From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir

by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (2024)

I was all over this one. I knew I had to own this from the day it was released and was actually blessed to receive it as a birthday gift only weeks after the publishing date. Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie Presley, had been working on her memoirs for years but it had always proved difficult. She then asked her eldest child, daughter Riley Keough, to help her finish her book. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead. Riley was determined, though, to honour her commitment to her mother and so she started with the painful task of listening to the hours of taped conversations her mother recorded and this book is the result. It is presented in two voices – Lisa’s and Riley’s – each with their own font. The reader can perceive the point at which LMP ran out of time; fully the second half of the book is in Riley’s words.

In a way, this is an essential account when one wishes to study Elvis Lore. The perspective found here – obviously – is like that which is found in no other remembrance. In addition to this is the iron-clad guarantee that Lisa Marie Presley tells the truth. Never one to pull punches, the reader can believe the content here knowing that Lisa will simply not discuss things she is not ready to be fully forthcoming about; if it’s in the book, it’s true.

The book tracks chronologically and we start with life at Graceland with her father. Lisa says there was never no one at the gates and she would often interact with the fans there. They would give her their cameras asking for a picture of her father; Lisa would take the camera and take pictures of the carpet, handing the camera back. Or she would simply throw the camera in the bushes, something she says she is not proud of. She says she “abhorred” the limelight but truly loved Memphis; “I kept my watch on Memphis time”. She confirms that Linda Thompson really cared for Elvis and says of Ginger Alden “I didn’t like her. Nobody did”. She describes Elvis’ last day – during the mayhem of which she hid in her room smoking a cigarette (she was 9) – and details the sad final moments spent alone with her dad after he passed. Riley says that throughout her whole life she knew her mom was heartbroken.

And then there’s Lisa’s mom. In 2024, the biggest article here at Vintage Leisure was my piece that was somewhat in defence of Priscilla and yet her daughter is typically blunt about what she perceives as Cilla’s shortcomings as a mother. Whatever Priscilla’s reasons were, she was strict and “never a friend” to Lisa or someone she could talk to. Priscilla was “gone a lot” and very concerned with appearances. At the same time, though, LMP admits she was uncontrollable as a teen and getting into drugs while absorbing Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Lisa says she felt like her mom was always trying to send her away to some school or another and finally just “dumped me off into Scientology” hoping “they” would raise Lisa for her. Lisa says that Cilla never tried to really talk to her daughter, to hang out and to be a friend but also that she herself could be extremely dark and moody leaving Priscilla feeling helpless. “I know she tried her best”, Lisa says. The hatchet was eventually buried when Priscilla gave birth to a later child, Navarone.

One major revelation has to do with Priscilla’s relationship with Michael Edwards, a low level actor and model who wrote a book about his years with the Presley women. When LMP was still a pre-teen, Edwards would enter her room at night and engage in inappropriate touching with Cilla shirking her duty to properly shield her daughter from such behaviour.

“Actually everyone who saw me after I was nine, after my dad died, said that I looked so sad. Looking back, there was really only one thing I was sure of: that I was loved by my dad”

– Lisa Marie

Another major and pleasing revelation certainly for me is the confirmation that Lisa’s first husband and Riley’s dad, Danny Keough, was and remains, I’m sure, a responsible man of great character. Interesting to learn that Lisa pursued Danny for two years, claiming she knew at their first meeting that she must have children with this man while for his part, Riley says that Danny was afraid of Lisa’s fame and the phenomenon of her – “he knew she would be his destruction”. It is bluntly stated by both Lisa and Riley that Lisa “trapped” Danny into fathering a child partly because Lisa had previously aborted a pregnancy and wanted to even out the ledger. Though “trapped”, Danny agreed to fatherhood and to marrying Lisa. Regardless of how this sounds, there is absolutely no question that Danny Keough loved Lisa Marie and in fact he never left her life even after they divorced and through her three other marriages. In the end, Riley sums up her parents’ relationship; “my father was my mom’s biggest protector throughout her whole adult life. She had many friends that came and went but he was there from when she was 17 until the moment she died. He was the last person with her”.

Danny lived with Lisa almost always, no matter who she was married to. The family stayed together. What other relationships did Danny Keough have, if any? What life did he have apart from Lisa and the kids? He is a fascinating player in the Presley story, one of many innocent bystanders who had their lives turned upside down – for better or for worse – when they entered the Presley Orbit.

Lisa also shares details of her marriage to Michael Jackson including MJ doing the pursuing, Danny signing divorce papers so the two could marry, Jackson revealing his sole purpose was to have children while Lisa was not interested, Jackson confiding in her like he had with no one previous and Lisa and the kids continuing their visits to Neverland even after the divorce.

Lisa Marie’s music career is briefly discussed and it is revealed that it was a further point of frustration for her. Elvis impersonators would often come to her shows and she felt she never had a chance in this area.

Riley Keough states that, in the middle of her mother’s adult life, there was a 20-year stretch during which everything was good. Then, during her fourth marriage, this one to lightweight “musician” Michael Lockwood, Lisa gave birth to twins via Caesarean. Afterwards, she was prescribed painkillers and here is where Lisa’s inner addict reared its head. Riley describes her mother’s addictions and Lisa chimes in with the fact that at one point she was taking 80 pills a day and depression and the futility of life gripped her. Riley’s description of the death of her brother, Ben and its effect on their mother is difficult to read and drives home the sorrow that is woven into the Presley family.

“I don’t think my spark will ever come back, to be perfectly honest. Grief settles. It’s not something you overcome. It’s something that you live with. You adapt to it. Nothing about you is who you were. Nothing about how or what I used to think is important. The truth is that I don’t remember who I was. The real me, whoever I had been, detonated completely (when Ben died). I’m surprised I’m still alive. I can’t believe I’m still standing. It feels wrong to be alive without Ben”

– Lisa Marie

This is a good book and while it is sometimes tough to read it is an easy read, if you know what I mean and there are a few pertinent takeaways, one of the most significant having to do with legacy. In my piece on the sadness that has dogged the Presley family, I admitted to feeling complicit in wanting something specific from these people, wanting them to carry the torch in a certain way as opposed to just being left alone to live. There may be another way to look at this passage but I took solace when Lisa talked about Riley’s birth; “she was such a special beacon, a unique spirit, a light in this universe. I think I was a vessel, serving another purpose – Riley was mine but she was for everyone else too“. Yes, Riley is someone’s daughter, someone’s wife, someone’s mother. A human being. But she is also here for us Elvis People. She has a responsibility to us, whether that is right or not. Whether she likes it or not. She is now Graceland’s executor, the keeper of the flame.

Another major portion of the book deals with Lisa’s son, Benjamin. The two were inextricably tied and the comparison is made to Elvis’ relationship with Gladys. As LMP’s addiction gave way to serious health issues, Ben began to quietly spiral. His suicide and the aftermath are difficult to read but it is abundantly clear that his death was the final nail for Lisa and Riley says that “we all knew my mom was going to die of a broken heart”. Riley says she was never mad at her brother for taking his own life but I struggle with this. Benjamin must’ve known what it would do to his mom but he killed himself anyway. Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough both became experts in grief. To help her say goodbye, Lisa had Ben’s body in a casket in a room in her home for two months. During this time, a tattoo artist was called to the house. Lisa wanted a tattoo that was identical to one that Ben had. When the artist asked if there was a picture of this tattoo, Lisa said no, but I can show you the tattoo. This artist was ushered into a room where a casket was opened to reveal the dead grandson of Elvis Presley. Makes me wonder what the rest of that artist’s day was like. During the final two-and-a-half years of her life, Lisa Marie “chose” mourning as grief consumed her. The last time Riley saw her mother was January 8th, 2023 – Elvis Presley’s 88th birthday.

Finally, and it is perhaps apropos, it has to do with girls. It occurred to me while reading From Here to the Great Unknown that the legacy of Elvis Presley is women – daughters and granddaughters. Presley was a man nearly defined by his relationship to and with women and many have played major roles in his life. The story of his connection to his mother is well known. Then there was Priscilla. I used to think it was sad Elvis never had a son. Then I think of the sons who have been consumed by their father’s legend and aura and I began to think that maybe it was just as well. Elvis never had a male heir but he had Lisa Marie, a cool woman so magnificently formidable. Her first child was female, daughter Riley. When she had a son and finally there was a male descendant, he crumbled under the crushing weight and removed himself from the game, from the earth, from life – as if to confirm my thoughts regarding the dangers encountered by the male heirs of significant figures. As if to make the resounding statement that the Presley lineage must end. Or at least become something else. But Lisa had more children later – sons? No, twin girls. So, now today it is a woman, Riley Keough who keeps the flame and time will tell what role her little sisters – Elvis’ grandchildren – will play in the legacy.

“She was like a character from the Greek myths – she had human emotions, but she was such a force that sometimes I really thought if she focused hard enough, real thunderbolts would appear. Her power and strength frightened people. She had an uncanny ability to see right into your soul. And she was able to truly, unconditionally love”

– Riley

This is a memoir. There is not a lot of incidental talk about award ceremonies, Graceland logistics and red tape or Lisa’s adventures with Elvis Presley Enterprises. It is a statement, a final chapter of sorts, fascinating and ably presented by two strong ladies with a compelling story – a story of life – to tell.