Riley Keough found listening to recordings of her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, “extremely painful”

CNN
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Riley Keough completed a memoir of her late mother Lisa Marie Presley, but it didn’t come without a cost.

The actress spoke to People magazine about “From Here to the Great Unknown,” which tells the story of her mother, who died in January 2023 from complications following prior weight-loss surgery.

Presley was 54 years old.

“Because my mother was Elvis Presley’s daughter, she was constantly talked about, argued about and scrutinized,” Riley, 35, told the publication via email. “What she wanted to do in her memoir, and I hope I was able to finish it for her, was to go beyond the image of her in the magazine headline and reveal the essence of who she was.”

Keough remains to mourn along with his sisters, Finley Aaron Love Lockwood and Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood. Their brother Benjamin Keough died in 2020 at the age of 27.

The “Daisy Jones & The Six” star listened to Presley’s recordings.

“The tapes are an incredible portrait of the force of nature that she was,” Keough said. “Depending on the day and her mood, she can seem closed off or distracted, vulnerable and open, or irritated and closed off, hopeful, angry, everything. You hear it in all its complications.

Keough also talked about what she hopes people will take away from the book.

“To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an unsung artist, honest, funny, traumatized, joyful, grieving, everything she has been throughout her extraordinary life,” she said. “I want to give my mother a voice in a way that escaped her in life.”

“From Here to the Great Unknown” will be released on October 8.