Prince Harry didn’t pull any punches when visiting Graceland – and now Don McLean is giving him a taste of his own medicine. Last year, the Duke of Sussex published his memoir, Spare, which gave audiences an unprecedented look into his rowdy, troubled past. There’s a particular section of the book that’s making Harry enemies in the US: the part where Prince Harry tours Graceland, Elvis‘s iconic home in Tennessee. While there, Harry complained that “the King” didn’t live up to his usual standards, and now American music icon Don McLean has fired back at the prince, saying that he “doesn’t get” what Elvis meant to the American people.
Spare hit store shelves in January 2023, absolutely full of scandal as it aired not only Prince Harry’s dirty laundry from his childhood, up through his rowdy teenage years, but also some of his family’s. The Royal Family was furious, of course, but the public’s reactions were mixed. Some fans supported Harry’s efforts to come clean, while others were shocked and appalled by some of the things he chose to reveal, including his history with substance abuse. There’s one part of the book, however, that drew a lot of American attention, and that’s Harry’s recounting of the time he visited Elvis Presley’s famous mansion in Tennessee.
When visiting Graceland, Prince Harry described the mansion as “dark” and “claustrophobic”, according to The Daily Mail.
“I walked around saying, ‘The King lived here, you say? Really?’…I stood in one tiny room with loud furniture and shag carpet and thought, ‘The King’s interior designer must have been on acid.'”
Harry, Duke of Sussex via Spare/The Daily Mail
Don McLean Calls Prince Harry A “Hot House Orchid”
Some accounts say that Harry’s remarks were meant to be funny, an attempt at royal humor from the prince, but his comments had a lot of Elvis fans up in arms. One such fan is Don McLean, singer of the hit song “American Pie”, who spoke to The Daily Mail and took to Twitter/X to fire back at Harry.
“He doesn’t understand that Elvis is like the poor man’s king…His family were as poor as they could be and Harry criticised Elvis’s home as if he’s comparing it to Buckingham Palace, and that misses the point completely. Here’s a fellow who has been brought up to be mannerly, but you don’t criticise America when you’re living here as our guest…He just doesn’t get America.”
Don McLean via The Daily Mail
While Don McLean was in England for the death of Harry’s grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, his best-known song, “American Pie”, has gone down as a classic tale of folk Americana, so it’s not surprising that he went toe-to-toe with the Duke of Sussex.
Prince Harry, for his part, moved to California with his wife Meghan in 2020, but hasn’t gotten American citizenship yet. The ins-and-outs of the Duke of Sussex being granted citizenship are complicated, but it looks likely that he would have to fully renounce his titles and his place in line for the throne in order to be considered. On top of that, if Don McLean is to be believed, Harry’s got a lot to learn about America before he can be considered one of us.
