Introduction:
Riley Keough has spent her entire life surrounded by one of the most famous names in American music. She is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, and an Emmy-nominated actress known for Daisy Jones & The Six. Yet when Riley began speaking about her mother’s memoir, the Presley legend suddenly felt far less like celebrity history—and much more like an intimate story of a daughter trying to keep her mother’s voice alive.
Before Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023, she had been working on a memoir and asked Riley to help her complete it. That unfinished promise eventually became From Here to the Great Unknown, assembled by Riley from her mother’s recordings, memories and unfinished material. For Riley, finishing the book was not simply another creative project. It meant repeatedly returning to Lisa Marie’s voice while still learning how to live without her.
One of the memoir’s most vivid memories takes readers back to Lisa Marie’s childhood. While attending school in Los Angeles, she remembered watching for a black car—often a Mercedes or limousine—to suddenly appear outside. It meant Elvis wanted to see his daughter. Someone would collect her from class, put her on a plane and fly her to wherever her father happened to be.
For a little girl, those unexpected journeys felt magical. Lisa Marie remembered waiting eagerly for that black car because whenever it appeared, she felt as though she had “the best life ever.” Behind the enormous mythology surrounding Elvis was something remarkably simple: a child desperately excited because her father had called for her.
That bond never truly disappeared.
Years later, when Lisa Marie was asked what she would say to Elvis if she could speak to him again, her answer carried extraordinary vulnerability. She wished she could ask her father for help. Riley explained that Graceland remained deeply comforting to her mother, partly because it contained memories of Lisa Marie running freely through the home as a child, during the years when Elvis was still alive.
Riley never met her grandfather, who died years before she was born, yet she says Elvis has never felt completely distant. Her connection came through Lisa Marie. Riley and her siblings grew up feeling their mother’s enormous love for Elvis, but also the grief she carried after losing him. Even seeing his image or hearing his voice could therefore become emotional for the family.
The memoir also pulls back the curtain on other extraordinary chapters of Lisa Marie’s life, including her marriage to Michael Jackson. Riley recalled that, despite how sensational the relationship appeared to the outside world, it felt surprisingly ordinary from a child’s perspective. They lived together, shared daily routines, and Michael could even be part of something as mundane as taking her to school. Riley remembered calling him “Mimi.”
But celebrity revelations are not what Riley hopes readers remember most.
She wants people to discover the woman behind the Presley name.
Lisa Marie’s circumstances were extraordinary, but Riley emphasizes that many of her struggles were painfully universal: falling in love, marriage, motherhood, addiction, complicated family relationships, loss and grief. Beneath the famous surname was a woman searching for connection and trying to make sense of experiences millions of ordinary people understand.
Finishing the memoir also changed Riley’s relationship with grief. She does not describe mourning as something that can simply be conquered. Instead, she allows it to arrive however it chooses—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes sentimental, and occasionally even funny. Listening to the audiobook, with Julia Roberts reading Lisa Marie’s words, unexpectedly gave Riley enough distance to hear her mother’s story almost as another listener might.
Now Riley is raising her own daughter, Tupelo, while carrying pieces of Lisa Marie’s motherhood into another generation. The timing has made life particularly poignant: new life arriving close to devastating loss.
And perhaps that is why From Here to the Great Unknown feels larger than a celebrity memoir.
Elvis Presley may be the legendary figure hovering over the story, but at its emotional center are a father and daughter, a mother and daughter, and finally a granddaughter trying to preserve the voices that came before her.
Riley Keough did more than finish Lisa Marie Presley’s book.
She completed one of her mother’s final wishes—and gave Lisa Marie the opportunity to tell her own story, in her own voice, one last time.