A Date With the World's No. 1 Elvis Fan

HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. – Elvis has overrun the building.

Paul MacLeod, 64, has converted his home on a sleepy street in this north Mississippi town into a 24-7-365 shrine to the King of rock 'n' roll.

"I eat, sleep and breathe Elvis, 24 hours a day," said MacLeod, a Detroit-born former prison and auto worker, delivering a line with the same cadence as a carnival barker.

"This place oughta be declared a national monument — the Taj Mahal of Elvisology, better than Graceland, Disneyland, the Neverland ranch.

"Elvis has not left the building," he said. "Never has and never will."

MacLeod opened his home, which he dubbed Graceland Too, in 1990. Since that time, he claims to have had more than 285,000 visitors, who drop in from the early morning to the middle of the night for a tour of his Elvis memorabilia.

Click Here for the Music Center

Click Here for the Travel Center

Us Weekly and other publications have declared him the "World's Number One Elvis Fan." It's hard to argue. How many people name their only child Elvis Aaron Presley MacLeod?

But that's just the beginning. Thousands of Elvis-related documents, photographs, magazines and objects are precariously stacked throughout his home.

Elvis is an obsession; one that MacLeod, with Elvis sideburns as white as snow, wants to share with the world.

"He was the most wonderful humanitarian I ever heard of, ranked only behind Jesus Christ," MacLeod said. "The most generous person I ever saw and the most wonderful entertainer you ever wanted to watch in your life."

MacLeod says he first saw Elvis in 1954 at a performance in Holly Springs.

"I never saw anybody look like that, dress like that, dance like that, sing like that."

Now he spends his days showing off his own version of Elvis' gold suit to anyone who cares to listen to his take on Elvis. And providing trivia.

The original color of Elvis' hair?

"Blondish, reddish brown."

His grade in music?

"He flunked."

"The three most recognized names in the history of the world are Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley and Coca-Cola," MacLeod said in the middle of a tour Monday.

Visitors pony up $5 for an hour tour of this veritable Elvis shrine, ringing MacLeod's doorbell at all hours of the night. Three-peat visitors become lifetime members of the museum and receive free entry on future tours.

"It's like someone is shooting a million balls at you and you're just trying to catch a few of them," said Scott Hammond, a first-time visitor from Memphis, Tenn.

Often, the guests include tipsy local college students, but occasionally a celebrity like Chris O'Donnell or Ashton Kutcher drops by, MacLeod said.

All who enter Graceland Too pose for a photograph before a giant framed portrait of the King in MacLeod's version of Graceland's TV Room, filled with a dozen TVs. Thousands of those photographs line the hallway of his home.

Printouts of visitors' comments paper the walls of what was once his kitchen — now filled with memorabilia, everything from empty tubs of Edy's Elvis ice cream to throw blankets bearing Elvis' likeness. The sink is unseen and the refrigerator barely accessible.

For his latest project, MacLeod is transforming his backyard into a Jailhouse Rock of sorts, complete with spray-painted basketballs taking the place of a prison balls and chains.

It's an obsession that one might think would leave the neighbors all shook up.

"I think they say everything's OK," MacLeod said. "Why? Because they're all members."

MacLeod guides his guests through rooms literally covered wall-to-wall in records and photographs, peppering his rapid-fire tour dialogue with Elvis facts and the enormous sums he says he's paid for this piece of memorabilia or that.

Regardless of the true value of the collection, one thing is certain: MacLeod is priceless.

"The best part of the tour is Paul, for real," said Dan Flannery, 31, of Redford, Mich., who took the tour with his wife, Amanda, on Monday.

MacLeod says he'll probably leave Graceland Too to his son, though he claims offers from 750 fan clubs among other organizations who want to buy the collection.

It will likely remain in his hands for some time to come.

"My wife told me, she said 'I was with you for 22 years, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, make up your mind. Either me or the Elvis collection," MacLeod said, recounting yet another story in rat-a-tat style. "I handed her a million dollars in cash and I told her bye."