Lisa Marie Presley’s Daughter Would Find Her Crying On The Floor & Listening To Elvis’ Music

Riley Keough Helps Her Mother Share Her Life Story In Posthumously Released Memoir

Lisa Marie Presley forever grieved the loss of her father, Elvis—so much so that listening to his music made her extremely emotional.

Lisa was only nine years old when Elvis died on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. She never spoke much about the grief she experienced after losing her father at such a young age.

However, we now have a greater understanding of how Elvis’ death affected his only child.

Lisa started writing a memoir later in life. She asked her oldest daughter, actress Riley Keough, to help her with the project. When Riley agreed, she never could have predicted she’d be finishing the book for her mother, who passed away unexpectedly on January 12, 2023, at the age of 54.

Lisa’s posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, was released on October 8. The memoir does not shy away from sharing the sad pieces of her life, including Elvis’ death, her struggles with addiction, and the death of her son, Benjamin, in 2020.

Lisa Marie Presley Would Get Emotional When She Listened To Elvis’ Music

Riley sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an October 8th CBS special about the book’s release. During their conversation, Riley recalled how she would find Lisa crying while listening to Elvis’ music alone.

“It was a very private thing for her,” Riley said. “She would listen to his music alone, if she was drunk, and cry.” She added, “Her grief was very — I don’t think she knew how to process it.”

Riley said she saw her mother crying over Elvis’ songs on more than one occasion, telling Oprah:

“Yes, I would walk in her room and she had speakers — because this was back in the day — and she would be sitting on the floor crying and she’d listen to her dad’s music.”

Riley referred to Lisa as “a self-proclaimed daddy’s girl.” Her connection to Elvis was so strong, she could tell something was wrong before he died.

“…she said ‘goodnight’ to him, and I think she knew, saying ‘goodnight,’ like she had some kind of a sense…I think she had a sense many times that he wasn’t okay, you know?“

 

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In her memoir, Lisa Marie recalled struggling to process her grief after watching everyone else mourn over her father’s death:

“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?‘”

In the end, Lisa said she felt “honored” that she ever got to know Elvis at all.

While Elvis’ music sometimes made her emotional, Lisa also seemed to feel a strong connection to his songs. She eventually recorded his track “Don’t Cry Daddy,” mixing his vocals with hers to create a virtual duet. Listen to that recording below.

You can order Lisa Marie’s posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, on the book’s official website.