Well, let's look at this from another perspective.

The death, or lack thereof, of Elvis Presley has long been debated, and continues to be debated. Personally, I'm not sure why, but that's just me. Anyway, the death (or lack thereof) of Elvis Presley gave rise to a whole new industry - the Elvis impersonator. While I believe there were several operating while the King was still alive (so to speak), his alleged death caused the whole impersonator scene to really blow up. The Elvis impersonator industry is really a whole thing unto itself.

Someone covered tribute acts in another thread - I didn't read all of it.

Now, that being said, think about other historical figures who were reported not to have died when the papers said they did: John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James, Anastasia... I'm sure there are more.

And then of course, there's Paul McCartney, reports of whose death in the early 70s were greatly exaggerated.

So we can turn this into an intellectual discourse by asking, what kind of person is it who wants to believe that someone isn't really dead, or what kind of person wants to make a living impersonating such people?

(leave it to an English major...)