Elvis’s only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, never wanted to write a memoir. She thought her life wasn’t interesting enough.
But then something changed. She asked her eldest daughter, actor Riley Keough, to help tell her story. It ranged from a childhood spent at Graceland to marrying Michael Jackson, from her complicated relationship with mother and Hollywood star Priscilla Presley to addiction and the excruciating heartbreak of losing her son Ben.
“I think that she just felt a desire to connect with people and share her life experiences, because she’d been through so much,” Keough told 7.30 in an exclusive interview.
Lisa Marie and Elvis Presley at home in 1970. He died seven years later. (Supplied: Courtesy of the Graceland Archives )
“And I think she kind of thought, what’s the point of going through all of these things, like addiction and loss and, you know, very human things, falling in love and having children, if you can’t share your story and help other people feel less alone in the world?”
Lisa Marie’s death from surgery complications in 2023 meant Keough had to finish writing her mother’s memoir while grieving her loss.
Keough said listening to her mother’s voice on tapes after her passing was a surreal experience.
“It was incredibly emotional because it was the first time I’d heard her voice [since] she’d passed away,” Keough said.
Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough at a handprint ceremony honouring three generations of Presleys in Hollywood in 2022. (Getty: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin)
“I think when your loved ones pass away, typically you have some videos or maybe voicemails or a couple things left over, but to have like, 16 tapes of your parent who’s passed away, telling their entire life story was really beautiful and also felt daunting to listen to when I first heard the tapes.”
As Keough started to process her mother’s notes for the book From Here to the Great Unknown, listening to the tapes began to feel like a conversation.
“The stories also got very funny and wild and crazy,” she said.
“It started to feel more like a phone call with her, which was really beautiful in a way.”
‘Daddy’s girl’
Elvis and Priscilla Presley with their daughter Lisa Marie in 1968. (AP)
Lisa Marie’s adoration of her father Elvis is a key theme in her memoir.
“She was a daddy’s girl,” Keough said.
“She felt incredibly loved by him and protected by him and just adored him, and he adored her and they had a really incredible bond, he was like her whole world, and I think she was his as well.”
Elvis’s estate, Graceland, was the background to a happy childhood.
“It was incredibly wild and free,” Keogh told 7.30.
“It was her favourite place in the world. She had a lot of power there and she was like a little princess who was allowed to do whatever she wanted. And I think that she was a little bit of a tyrant.”
Lisa Marie watching Elvis on stage in 1975. (Supplied: Courtesy of the Graceland Archives)
Elvis died aged 42 in 1977 when Lisa Marie was only nine years old.
In the book, Lisa Marie recounts the experience of watching a stream of fans pouring into her family home and mourning her father loudly and publicly, while she watched on quietly.
She would only be free to grieve him after everyone had left.
“I went down to where he was lying in the casket, just to be with him, to touch his face and hold his hand, to talk to him. I asked him, ‘Why is this happening? Why are you doing this?'” Lisa Marie wrote in the book.
Keough says sharing Elvis’s love and loss with the public had an impact on Lisa Marie.
“One of the greatest loves of her life was her father,” Keough said.
“I think that because she shared that experience with the world, I think it maybe didn’t leave room for her, her own grief and her own loss.”
No Elvis music in the home
Riley Keough and Lisa Marie Presley in a photo booth at Neverland. (Supplied)
While she never met him, Keough says she feels an emotional connection to Elvis.
“He’s just like my grandfather to me. And my mother’s father who passed away, and my relationship with him was, is, very personal.”
“I’m aware that it’s a different situation, and he’s everywhere, and I’m reminded of him often, but the emotional connection is personal.”
While her grandfather’s music pervasively surrounded everyone in America, Keough says her mother Lisa Marie took years to play Elvis’s music in front of her children.
“[His music] was present in that it was always on the radio or in places I was walking into … but as far as her playing his music, she didn’t really play his music until later in her life,” Keough said.
“The first time I remember her turning on his music was in the car with my sisters. I would have been in my early 20s and she put on the radio and said, ‘This is your grandfather singing.’
“Prior to that, her relationship with his music was a very personal thing. And I think she would listen to it alone. And sometimes when she was drinking at the end of the night, she would listen to it and feel emotional.”
Michael Jackson ‘was my stepfather’
Lisa Marie Presley’s marriage to Michael Jackson lasted two years. (Reuters: Stringer)
In her memoir Lisa Marie writes about falling in love with Michael Jackson.
“Everything about our lives was incredibly abnormal. There was no reason why we shouldn’t connect,” she wrote.
Asked whether part of Jackson’s attraction was the fact that the pop star was from the same world, Keough told 7.30 it wasn’t the only reason.
“Having that sort of lifestyle in common was probably a shared experience that they had, but I don’t think that was the reason that she liked him,” Keough said.
“She liked him because she liked him.”
Their marriage lasted two years.
Throughout that period, Lisa Marie and her children, Riley and Ben, would regularly spend time with Jackson, including at the pop star’s Neverland Ranch.
“My experience as a child, he was just, you know, he was my stepfather,” Keough said.
“It sounds kind of silly to say but it felt like a pretty normal experience with a stepfather. He was very kind to us and they would have a lot of fun together, and there was a lot of laughter and silliness.”
Lisa Marie defended Jackson from the early accusations of child molestation, stating in the book that she never saw anything odd.
Keough said she never discussed the allegations with her late brother Ben and that it was never a topic discussed within the family.
She died of a broken heart
Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley and Benjamin Keough in 2010. Riley says her mother never recovered from Benjamin’s death.
(Reuters: Nikki Boertman)
Lisa Marie’s son Benjamin Keough died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27.
In her book, Lisa Marie speaks of the demons of addiction which stalked Elvis, herself and then Ben.
Riley Keough said her mother couldn’t cope with the loss of Ben.
“I felt that she wasn’t able to really recover from losing him and being here without him,” she said.
After his death, Lisa Marie made arrangements for Ben’s body to be kept at home for two months until the family decided on his final resting place.
“I think that was an unusual circumstance. That was because my mum was Lisa Marie Presley, that she was given that option, you know,” Keough said.
Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis star Austin Butler, Riley Keough and director Baz Luhrmann in January 2023. Lisa Marie died five days later. (Getty: Eric Charbonneau)
“We didn’t know where he was going to be buried, and it was COVID and there were a lot of restrictions. We weren’t sure if he was going to end up in Hawaii or in Graceland and so … time just kept moving.”
In the lead up to Lisa Marie’s death, Keough said she could sense her mother was slowly detaching herself from life.
“I think that a lot of my life has been like a practice in surrender,” Keough said.
“And I think that was another moment of just allowing what is to be.
“I’ve grown up with addiction around me a lot and strong-willed people. And one thing I know is that you can’t, you know, force people to have a different fate than they’re going to have.”
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