It looks like the most improbable meeting in history – the uptight president of the United States and the hip-swiveling king of rock ‘n roll, seemingly each other’s complete opposite. Yet there they were, posing for photos in Nixon’s oval office, at a high-level meeting on the war on drugs. Two days previously, Elvis Presley delivered a letter — a memo, really, handwritten on six American Airlines notepads – addressed to the president, to one of the White House guards. Elvis praised the president’s policies and asked to be made a federal agent in the war.

On this day, December 21, in 1970, Elvis Presley met with President Nixon to offer his services in the war on drugs. Elvis presented the president with an antique Col .45 in a case – duly confiscated by the Secret Service – and asked for a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Elvis attempted to get the badge several times before without success. But an order from Nixon was all it took for Elvis to receive his bureau credentials. Of course his motivations were hardly pure – according to recollections from his former wife Priscilla, Elvis believed “With the federal narcotics badge, he could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished.” Which he likely did – Elvis died from a drug overdose seven years later.