspaper reported.
Cox Media Group