Riley Keough has a poignant, though cathartic, day coming up.
On October 8, the Daisy Jones & the Six actress will be releasing her mother Lisa Marie Presley's memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, which she helped finish in the wake of her death in 2023 by going over several personal tapes and diaries, a hugely emotional process.
The only child of legend Elvis Presley, the singer unexpectedly passed away aged 54 on January 12, 2023, after suffering from a cardiac arrest caused by a small bowel obstruction from a previous gastric bypass surgery.
Riley, speaking with People about finishing her mother's book — Lisa Marie had already asked her to help her write it before her death — opened up about the difficult process, and her hopes that the world will finally get to know the real Lisa Marie, who was introduced to the spotlight just four days after she was born in February 1968.
"Because my mother was Elvis Presley's daughter, she was constantly talked about, argued over and dissected," she first shared. The memoir will document her childhood in Graceland — Riley is sole trustee of her mother's estate, which includes the famed home — her father's death in 1977 when she was nine years old, her relationship with her mother Priscilla Presley, and more of the ups and downs she faced for the remainder of her life.
Still, Riley wrote in her book that her mother didn't understand "how or why her story should be told." An excerpt reads: "She didn't find herself interesting, even though, of course, she was. She didn't like talking about herself. She was insecure. She wasn't sure what her value to the public was other than being Elvis's daughter. She was so wracked with self-criticism that working on the book became incredibly difficult for her."
"What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope I've done in finishing it for her, is to go beneath the magazine headline idea of her and reveal the core of who she was," Riley told People, describing her mom as "the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving."
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"Everything that she was throughout her remarkable life," she continued, emphasizing: "I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive."
To do so, Riley poured over personal tapes Lisa Marie had recorded in her own attempts to write the memoir, which though "incredibly painful," it immediately transported her to different times in her life spent alongside her mom.
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"The tapes are an incredible portrait of the force of nature that she was," she said, and detailed: "Depending on the day and her mood, she can sound locked-in or distracted, vulnerable and open or annoyed and closed off, hopeful, angry, everything. You hear her in all her complications."
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And though Lisa Marie's life story is nothing short of extraordinary, virtually growing up as American royalty, Riley maintained she "wanted to write a book in the hopes that someone could read her story and relate to her, to know that they're not alone in the world. Her hope with this book was just human connection."
"I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family."