{"id":62181,"date":"2025-08-12T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/62181\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T18:14:09","slug":"when-brian-wilson-karate-chopped-elvis-presley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/62181\/","title":{"rendered":"When Brian Wilson karate-chopped Elvis Presley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Elvis<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Ollie Atkins \/ Public Domain)<\/p>\n

Tue 12 August 2025 16:54, UK <\/p>\n

Even for a man who spent a chunk of his life oblivious to a lot of social decorum, as Brian Wilson had inadvertently been, when it comes to blunders, you can\u2019t get much worse than karate-chopping Elvis Presley<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The reasons are two-fold; firstly, he was the undisputed King of Rock and Roll, a title that states in plain English that he\u2019s somewhat popular; secondly, he was a studious black belt. Fortunately, Brian Wilson wasn\u2019t malicious in his attempt to karate chop Elvis\u2019 arm, but it didn\u2019t exactly go to plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elvis was first introduced to karate in 1958 while stationed in Germany following his military draft. He began a diligent training regimen and earned his first-degree black belt in 1960. When he returned from his term with the US Army, Elvis kept up the hobby through the 1960s and even opened the Tennessee Karate Institute, Memphis, in 1974. <\/p>\n

The King\u2019s hobby was well known among his fans. The singer had not only added particular kicks and chops into his live performances, but had even put a few famous faces on the floor with his powerful martial arts. One need only ask Alice Cooper for proof. So when Wilson, frontman of The Beach Boys<\/a>, realised he was going to meet one of his musical heroes, he had a playful icebreaker up his sleeve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the early 1970s, Wilson was recording at RCA Studios in Hollywood when he heard Elvis was in the building working on a record with guitarist James Burton. A giddy Wilson asked his acquaintance Burton if he would take him along to meet Elvis.\u00a0\u201cHe said, \u2018Oh! Please, please take me to meet Elvis,\u2019\u201d Burton once told the Express. \u201cI took him in, and he walked up to Elvis and was just looking at him. And Elvis stuck his hand out to shake hands, and [Wilson] couldn\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a>Brian Wilson (Credits: Far Out \/ Brian Wilson)<\/p>\n

Wilson was starstruck, and as he stood there, the very private Elvis didn\u2019t recognise the Beach Boy and became a little angered that his security team had let a stranger wander in. <\/p>\n

\u201cElvis was very upset with us thinking, \u2018How did this guy get in here, and who is he?\u2019\u201d Elvis\u2019 friend Jerry Schilling recalled of the occasion. \u201cSo Brian said, \u2018I\u2019m recording next door. Would you come over and listen?\u2019 And Elvis looked at us; it\u2019s almost in spite of us since this guy had gotten through. He said, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll go over.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As the pair set off next door, Wilson moved to playfully karate chop Elvis\u2019 arm to break the ice. Now, if you have ever tried to sneak up on an MMA graduate, or found yourself trying to pat a guard dog, you will know that attempting to engage a highly-trained individual with a playful version of their violent candour, you will find yourself in a world of trouble. In a programmed reaction, Elvis immediately swiped Wilson\u2019s arm away with no look of joviality on his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew he knew karate, and he karate chopped my arm so hard,\u201d explained Wilson. \u201cAnd he goes, \u2018I\u2019m leaving, I\u2019m leaving,\u2019 and he split,\u201d Wilson said during his visit to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in 2012. \u201cAnd that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might have been a bit embarrassing at the time for a fan like Wilson was. After all, he had certainly committed a faux pas of sorts. But who in the world can attest to both attacking and being attacked by Elvis Presley and surviving to tell the tale?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Ollie Atkins \/ Public Domain) Tue 12 August 2025 16:54, UK Even for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29764,18254,96,33203,128,15745,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-62181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-brian-wilson","tag-elvis-presley","tag-entertainment","tag-karate","tag-music","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}