Lisa Marie Presley’s life started off like a fairy tale. She was born to American royalty- her father, Elvis Presley, was the king of Rock and Roll, and her mother, Priscilla, was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. Lisa grew up on the picturesque grounds of Graceland and was spoiled by her father. But as her posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown reveals, seeds of trauma were planted early in her life that continued to grow.
With so many celebrity books on the market, especially regarding the Presley family; it’s easy to be skeptical about another book. But the memoir is raw and personal, it tackles intergenerational trauma, grief, mother-daughter relationships, and healing. With commentary from Riley Keough, Lisa Marie’s daughter, the style of the book feels like a conversation between the mother and daughter, transcending death and creating a personal, private tone.
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The Lisa Marie- Elvis's private jet named after his daughter

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From the beginning, Lisa Marie Presley’s life was a confusing contrast between privilege and pressure.
At Graceland, she grew up receiving any gift she wanted from her father, but the Presleys were also watched day and night by fans who would sit on the family’s fence. While Lisa loved her father and most of her happy memories were with him, she also worried about losing him. Things were already uncertain for Lisa.
In 1973, Elvis and Priscilla Presley divorced, and Lisa began to split her time between Graceland and Los Angeles, where Priscilla had moved. Lisa didn’t have a close relationship with her mom, recalling how Priscilla had admitted to fearing gaining pregnancy weight and had even considered throwing herself off a horse to end her pregnancy. As a result, Lisa recalled feeling unwanted by her mother, and this feeling would only grow with time.

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Leaving Graceland

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Elvis’s health began to deteriorate, and in 1977 Lisa’s biggest fear came true when her father died at the age of 42. Lisa, at 9 years old, found her father’s body on the floor and remembered being held back and screaming while she tried to run to him. Not knowing what to do, she went out to play with her friends and was scolded by Priscilla.
A memorial was held at Graceland, with friends and family members coming to grieve Elvis; meanwhile, Lisa wasn’t sure how to process what she was feeling. So, she bottled it up inside and tried to ignore it.
She continued to clash with her mother and was moved from one school to another as she struggled with poor grades and struggled to make friends. From the ages of 10 to 16, she was abused by Michael Edwards- Priscilla’s boyfriend. When Priscilla would find out about what Michael was doing, she made him apologize to Lisa but never broke up with him over it.
At fourteen, Lisa was “dating” a man in his 20s, who ended up calling the paparazzi before meeting her at a park. The paparazzi took and published photos of them together, which horrified Lisa and made her start to worry about people’s intentions when it came to her. Specifically, she worried that people would pretend to love her just to get fame.
Lisa was lost; she was seventeen years old, addicted to drugs, and living in the Scientology Celebrity Center due to fighting with her mom. She had no clear plan for the future and no goals. Then, she met Danny Keough.
Danny Keough
Danny was a bass player for a band called D’bat, and his confidence and good looks immediately won over Lisa. Priscilla was unimpressed by Danny and even got her boyfriend to try to convince him to leave Lisa. Regardless, Danny and Lisa were married two years later and soon welcomed Danielle Riley Keough.
Lisa had been married at twenty and a mother at twenty-one, following in the footsteps of her own mother Priscilla. But as Lisa put it, she wanted the do the opposite of what her parents had done, and she found motherhood to be her biggest passion in life.
Michael Jackson
Shortly after the birth of Benjamin, Lisa began to take voice lessons. It was through this that she met one of history’s most iconic musicians- Michael Jackson. Michael began to call Lisa frequently and invited her to hang out with him. The two had briefly met as children, and as a teenager, Michael had tried to get in contact with her.
Finally Michael told her his intentions- he wanted to marry her and have children with her. When Danny found out, he immediately left Lisa, and they divorced on good terms. Lisa described Danny as her soulmate, not a linear one to be married to for life, but someone to always be friends with.
Shortly after Lisa Marie Presley wed Michael Jackson, and the marriage was met with intense media coverage. Lisa described it as the happiest she’d ever been and the happiest she would ever be. While the two were happy together, the two soon grew apart due to Michael’s substance abuse and the stress caused by allegations of child abuse. Lisa would file for divorce.
Later, she would go on to marry Nicholas Cage, then Michael Lockwood, who she had twins with in 2008. After their birth, Lisa became addicted to opioids.
Intergenerational Patterns

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The center of Gladys Presley’s universe had been her son Elvis. She drank herself to death due to stressing about him, and he never fully recovered from the loss. For Lisa Marie Presley, Benjamin Keough was the center of her universe.
Lisa was frightened by the parallels she saw between Ben and Elvis. Physically they looked almost identical, and his close relationship with Lisa mirrored Elvis’s love for Gladys. She was terrified that the intergenerational curse would strike again and believed that Ben didn’t stand a chance against the pain in his family.
In 2020, Benjamin Keough ended his life. His death shocked his family, and Lisa was destroyed; she even kept his body on dry ice in her house for two months. She lost her will to live and felt like she had no purpose in life.
Eventually, Lisa began to take more care of her health and found joy in helping others. Her sole motivation to live was to take care of her three daughters. Regardless, she said it felt wrong to live while Ben was gone. Riley explains that when Ben died she knew her mother would be gone soon; Lisa’s will to live was waning.
From Here to the Great Unknown

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From Here to the Great Unknown takes the Presley family- the family of the “King of Rock and Roll,” and reduces them from their mythical status and into a family just like any other. A family with deep-seated pain and intergenerational traumas.
Lisa Marie lost her father as a child and lacked the guidance to be a happy young adult. She battled addiction, struggled to find herself, and ultimately found her purpose in being a mother. While life threw one loss at her after the other, she was determined to break the cycle of trauma in her family and to give her children the best life possible.
There's no happy ending. It’s bittersweet as Riley reflects on the life of her mother, and tries to break a strong cycle of trauma. In an era of sanitized, stale celebrity memoirs, it’s a raw story of grief, addiction, mother-daughter bonds, and complicated family relationships.
“I looked at my face as a child and thought, My God, if only anyone could have told you what you were going to go through in this life, what you were going to be up against.”- Lisa Marie Presley