Riley Keough Says She 'Burst Into Tears' While Working on Late Mom Lisa Marie Presley's Unfinished Project: 'Incredibly Painful'

In a new memoir slated for release next month, Riley Keough opened up about what it felt like to hear her mother’s voice again following Lisa Marie Presley’s sudden death in early 2023.

Riley, who was Lisa’s first child with ex-husband Danny Keough, chose to finish the memoir that her late mother was working on prior to her death. The 35-year-old actress recalled agreeing to help out with the project about one month before her mother died at 54.

When the time came for Riley to begin listening to the audio tapes of memories Lisa had recorded while working on the project, she recalled being “so afraid to hear my mother’s voice” in an excerpt of the book published by People on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

“It was incredibly painful but I couldn’t stop,” Keough wrote. “It was like she was in the room, talking to me. I instantly felt like a child again and I burst into tears.”

The audio tapes revealed Lisa’s “complications” and painted “an incredible portrait of the force of nature” that Lisa was, Riley described in the excerpt. The Daisy Jones & the Six star told People that the goal for the memoir was to push beyond “the magazine headline idea” of her mother and to “reveal the core of who she was.” That goal was one Lisa set out to achieve when she first began planning the memoir, Riley told the magazine, and was the goal Riley set out to meet when she picked up the reins.

The memoir marks “the first time” that the only daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley will have shared “her whole story,” according to a description of the book on publisher Random House’s website. The book’s cover features a photo of a young Lisa sitting in the lap of her King of Rock and Roll father, who died at 42 in 1977 when Lisa was only 9.

The book, titled From Here to the Great Unknown, is scheduled for release via Random House on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

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