Lisa Marie Presley dealt with Elvis' death by listening to his music when she was 'drunk and alone'

4 October 2024

Lisa Marie Presley used to deal with her father's death by listening to his music when she was "drunk and alone".

Lisa Marie Presley struggled to cope with the death of her father in her adult life

The late singer - who died in January 2023 at the age of 54 following a sudden cardiac arrest - lost her father Elvis Presley when he passed away in 1977 at the age of 42 after two decades of establishing himself as the biggest name in rock and roll, and according to her own daughter Riley Keough, 35, she struggled to "process" her grief throughout her adult life.

Speaking in a clip from 'An Oprah Special: The Presleys — Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley', she said: "Her grief was very.... I don't think she knew how to process it. "Her grief was very.... I don't think she knew how to process. It was a very private thing for her. She would listen to his music alone, if she was drunk, and cry.

"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."

Lisa - whose mother is actress Priscilla Presley - had been working on a memoir at the time of her death, and 'Daisy Jones and the Six' star Riley has now completed 'From Here to the Great Unknown' in her honour.

She told People: "Because my mother was Elvis Presley’s daughter, she was constantly talked about, argued over and dissected. 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.

"To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatised, joyous, grieving, everything that she was throughout her remarkable life. I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive.

"The tapes are an incredible portrait of the force of nature that she was.

"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."