Lisa Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley (February 1, 1968 – January 12, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter. The daughter of singer and actor Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley, she became the sole heir to her father's estate following the deaths of her grandfather and great-grandmother. She was also known for her marriage to Michael Jackson, whom she wed in 1994 and divorced in 1996.

Presley released three studio albums—To Whom It May Concern (2003), Now What (2005), and Storm & Grace (2012). To Whom It May Concern was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. She also released several non-album singles, including posthumous duets with her father created from archival recordings.

Her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, completed by her daughter Riley Keough, was published posthumously in October 2024.

Early life

Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She was born nine months to the day after her parents' wedding.

When Lisa Marie was four years old, her parents separated, and their divorce was finalized in October 1973. She lived with her mother in Los Angeles and frequently stayed with her father at Graceland in Memphis. When Elvis died in August 1977, nine-year-old Lisa Marie became a joint heir to his estate along with her 61-year-old grandfather, Vernon Presley, and her 87-year-old great-grandmother Minnie Mae (Hood) Presley. Through Vernon, she was a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia. After the deaths of her grandfather in 1979 and her great-grandmother in 1980, Lisa Marie became Elvis' sole heir. On her 25th birthday in 1993, she inherited the estate, which had grown to an estimated $100 million. She sold 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2004.

In the late 1970s, a year or two after her father's death, Lisa Marie attended her first rock concert when she saw Queen at The Forum in Inglewood, California. After the show, she gave Freddie Mercury one of Elvis's scarves and expressed her appreciation for theatrical performance.

Shortly after Elvis's death, Priscilla began a relationship with actor Michael Edwards. In a 2003 interview with Playboy, Lisa Marie said that Edwards would enter her room while intoxicated and behave in a sexually inappropriate manner toward her. In From Here to the Great Unknown, she repeated the allegation and stated that Edwards sexually assaulted her beginning in 1978.

Lisa Marie had a half-brother, Navarone Garibaldi, from Priscilla's 22-year relationship with Marco Garibaldi.

In 1997, Lisa Marie recorded a video for "Don't Cry Daddy" as a posthumous duet with Elvis. This video was presented on August 16, that year, at the tribute concert marking the 20th anniversary of his death. It features Elvis' original vocal track with new instrumentation and Lisa Marie's added vocals.

Career

2003–2005: To Whom It May Concern

Presley released her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, on April 8, 2003. It reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified gold in June 2003. She wrote all the lyrics (except "The Road Between", which she co-wrote with Gus Black) and co-wrote every melody. To promote the album, she presented a concert in the UK. The album's first single, "Lights Out", reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 chart and No. 16 on the UK charts. Presley collaborated with Billy Corgan on a co-written track titled "Savior", which was included as the B-side. In his review of the album, Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn wrote that it had "a stark, uncompromising tone" and that "Presley's gutsy blues-edged voice has a distinctive flair".

Pat Benatar and Presley performed at VH1 Divas Duets, a concert benefiting the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 22, 2003, in Las Vegas. Together they sang Benatar's hit "Heartbreaker", which Presley frequently performed at her own concerts on later tours. Also in 2003, she contributed a recording of "Silent Night" for the NBC Holiday Collection Sounds of the Season.

2005–2012: Now What and further singles

Presley's second album, Now What, was released on April 5, 2005, and reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. She co-wrote ten songs and recorded covers of Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" (the album's first single, which hit No. 36 on the Billboard 100 AC singles chart), and the Ramones' "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow". The song "Idiot" is a pointed critique of several men in her life. Unlike her first album, Now What carried a Parental Advisory sticker. Presley also covered Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' for You" as a B-side, and Pink made a guest appearance on the track "Shine". The video for "Dirty Laundry" was directed by Patrick Hoelck and featured a cameo appearance by George Michael.

Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone, a documentary about Johnny Ramone of the Ramones, was released in 2006. Directed by Mandy Stein, the film features Deborah Harry, the Dickies, X, Eddie Vedder, Presley, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as they stage a benefit concert to celebrate the Ramones' 30th anniversary and raise money for Cancer research.

Presley appeared in the music video for Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" in 2006. Rick Rubin produced the record, and Tony Kaye directed the video, which featured multiple celebrities and won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.

Her single "In the Ghetto" was released in August 2007 as a virtual duet with her father, who had originally recorded the song in 1969. It was released to commemorate the 30th anniversary of her father's death. The video, released simultaneously with the single, reached No. 1 on iTunes sales and No. 16 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 singles chart. Proceeds from the single benefited the new Presley Place Transitional Housing Campus in New Orleans. Presley appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to perform the song with the Harlem Gospel Choir, using vintage footage of her father.

Presley joined singer Richard Hawley on stage in London in October 2009, performing vocals on a song the pair had been developing titled "Weary". Hawley sought to help Presley relaunch her music career, and the two began a songwriting partnership in which she wrote the lyrics and Hawley composed the music. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Presley said she was recording a new album in London, scheduled for released in 2011.

2012–2018: Storm & Grace and final releases

Presley's third album, Storm & Grace, was released on May 15, 2012. She said, "It's much more of a rootsy record, organic record, than my previous work." The album was produced by Oscar and Grammy winner T Bone Burnett. AllMusic described it as "a stronger, more mature, and more effective work than one might have expected" and noted that "Presley is finally developing a musical personality that truly suits her". Spinner.com called it "the strongest album of her career" and Entertainment Weekly praised the "smoky, spooky" single "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". Burnett said of collaborating with Presley on Storm & Grace (2012): "When songs from Lisa Marie Presley showed up at my door, I was curious. I wondered what the daughter of an American revolutionary music artist had to say. What I heard was honest, raw, unaffected and soulful. I thought her father would be proud of her. The more I listened to the songs, the deeper an artist I found her to be. Listening beyond the media static, Lisa Marie Presley is a Southern American folk music artist of great value."

In 2018, Presley was featured on the title track of Where No One Stands Alone, a compilation of her father's gospel recordings. The song was reworked into a duet between Presley and her father. A music video was released in which Presley is digitally incorporated into scenes with Elvis.

Memoir

Prior to her death, Presley recorded a series of audio tapes for a memoir. Her daughter, Riley Keough, completed the manuscript using the material on those tapes following her mother's death. In addition to preparing the memoir, Riley narrated its audiobook version, which includes "Never-before-heard recollections" in Presley's own voice. The memoir, titled From Here to the Great Unknown, features a photograph of a young Presley with her father on the cover. Presley and Riley are both credited as the book's authors. From Here to the Great Unknown was released on October 8, 2024, through Random House.