'It's hard to convince somebody what's right and wrong or what they need to do,'В Nichopoulos said to The Guardian in 2002.В 'It's hard when you've got somebody that thinks they have all the answers and no matter what you throw at 'em, they've got answers for you.' Addiction took a grueling toll on Presley as it would have anyone else, blinding him to the realities of what was happening to himself physically and emotionally.

Yet, NichopoulosВ could hardly be considered the sole cause of Presley's demise.В Even ifВ the doctor resisted Presley's demands, the singer would oftenВ seek out another source to obtain the drugs. This during an era in which the deeper dangers of opioid drugs was not nearly as widely acknowledged as it is today. This did, in fact, mean prescribing large quantities of medications ranging from sleeping pills to painkillers and a lot in between.В Nichopoulos was also tasked with prescribing medications for various members of Presley's entourage and band, which meant, of course, that medications were being distributed in more directions than just Presley's.

'At times I was his father, his best friend, his doctor,'В Nichopoulos said to The Daily Beast in 2009.В 'Whatever role I needed to play at the time, I did.вЂќ Nichopoulos treated Presley a handful of times over the next few years, but it wasn't until 1970 that he was offered the position of Presley's full-time doctor and became a near-constant figure in Presley's life. In 1967,В Nichopoulos was working with several other doctors at a group practice in Memphis when he was first called upon by Presley to treatВ saddle sores (the result of too much horseback riding). He received his bachelor's fromВ theВ University of the SouthВ in 1951, and, eight years later,В hisВ M.D.В at theВ Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The real life relationshipВ he had with Presley was more nuanced than that.Д«orn in 1927, Nichopoulos, who grew up inВ Anniston, Ala.,В enlisted in the Army immediately after high school and served in Germany in the Army Medical Corps.

But to deem the real life Nichopoulos, who died in 2016, nothing but a 'Dr.

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