Lisa Marie Presley, aged 54, died Thursday after being briefly hospitalized in Los Angeles after going into cardiac arrest earlier that day.
The daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley led a lifetime of unfathomable fame and frailty.
As Elvis’ daughter, she held a rightful title as a princess of rock ‘n’ roll. Via her 1994-1996 marriage to Michael Jackson (one among 4 she had de ella), she was additionally a queen of pop. She additionally suffered the disappointment of burying her father de ella (in 1977) and a son (Benjamin Keough — one among 4 youngsters — in 2020).
Her life—as seen via the eyes of her father—was all the time one which was to be bittersweet.
By way of a weblog put up on her web site, Presley’s longtime pal Nancy Sinatra recalled Elvis was each “moved by the expertise” but in addition that he “felt it was not honest that she would have such nice blessings and the identical baby born in a ghetto that very evening would endure poverty and wish, and God is aware of what else, maybe all her life.”
“His coronary heart was so full of affection and ache that evening,” she continued.
Lisa Marie Presley’s enterprise acumen
When Presley was 7 years outdated, her father — as a result of he was so enamored of his baby — upon buying and refurbishing an out-of-service Delta Airways Convair 880 Jet for an estimated $3 million (adjusted for inflation), rechristened it together with her identify .
Presley sustaining a detailed relationship together with her father through his private results is a major piece of her and his legacy.
By her twenty fifth birthday in 1993, Presley inherited Graceland, her father’s property, the place she was raised for durations of her childhood. 5 years later, she turned extra concerned with the belief and enterprise entities managing her father’s legacy from her. By February 2005, she offered the rights to her father’s identify and picture of her for about $100 million to businessman Robert FX Sillerman, founding father of music and sports activities promoter SFX Leisure.
Presley retained 100% sole private possession of Graceland Mansion itself, its 13 acres of unique grounds and her father’s private results, together with costumes, wardrobe, awards, furnishings, vehicles and extra. Notably, she made the mansion property and her father’s private results completely accessible for excursions of Graceland.
In a 2003 Playboy interview, Presley famous, “I’d by no means take again any a part of who I’m or the place I got here from. I’d by no means need to be a part of the rest. I am honored and happy with my household and my dad.” .”
Following in her father’s recording footsteps
Seven years after being married to Jackson and a half-decade since a video of Lisa Marie “collaborating” together with her well-known father on the observe “Do not Cry Daddy” was proven on the tribute live performance that marked the twentieth anniversary of Elvis’ demise , Presley launched an album of her personal—”To Whom It Could Concern”—in 2003.
“Ever since she began speaking a few recording profession when she was 16 or 17, I warned her the doorways will open due to who she is, however they’ll shut simply as quick,” acknowledged her mom, Priscilla, to the Los Angeles Occasions in 2003.
Presley’s 1988 marriage to singer-songwriter Danny Keough noticed her start the method of turning into a singer-songwriter by 1990. That led to her turning to artist supervisor Jerry Schilling for assist in the mid-Nineties — and nearly a cope with business icon Tommy Mottola at Sony Data.
A decade later, Leisure Weekly described the gold-selling album that lastly arrived as “country-flecked rock with wedges of pop” that “usually delivers the kind of sonic catharsis that Presley, who has described this album as being the true her, was attempting for.” The evaluation continues, “if it proves her to be a viable rock singer, effectively, we will consider at the least one one that wouldn’t have been in any respect stunned.”
Within the Playboy interview, Presley provided a be aware relating to the album observe “No one Seen It,” which gives a powerful motive why she recorded the album.
“[My father’s hangers-on] They have been attempting to remove his dignity, the one factor that was most necessary to him. And I wanted to strike again at that. I occurred to be going to the studio, and I acquired the melody in my head and began to cry…. [Like him], I am like a lion — I roar. If somebody betrays me, I will not be a sufferer. I do not sulk; I get indignant. I’m going instantly into retaliation. However it all the time comes from insecurity or ache.”
Her debut album additionally bore the fruits of 5 years of labor with producer Glen Ballard, who helped Alanis Morissette flesh out her voice as a caustic, confessional storyteller on her 1995 debut “Jagged Little Capsule.” “To Whom It Could Concern” was produced by Eric Rosse, identified for her work with Tori Amos, together with her 1994 breakout hit “Cornflake Woman.”
Subsequent Presley albums included 2005’s “Now What” and 2012’s “Storm and Grace.” Although not as effectively obtained commercially, T. Bone Burnett — who produced her 2012 launch from ella — famous the next about her work from ella:
“When songs from Lisa Marie Presley confirmed up at my door, I used to be curious. I puzzled what the daughter of an American revolutionary music artist needed to say. What I heard was sincere, uncooked, unaffected and soulful. I believed her father can be Pleased with her. The extra I listened to the songs, the deeper an artist I discovered her to be. Listening past the media static, Lisa Marie Presley is a Southern American folks music artist of nice worth.”
Presley’s closing years
In 2012, Presley additionally made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. Her father of hers debuted on the Opry on the Ryman Auditorium six a long time prior in October 1954. Sadly, his tackle Invoice Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” was so poorly obtained that Opry expertise supervisor Jim Denny despatched Presley house tearfully. He prompt that he stick together with his day job as a truck driver as an alternative of continuous to pursue nation and rock success.
Conscious of her father’s previous, Presley advised CMT after the efficiency that it was “an honor to be requested” and that she was “terrified” to carry out. Nashville’s WTVF-TV described the Tuesday evening efficiency in August 2012 as finished by a “genuinely honored” and “gracious” performer.
Lisa Marie’s final decade noticed her petition for divorce from her fourth — and closing — husband, guitarist, music producer and director Michael Lockwood, in 2016. That separation was finalized in 2021.
Her three a long time of labor as a philanthropist have been feted by town of Memphis in 2011. Then Mayor AC Wharton, Jr. famous, “Lisa Marie Presley is a humanitarian and philanthropist who continues to focus her efforts on the hometown she is aware of and loves, Memphis. Via her efforts and time, she has improved homelessness, literacy and raised funds for native charities and organizations. She raises consciousness for Memphis and continues to set an instance of what one individual can do after they put their thoughts to it.”
Late Thursday night, her mom, Priscilla, launched the next assertion.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that I have to share the devastating information that my stunning daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was essentially the most passionate, robust and loving lady I’ve ever identified.”
OBITUARY:Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s solely daughter, has died at 54