Lisa Marie Presley’s eldest child, Riley Keough, helped her mother pen her life story in a forthcoming posthumous memoir, titled From Here to the Great Unknown.
The actress, 35, was first asked to assist in the writing process back in 2022, just one month ahead of Presley’s unexpected death on January 12, 2023, of complications from a small bowel obstruction.
In order to fulfill her mom’s wishes, the Daisy Jones and The Six star ‘got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland’ and the ‘unconditional love she felt from her father.’
Per the book’s description, readers can expect to hear the only child of rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley’s ‘whole story for the first time.’
This includes recalling ‘getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards her dad’s body on the floor’ following his tragic passing, at age 43.
Lisa Marie Presley’s eldest child, Riley Keough, helped her mother pen her life story in a posthumous memoir, titled From Here to the Great Unknown (seen in 2017)
From Here to the Great Unknown, which will hit shelves on October 15, will also detail Lisa Marie’s life after her dad’s death, from getting kicked out of various schools, her marriage to Michael Jackson, battle with addiction and motherhood.
Despite still grieving her mother, Keough was motivated to ‘fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world’ and ‘make her known.’
Ultimately, the publisher, Random House, described the book, composed of both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voice, as ‘a mother and daughter communicating across the transom of death as they try to heal each other.’
Keough first revealed her plans to publish her mom’s posthumous memoir in January.
‘I’m honored to help put my mother’s book out for her,’ she wrote in an Instagram post, at the time, alongside a childhood throwback with Lisa Marie.
In a statement, released by Random House, the mom-of-one, who welcomed her daughter, Tupelo, in August 2022, said: ‘Few people had the opportunity to know who my mom really was, other than being Elvis’s daughter.’
‘I was lucky to have had that opportunity and working on preparing her autobiography for publication has been a privilege, albeit a bittersweet one,’ she said.
She concluded: ‘I’m so excited to share my mom now, at her most vulnerable and most honest, and in doing so, I do hope that readers come to love my mom as much as I did.’
Per the book’s description, readers can expect to hear the only child of rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley’s ‘whole story for the first time’
In order to fulfill her mom’s wishes, the Daisy Jones and The Six star ‘got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story’ (seen on January 10, 2023)
Despite still grieving her mother, Keough was motivated to ‘fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world’ and ‘make her known’
President of the Random House Group said that the story ‘will be a beautiful legacy not only for her children but for the generations of people who have loved her.’
Keough will read the audiobook edition, which will also feature ‘never-before-heard recollections’ in Lisa Marie’s own voice.
While speaking about the process, last year, Keough said helping write the memoir was ‘extremely emotional and also very therapeutic.’
‘It makes me feel very close to her. So it’s kind of, again, bittersweet and difficult, but also really special,’ she said.
Lisa Marie, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley and a recording artist in her own right, is now buried on the grounds of the Graceland family estate in Memphis, Tennessee, where she had been the day her father died in 1977.
According to Random House, Lisa Marie had wanted her daughter to assist on her memoir, but Riley had ‘pushed off the project, feeling that there would be a right time for them to sit down together and finish it.’
