The daughter of Elvis Presley faced challenges both in and out of the spotlight, but she persevered and earned success on her own.
Celebrity children are frequently unfairly scrutinized by the public, especially when the celebrity is the focus of lurid tabloid reports. Lisa Marie Presley, 54, died on Thursday after reportedly slipping into cardiac arrest at her home. She was well aware of this truth from an early age.
She was only a child when she remembered fans lurking in the trees and trespassing into her family’s mansion, Graceland. Her retort was defiant and brilliant. “People would offer me cameras, and I’d take the money and say I was going to take a picture of my dad, and then I’d chuck the camera somewhere,” she told Rolling Stone in 2003.
Lisa Marie’s childhood, however, was also marred by tragedy. She was at Graceland when her father died in 1977, and she allegedly witnessed the futile attempts to save his life. In the same Rolling Stone interview, she stated emphatically (and understandably) that that day profoundly impacted her.
It’s heartbreaking to imagine a nine-year-old witnessing something so awful, especially given she had no choice but to become a public figure. (Among other things, Lisa Marie was regularly in the headlines in the years following her father’s death due to the legal wrangling over Elvis’s estate.) Despite her mother, Priscilla Presley’s efforts to shield her daughter from the rigors of being Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie was well aware that her renowned father’s name preceded her.
“I’ve always had a strength that makes people afraid,” she told Playboy in 2003. “It’s a safety net. Every child in every school hated me and thought I was a jerk. I, on the other hand, was not.”
Presley, on the other hand, never distanced herself from her father’s music or legacy; in fact, she was always proud of him and used her celebrity to help others. She established the non-profit The Presley Charitable Foundation, which funds Presley Place-New Orleans, a living space for homeless families, and she backed The Dream Factory, a Make-a-Wish-like organization.
Presley adored music as a child and even performed for her father. She also enjoyed his music, telling Rolling Stone she gravitated toward “the gloomy [songs] that weren’t particularly a smash on the radio.” As a result, she marked the anniversaries of her father’s death with gloomy but loving posthumous duets with him on In the Ghetto, and I Love You Because.
Presley, however, purposefully delayed embarking on a solo music career. “I didn’t want to learn the ropes in front of people; I couldn’t afford it,” she explained to Playboy. “I knew there would be more focus on me than anyone else releasing a debut album.”
Despite the pressure, she didn’t back down from writing about her personal life in her 2003 album To Whom It May Concern. Lights Out, a modest pop hit in the US and UK, mentioned the Graceland graveyard and “keeping [my] watch two hours behind” in honor of her father. Nobody Noticed became more muted. Meanwhile, it was a touching tribute: “All that you had to go through / I think nobody noticed.”
These songs were accompanied by unflinching analyses of Presley’s own life. “In this record, I walked back through a lot of the dark passages of my life,” she explained to the Los Angeles Times. “I wanted people to know who I am via my music rather than what they read in the headlines.”
Musically, she forged her path, collaborating with pop-rock producers such as Glen Ballard and Clif Magness on To Whom It May Concern and creating a song with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. As a result, the album has a modern pop-rock feel with overtones of country and blues.
She wrote most songs on her second album, Now What, released in 2005. Despite a version of Don Henley’s infamous Dirty Laundry, the album saw Presley sounding much more at ease as a poet and singer. She embraced a more direct rock style that suited her voice, which had a smoky, bluesy timbre (including a soulful interpretation of the Ramones’ Here Today, Gone Tomorrow). A live duet with Pat Benatar on the latter’s Heartbreaker only added to her rockabilly credentials.
Storm & Grace, Presley’s final studio album, was yet another step ahead. T Bone Burnett produced the album, filled with moody Americana and blues songs with sophisticated arrangements and a very country-soul vibe. Presley also blossomed as a vulnerable performer, especially on wonderful, stripped-down tunes like How Do You Fly This Plane?
In retrospect, it’s difficult not to draw connections between Storm & Grace and her father’s music; the record even led to Presley making her Grand Ole Opry debut, among other things. “I think it’s a fascinating combination of many different elements,” she told Billboard in 2012. “I’m not sure if you’d call it Americana. It has a bluesy tone to it. “I’m inspired by it all.”
Along with music, the family became an important part of Presley’s life. She had two children, Benjamin and Riley, with her first husband, Danny Keough. The latter has developed into a well-known performer currently acting in the highly anticipated streaming version of the novel Daisy Jones & The Six and has won a Caméra d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for her directorial debut, War Pony.
Unfortunately, Lisa Marie’s life became tabloid fodder due to her several high-profile romances. Presley first came under fire for her marriage to (and subsequent divorce from) late music singer Michael Jackson, followed by a brief marriage to Nicolas Cage. This vested interest in her life extended to her religious beliefs (she was a Scientologist before leaving the church in 2014) and substance abuse (a teenage dalliance with drugs and opioid addiction). Her teenage twin girls, Harper and Finley, were the subject of a public custody fight with her ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
Lisa Marie faced another heartbreaking loss when her son Benjamin committed suicide in 2020. Presley was candid about the impact of her son’s death and the terrible sorrow she was experiencing in an essay published in 2022 on National Grief Awareness Day. Nonetheless, she emphasized her strength. “I’ve dealt with death, grief, and loss since I was nine. I’ve experienced more than anyone’s fair share of it, yet I’ve survived.”
Indeed, viewing Lisa Marie Presley’s life as a sequence of catastrophes is reductive and unjust. The premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s renowned Elvis film was a ray of sunshine that seemed to herald better times ahead. Presley was at Graceland last Sunday, celebrating her father’s birthday before heading to the Golden Globes on Tuesday night, where she interrupted Austin Butler’s red-carpet interview.
Butler praised the Presley family for “opening your hearts, memories, and home to me” after winning the award for best actor in a drama motion picture for his portrayal of Elvis. He specifically thanked Lisa Marie and Priscilla. The former appeared to be moved, echoing her comments at Graceland and elsewhere. “I thought the film was wonderful,” Lisa Marie stated the previous Sunday in Memphis. “I am quite proud of it, and I hope you are as well.”
What was discovered at the scene of Lisa Marie Presley’s death has been revealed…
Before her death, Presley reportedly complained of stomach issues.
Before Presley was sent to the hospital, her heart was restarted at the scene.
Page Six says she coded many times before dying.
It is also alleged that no narcotics were discovered at the scene.
However, according to Page Six, the official cause of death is still pending confirmation.
Her cause of death is currently thought to be cardiac arrest.
That which murdered her father, Elvis.
At this sad moment, our thoughts are with the Presley family.
Peace be with you.
