Riley Keough wants her late mom Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir to ‘turn her into a three-dimensional human being’
Riley Keough gave fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the recording process of her late mother Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir on Saturday. Just days ahead of the release of From Here to the Great Unknown, which was co-written by Keough, the Daisy Jones & The Six star, 35, shared a video of herself sitting in front of a microphone as she read from her mom’s forthcoming memoir.
‘I aim not only to honor my mother, but to tell a human story in what I know is an extraordinary circumstance,’ Keough said while sitting in a recording booth. She continued: ‘I am aware that the recordings my mother left are a gift. So often, all that’s left of a loved one is a saved and re-saved voicemail, a short video on a phone, some favorite photos. I take the privilege of these tapes very seriously.’
The actress went on to express her desire for ‘this book to be as intimate as all those hours’ she spent listening to her mom in bed ‘listening to coyotes howl.’ In the footage, the performer, who is Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen, wore a black pinstripe blazer over a button-down. ‘The audiobook for FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN, voiced by me and @juliaroberts, is available on 10/8,’ she captioned the post, which was liked by thousands, including Reese Witherspoon.
Lisa Marie is the daughter of rock icon Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley. She was also wed to the King of Pop Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage. Her highly-anticipated memoir will be published by Pan MacMillan on October 8, 2024. Presley asked Keough, whose father is Danny Keough, to assist her with the writing of the memoir in 2022, shortly before her death.
It will feature the late star’s unheard Interviews.
Riley will also narrate part of the audiobook along with movie star Julia Roberts.
The audiobook will also feature never-before-heard selections from Lisa Marie’s tape recordings. Lisa Marie died at age of 54 of a small-bowel obstruction that developed after she underwent bariatric surgery several years prior.
In the memoir, Lisa Marie covers her love for Elvis and how much she struggled after his death, her romantic relationships, motherhood, the devastating death of her son Benjamin in 2020 and the birth of her granddaughter, Keough’s two-year-old daughter Tupelo. ‘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,’ Keough said when talking to PEOPLE in September.
‘To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving — everything that she was throughout her remarkable life,’ she explained.
‘I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive.’
Keough is set to hit the road for a fall book tour for in honor of her mother’s posthumous memoir.
According to Random House, she will be joined by a special guest in six different cities, which includes: New York, Memphis, St Louis, Nashville, London and Los Angeles, that goes from October 9 and 20.
