Riley Keough is sharing rare insight into her late mother Lisa Marie Presley’s grieving process over dad Elvis Presley — who died 47 years ago.
In a clip from the upcoming hour-long CBS special, An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley, Keough, 35, spoke candidly about how Lisa dealt with her father’s untimely death in 1977 from a heart attack.
‘Her grief was very…. I don’t think she knew how to process it,’ Keough — who is promoting her mom’s posthumous memoir — told Winfrey.
‘It was a very private thing for her,’ the actress continued, before revealing how her mom ‘would listen to his music alone, if she was drunk, and cry’ over the years.
The conversation with Winfrey marks Keough’s first in-depth interview since her mother died unexpectedly in January 2023 at the age of 54.
Riley Keough is sharing rare insight into her late mother Lisa Marie Presley’s grieving process over dad Elvis Presley — who died 47 years ago
Presley died in 1977 at age 42 from a heart attack; seen in 1960
Winfrey, 70, went on to ask Keough if she witnessed her mother ‘many times or several times in that state of grief crying over her dad’s music.’
‘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,’ she replied.
Winfrey and Keough both traveled to the iconic Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, for the intimate one-on-one interview.
In another clip, Keough revealed how she came up with the the memoir name, From Here To The Great Unknown.
‘It’s a funny thing because this is a song that she duetted with her father,’ Keough explained to Winfrey.
‘And she didn’t want to at first. And she was convinced to sing the song and for one I think it’s a beautiful duet between the two of them. And secondly when I was trying to figure out what the book was about for me.’
From there she recalled the impact the two family deaths have had, and the thoughts about where we go that often arise when someone close passes away.
‘I think having two family members who have passed away, a lot of that time and grief has been spent wondering about where they are,’ she shared, as reported by the Clarion publication. ‘And I think that the perspective I choose to have is that they are onto a sort of new adventure: The Great Unknown.’
In a clip from the upcoming hour-long CBS special, An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie And Riley, Keough, 35, spoke candidly about how Lisa dealt with her father’s untimely death in 1977 from a heart attack
The actress had to step in for her late mother and finish her memoir, which was sanctioned originally by Lisa Marie herself, when she asked her daughter to help her finish the book
In the memoir, Presley 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
Lisa Marie Presley recorded hours of stories from her amazing life for a memoir, but never got to finish it, so her daughter stepped in to finish the memoir.
In fact, her mother actually had asked for her to help with the arduous task before her sudden January 2023 death.
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.’
The full episode will be available to watch on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. PT/ET on CBS and will stream on Paramount+
‘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 told PEOPLE in September; seen in 2022
Keough is set to hit the road for a book tour for her mother’s posthumous memoir
The very same day, on October 8, From Here To The Great Unknown will hit shelves.
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.